President Donald Trump will attend a newly rescheduled White House Correspondents’ dinner event months after an assassination attempt cut the previous one short.
The new event will take place on July 24, the White House Correspondents’ Association announced on Tuesday.
“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,” Weijia Jiang, president of the organization, said in a letter to association members.
Several top White House officials were at the first event before being whisked away to safety after gunshots began to ring out right outside the ballroom where the event was taking place.
Prosecutors charged the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, with attempted assassination, assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms counts. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Trump responds
In a post on social media, Trump said the even would be a “HOT” ticket event and is scheduled to take place at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington. Trump owned and operated the hotel previously as the Trump International Hotel. The president also hinted that he may hold back from what he had planned to say before the shooting unfolded.
“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,” he wrote in the post.
Trump was positive to the idea of having another event and said we shouldn’t allow violence or violent people to alter our outcomes.
“This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling,” Trump said.
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