WASHINGTON, D.C. — Security officials evacuated actress Cheryl Hines and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel on April 25, 2026, after a suspected gunman stormed a security checkpoint and opened fire. President Donald Trump was rushed from the ballroom, and the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen of California, was taken into custody. Video from inside the event showed attendees taking cover under tables as panic spread through the room.

Hines described the evacuation in a series of Instagram Stories posts after returning from the dinner. "Okay so I just got back from the White House Correspondents' Dinner. That was a crazy moment in time," she said.

She recounted the moments after shots were heard inside the venue. "So we were there, and we heard shots, everybody got under the tables, nobody knew what was going on, and then Bobby's security detail surrounded us, and took us, had to lift me over chairs, because I'm in heels, and a gown," she added. She said the security team moved them out of the hotel through a back route. "They took us through all of the back ways, and we got in the car and left," she said.

Trump addressed the shooting late Saturday evening at a press conference at the White House. "The people that make the biggest impact, they're the ones that [shooters] go after. They don't go after the ones that don't do much because they like it that way," Trump said. He also commented on the response by security personnel at the hotel. "[The suspect] had a long way to go. That was really a first line of defense. And they got him," he said.