WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang recounted in a television interview that aired April 26, 2026, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," how a SWAT team and Secret Service officers rushed the head table at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C., to protect attendees during a security threat. Jiang, who was serving as President of the White House Correspondents' Association at the time, said the officers ordered attendees to get down and she crawled off the stage.

SWAT team members shouted "down, down, down" as they rushed the head table, according to Jiang's account. President Trump was whisked from a holding area backstage to safety during the response. More than a dozen SWAT officers, members of the Secret Service, and members of Trump's team were present in the backstage holding area.

She said the security personnel protected everyone in the hotel that night. "I will say it was remarkable to see that in action and to understand it was their quick work that protected all of us that night, not just the president, not just the cabinet, everybody in that hotel," she said.

Jiang's seven-year-old daughter, parents, and husband were in the audience. She had covered numerous shootings and murders during her career, but the dinner was the first time she had been on the other side of a potentially violent and deadly situation.

While in the holding area, she monitored security cameras and focused on Trump's table while seeking information to share with others in the room. Trump called her to his holding room to brief her before posting that the dinner was postponed and that he would hold a press conference. Trump told Jiang that he would not leave the event and refused to stand down despite the security incident. Reflecting on the evening, she said, "The freedoms that we are celebrating tonight in the First Amendment are still incredibly fragile."