Tactical teams swarm the Hilton stage with rifles as silk gowns snag on ballroom chairs. While the president and cabinet vanish into secure bunkers, spouses and aides fend for themselves. Personal security details are designed to protect the principals at all expense.
“The one bullet that found a human target—a U.S. Secret Service agent—was halted, in part, by the officer’s phone and bulletproof vest, according to a law-enforcement summary report that we reviewed”
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
🎁🖇️A Dark New Litmus Test for Power in Washington
The shooting at the correspondents’ dinner made clear who gets saved first.
By Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker
April 26, 2026, 4:53 PM ET www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Protection was lavished on high-rank regime members while others were abandoned.
For perspective, here is the story of Vicki Soto, who died, unarmed, at the age of 27, protecting her class of 1st graders at Sandy Hook Elementary.
www.newstimes.com/news/article...
NEW: Last night's attack at WHCA dinner targeted junior administration officials without individual protection. That is new territory that has advisors unsettled. w/
@ashleyrparker.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
GIFT:
To me this also points to grave incompetence or a staged act (or both.)
“If catastrophe had struck, control of the U.S. nuclear codes would have passed to Senator Chuck Grassley, the 92-year-old president pro tempore.”
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
“When the shots rang out last night at the Washington Hilton, multiple teams flooded into the rooms to find their protectees and get them out, climbing over chairs—in some cases with guns drawn or hand on holster—and sometimes leaving spouses, colleagues, and others to fend for themselves.”
NEW: A bullet that hit a U.S. Secret Service agent was halted, in part, by the officer’s phone and bulletproof vest, according to a law-enforcement summary report w/ @ashleyrparker.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
“I noted a new litmus for status among the gov’t elite—whether you were whisked away by secret service, or left to fend,” the former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein wrote on social media today after attending the event.
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
“Had an explosive device gone off, you would have knocked out the president, vice president, speaker—the three in line of succession.”
The President’s Unprotected Junior Advisers - The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
A Dark New Litmus Test for Power in Washington
The shooting at the correspondents’ dinner made clear who gets saved first. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...