President Trump spoke at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday and condemned political violence.
“In America we do not yield to political violence,” the President said, making reference to the assassination attempt that took place at the original Correspondents’ Dinner. A lone gunman, Thomas Cole, stormed a security checkpoint and opened fire, injuring a Secret Service agent. Cole has been charged with attempting to assassinate the President and is awaiting trial.
“As I said three months ago, the show must go on,” Trump said.
He began his speech by praising law enforcement and the Secret Service, who prevented the shooter from entering the ballroom and restrained him.
He then made a series of light-hearted quips about the incident.
“After hearing the gunshots, many people yelled, ‘Get down! Get down!’ which caused Nicki Minaj to start twerking,” he joked.
He continued: “Everyone’s looking really good tonight, and I know it was not easy finding shoes to go along with your bulletproof vest, which many people didn’t want to wear because they’d rather die than look 20 pounds heavier.
“They put one on me. I said, ‘Are you sure? I’m not wearing this!’”
But the tone of the speech became more serious as President Trump vowed that political violence must be met with “unwavering resolve.”
“Tonight we come back together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve … to show that in America we do not yield to political violence. We don’t. We can’t do that. Can’t do it. So in this country we live in freedom of speech. We settle our differences not with bullets, but with open and vigorous debate. And no deranged loser with a gun will ever change that,” he said.
As expected, the President launched a series of jabs at journalists and the media, including CNN’s Kaitlin Collins and Jake Tapper, whom he called “Fake Tapper.”
He also attacked his political opponents, including California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“I heard Gavin Newscum recently said we will lose our country if we don’t fight fire with fire,” Trump said.
“To be fair, there’s only one thing we know about Gavin, and that’s that he definitely doesn’t want to fight fire with water.”
This was the first time President Trump has attended the annual dinner as President. He missed all four Correspondents’ Dinners during his first term.
The dinner was held at the Waldorf Astoria, rather than the Washington Hilton, which has hosted the dinner for more than five decades.
