Trump to attend delayed White House Correspondents’ Dinner after shooting

Press freedom advocates, however, have warned that the dinner could give Trump a podium to attack the news media.

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an annual gathering of politicians and reporters, has been rescheduled to July 24, following an attack on its originally scheduled date.

There was an exchange of gunfire, and the suspect and a security officer were injured, though not severely. Neither suffered penetrating bullet wounds, though one round lodged in the officer’s bulletproof vest.

Government leaders in attendance, including United States President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump, were evacuated by the Secret Service, and the event was cancelled.

But on Tuesday, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association and Trump both confirmed the event would proceed on a new date.

“We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for,” said association president Weijia Jiang, a reporter for CBS News.

Trump echoed her announcement on social media, where he called the rescheduling “a sign of Strength and Fortitude”.

“This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling,” Trump wrote, confirming he had accepted his invitation.

He then proceeded to hint that he was weighing whether to deliver the same speech he had planned for the April dinner, which was expected to include invective against journalism.

“I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out,” Trump said. “In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket!”

The Republican leader has historically had a hostile relationship with the news media, and his experiences with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner have been fraught.

In 2011, for instance, Trump attended as a guest, where he was lambasted by then-President Barack Obama and comedian Seth Meyers.

The speakers joked about his reality TV fame and his embrace of the “birther” conspiracy, which falsely asserted that Obama was not born in the US.

Trump had been floating a run for the presidency at the time, prompting Meyers to quip, “Donald Trump has been saying he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke.”

Several years later, in 2015, Trump launched his first successful presidential bid, ultimately winning against Democrat Hillary Clinton the following year.

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