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What we know about the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Violence keeps stalking American politics.

The most shocking thing about the attempted attack on the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night at the Washington Hilton was how not shocking it was.

Even before an armed man attempted to breach the secured area outside the hotel’s ballroom, the event’s guest list was a grim self-portrait of political violence in America. President Donald Trump, who survived two attempts on his life during the 2024 campaign, was evacuated by Secret Service agents. Erika Kirk, whose husband Charlie Kirk was killed just months ago at a campus event in Utah, was rushed out in tears. Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, who in 2017 was shot by a left-wing gunman at a Congressional baseball practice, guided to safety Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who helped lead the House investigation into the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, whose network was targeted in 2018 by a serial bomber who went after Trump critics, was near the gunman when the shooting began and provided some of the first eyewitness reporting.

That’s only the recent history. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father and uncle were each assassinated in the 1960s, was........

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