Among the hundreds of guests forced to take cover under tables after shots were heard outside the ballroom of the Washington Hilton during the 2026 White House correspondents’ dinner were several journalism scholarship recipients.
The White House Correspondents’ Association scholarship, given annually to several early-career journalists, is traditionally presented during the dinner each year.
Kaitlin Bender-Thomas, a 22-year-old graduate student at Northwestern University and one of this year’s recipients, said she went to the dinner with high spirits.
However, she told WTOP that optimism didn’t last long. Bender-Thomas told WTOP she soon experienced something she had only heard about through news coverage.
“I did hear gunshots, but they didn’t sound close. They sounded pretty distant,” Bender-Thomas said. “And then I heard, I think it might have been one of the Secret Service agents say, like, ‘shots fired’ into a walkie-talkie or something like that. And so that’s when I kind of got a grasp onto what was actually going on.”
Like many others in the room, Bender-Thomas ducked beneath a table and as plates and silverware crashed around her. She said several people nearby, many of them reporters, pulled out their phones to document the chaos.
She said one of her fellow scholarship recipients began recording, but she urged him to get down for his safety.
“I think it’s very challenging to be a journalist in those situations, during those times, because, yes, you’re a journalist. Yes, we have a job to inform and tell the stories of people, but we’re also human, and so I think that has an undeniable emotional impact on the journalists who have to cover those kinds of events,” Bender-Thomas said.
As law enforcement swarmed the ballroom, Bender-Thomas said she also pulled out her phone, bot to record video, but to try to reach her family.
She said cellphone service inside the Washington Hilton was spotty, and with so many people trying to use their phones at the same time, messages would not go through.
“That was scary, because I was just like, God forbid something happens, or this is my last moments on Earth, you know, God forbid. And I can’t even get in touch with my family. So, I think that was the scariest part of it all,” Bender-Thomas said.
WTOP producer Veronica Canales received a White House Correspondents’ Association scholarship award in 2019 and attended the dinner that year representing the University of Maryland.
Although it was in the third year of his first administration, President Donald Trump did not attend any WHCA dinners during his first term.
Canales said she learned about the incident nearly seven years to the day after she participated in the same event.
“When I saw the videos, I’m like, ‘Oh, I could picture myself there.’ This is where I was sitting when I was there,” Canales said.
She said she was shocked to see an event meant to celebrate journalists and the First Amendment be “marred by something so violent.”
“When I would think of the White House correspondents’ dinner, I would automatically think of the time that I was there and the great time that I had, all the people that I got to meet, and all the cool conversations that I had and everything that I learned, and all the wisdom that I gained,” Canales said. “And now, when I think about it, it’s going to be this. It’s going to be this violent event with the president there and everybody scared for their lives.”
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