As I left the Washington Hilton at approximately 7:15 p.m. ET Saturday night and made my way down 19th street through a cold, clammy drizzle — with the unmistakable cry of protesters echoing behind me — I was struck by a singular thought.
Man… that security was awful.
Now, some key context here, before I get into my account from inside the Hilton: I’ve never been to White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend. This was my first. I was not attending the dinner itself, to be clear, but I was dropping by several of the network pre-parties. So I come at this with the perspective of an outsider — not a regular on the Beltway party circuit. I have no idea about how these things generally go.
And so as a WHCD rookie, I was extremely curious about the logistics. I was certain I was going to face endless security lines before I went inside. Metal detectors, patdowns, you name it. After all, President Donald Trump was going to be in that room. No way they were going to take any chances at an event like this — particularly not after the scares he faced in Butler, PA, and South Florida.
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