Wolf Blitzer is recounting his “frightening experience” when shots were fired through the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night.
The longtime CNN anchor spoke to USA Today after the incident, saying he was near the gunman, who had charged through a security checkpoint and into the Washington Hilton ballroom with multiple weapons.
“I feel wonderful. I’m just scared. It was scary,” he recalled. “I used to be a number of feet away from the gunman as he was firing. It was loud. It was scary. The cops got on top of him after which they got on top of me to guard me. After which they took me away right into a secure room, the boys’s room. It was just a daunting experience.”
Blitzer also went continue to exist CNN after all the pieces went right down to detail his experience. He said he was walking back to the ballroom on the time, after which “heard three, possibly six gunshots” and that it was “enormously loud.”
The journalist added that “when the cop pushed me down, I said to myself, ‘I ponder if I used to be the goal or whatever,’ and thank God I wasn’t ’cause I used to be not shot. I used to be just thrown to the bottom and guarded.”
Following the shooting, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen was later identified because the suspect and quickly taken into custody. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed in a press briefing that the suspect might be charged with using a firearm and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, and that there’ll likely be “many more charges” to return.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, who were sitting onstage on the time of the incident, were also rushed out of the ballroom. He later shared details surrounding the shooting at a press conference on the White House, revealing that an officer was shot but saved by a bulletproof vest.
Trump added that he plans to reschedule the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“We’re gonna do it again, we’re not gonna let anybody take over our society; we’re not gonna cancel things because we are able to’t do this,” the president added. “We desired to stay tonight. I’ll let you know, I fought like hell to remain, however it was protocol.”