WASHINGTON, D.C. — Security personnel thwarted an attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C. President Trump called for unity at a press conference following the incident. Before the dinner, Trump had joked that his planned speech would attack the press very hard.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche commented on the security response. "The security worked the way it was supposed to," Blanche said. The White House press secretary blamed several Democrats' rhetoric for contributing to the attempted violence.

Representative Steve Scalise, who survived a politically motivated shooting at the Congressional Baseball Game in 2017, walked with a limp while being escorted out of the dinner following the attempted shooting. Capitol Hill Police reported more than 15,000 credible reports of violence against members of Congress or their staff in the last year. The Department of Homeland Security briefed that harassment of federal judges has been increasing.

Tamara Keith, who served as president of the White House Correspondents' Association, described how the evening's program was cut short. "We didn't ever get to that point because of this attempted act of political violence. And it was just a real-time reminder that this is a very real and present problem in the country right now," Keith said.

Political analyst Amy Walter also addressed the broader pattern of public violence. "You can't go a day in this country without getting some sort of alert that there has been a mass shooting or an attempt at a shooting in a public place, at a school," Walter said.