WHCA president vows ‘we will not be intimidated’ in dinner opening remarks
Outgoing White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang of CBS News greeted the crowd gathered for the redo WHCA dinner with a resilient message to start the evening, quipping that the members of the association “always have a follow-up.”
“Tonight, our message is this: We are back. We will not be intimidated. We refuse to let violence have the final word,” Jiang said.
White House pool members, Beltway reporters, and Trump administration officials all gathered in the Waldorf Astoria hotel on Friday evening for the second White House Correspondents’ Association dinner of 2026, as security is heightened at the event. The July dinner was scheduled in early June, with both the WHCA and President Donald Trump announcing they were determined not to let the gunman who attempted to breach the doors of the first dinner deter the group from celebrating the nation’s free press.
“This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling,” Trump posted on Truth Social in June.
Jiang was the first person to speak at Friday evening’s event, reflecting on the first late April dinner and the quick response of the reporters in the room, the security teams staffing the event, and the Trump administration officials present. She declared that the April night will “go down in history, and so will our response.”
“You came as guests, but within moments you went to work,” Jiang said. “You shifted into reporters taking notes, capturing videos, streaming live, even as uncertainty and anxiety filled the room. Law enforcement ran toward danger. Administration officials met backstage to gather facts. And, Mr. President, you went straight to the podium in the White House briefing room to answer questions from journalists — all of us still in our gowns and tuxedos.”
Jiang also struck a unifying tone to start the evening, echoing Trump’s words that “the ballroom was totally unified” on April 25, declaring, “three months later, it still is.”
“Whatever may divide us, we stand together against political violence. An assassination attempt on our president is an attack on democracy itself,” Jiang said.
TRUMP RETURNS TO WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION DINNER WITH ‘FUN NIGHT’ ON TAP
Several administration officials are present at the Friday evening event, including Trump, War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Later in the evening, the WHCA will give out awards and Trump will give remarks to the room.
Christian Datoc and James Downs contributed to this report.
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