U.S.President Donald Trump evacuated after a security incident at White House Correspondents' Dinner

[0:00] leverage. Okay, we're taking you to some live pictures now from Washington, D.C., where the [0:06] White House Correspondents Association dinner is underway. It appears as though there's been a [0:12] commotion in the ballroom and the president has been removed. That's the information that we have [0:18] at this time. This is the White House Correspondents Association dinner. It's the first time that the [0:23] president has been attending this dinner in this term and I believe in his first term as well. [0:30] We're going to replay some of the pictures for you here. You can see the president at the head [0:36] table with the gold tablecloth on it. There's a bit of a commotion there and you can see that the [0:43] president is taken off the stage. These are the latest pictures we have. We're going to play it [0:48] for you again and take a listen to the audio as well. Okay, so it is difficult to tell what has [1:15] happened inside the banquet room. But once again, we're showing you the latest pictures from [1:21] Washington, D.C., where the president is attending the White House Correspondents' Dinner. He was [1:28] sitting at the head table that you see on the stage with the gold tablecloth when there were some loud [1:34] sounds reported in the room and then the president and the first lady who were seated at that table [1:39] were removed from this event. So the White House Correspondents' Dinner is a dinner that takes [1:48] place every year in the nation's capital. Presidents generally tend to attend. This is the first time [1:55] that Donald Trump has attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner. What you're seeing here [2:01] are the latest pictures. What we can tell you is that the president has been moved outside of [2:10] at least the banquet hall, which you're seeing in these latest pictures. At this point, this is the [2:24] update that we have for you from Washington, D.C. There appear to still be people, other people, [2:31] inside the banquet room that are milling about. Many of these people are Washington Correspondents [2:38] for the newspapers, television networks, inside that generally tend to report on the president. [2:46] There are also a number of members of the president's cabinet who were in attendance at this event. [2:53] You can see at the head table sitting beside the president and the first lady is also the press [2:58] secretary, Caroline Levitt. What we can tell you at this point is that there were loud sounds in the [3:08] ballroom, and then the president was removed from the head table. But as you can see on the right side [3:13] of your screen in those live pictures, there are still people who are in this banquet hall. [3:20] We can bring in Manuel Rapolo, who joins us now live from Washington, D.C. Manuel, is there anything [3:28] else that you can tell us about what may have taken place inside this banquet room? At the moment, [3:36] we don't have any clear information as to exactly what it was that took place if you are watching [3:42] those live pictures of that banquet. We can tell you that this is an event that began only about 40 [3:48] minutes ago. This is the White House Correspondents' Dinner, the first one that President Trump has [3:53] attended in his presidency, both in the first administration and the second. What we can tell [3:59] you is that there were loud sounds that were heard inside that banquet hall. The head table was [4:04] evacuated. But I am looking at live pictures of that as well right now. I'm seeing that there are [4:10] still people in that banquet hall at the White House still attending. It is, again, unclear exactly [4:17] what it was that took place, what those sounds were that prompted the security detail there to [4:23] approach the head table and escort the President of the United States and the First Lady and everyone [4:29] at that head table away from the situation. We are working right now to try to figure out exactly [4:35] what it was, what those sounds were. But again, it does appear as though the situation has calmed down [4:41] quite a bit. You can see the security detail there behind the behind the head table. You can still hear [4:48] quite a bit of commotion there in the room. You can see the attendees, which are members of the press, [4:54] both national press here in the United States and international press, holding up their phones, [4:59] recording what is going on, streaming it live, presumably, as well. So it is very much a high [5:07] likelihood that we will have more to report here in the coming moments as to exactly what it was [5:13] that led the security to take action and escort the President away from that head table. [5:18] Okay. And Manuel, we do know that while this was the first time that the U.S. President had been [5:23] attending this event, there was also a number of members of his cabinet who were in attendance or who [5:29] were supposed to be in attendance at this event. I'm unclear if they were all moved out as well. [5:37] A number of them were sitting at tables or were supposed to be sitting at tables with news [5:42] organizations. I'm not sure if you have any more details on that or who else in the cabinet was [5:47] there. The press secretary, Caroline Levitt, was sitting beside the first lady at the head table, [5:52] Melania Trump, who was, of course, sitting beside the President. Can you give us any more information [5:58] of who we expected to be in attendance here as well from the Trump cabinet? [6:02] This is without a doubt one of the highest profile events that takes place during the year [6:08] in Washington, D.C. We know that as well, along with President Trump and the first lady Melania, [6:14] White House press secretary and senior members of the Trump cabinet were also in attendance. [6:19] Secretary of State Marco Rubio was seen arriving earlier during the red carpet event. So again, [6:24] this is a very high profile event, not only senior members of the Trump administration in [6:28] attendance, but just about, not to sound cliche, but anyone who's anyone in the press corps in [6:36] Washington, D.C. is in attendance at this event. And again, at the moment, [6:43] if you are looking at live pictures, which I am right now, you'll notice that the room itself [6:47] has not been cleared. It does appear, there is still, from what I can, as far as I can gather, [6:52] there is still music playing in the room. So by observation alone, it does appear that the [6:59] situation is under control. But in moments like these, even if it was to speculate a protest, [7:07] which is not an uncommon occurrence at events like these, you see them on Capitol Hill, [7:11] you see them at the White House. If it was the case of an activist that was trying to call attention [7:17] to something in particular, there is going to be security taking absolutely no risk and applying [7:23] maximum caution to remove the president from anything that could be perceived as being in harm's [7:30] way. The same would be true for members of the administration. And again, as you mentioned, [7:36] the press secretary Caroline Levitt, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as other senior [7:41] members of the Trump administration in attendance at this event, and security, secret service at the [7:46] White House, absolutely taking no risk to make sure that everything is under control. [7:51] Manuel, stay with us. I just want to bring our viewers up to speed at what they're seeing right [7:55] now. We've got two video feeds up on the screen. On the left is pictures from just a short time ago [8:02] of loud sounds that were heard in the banquet hall of the White House Correspondence Association [8:08] dinner, the annual White House Correspondence Dinner. The president was sitting at the head [8:13] table with the first lady. Loud sounds were heard in the banquet room and he was very quickly evacuated, [8:20] removed from the stage by security. On the right side of the screen, what people are seeing is what [8:26] is happening in that banquet hall right now. These are live pictures or they were live pictures. We'll [8:31] come back to them in just a second. But to show you that that there are still people in that hall. [8:37] Now, while you're looking at these pictures of the president being moved, [8:41] you can see how quickly he has moved out. You can also see how significant the security presence [8:47] is around the president. Just off stage, I'm counting one, two, three, four, at least five [8:54] security team members that are dressed like SWAT team members that have guns that were immediately [9:01] surrounding the stage where the president was. And then a number of other security officers that [9:06] removed the president from this stage. So this was, once again, the president of the United States, [9:14] Donald Trump, his wife, Melania, and the White House press secretary, Caroline Levitt, were seated there [9:21] with the president of the White House Correspondence Association, Weijia Jiang. They were all removed. [9:27] The head table was immediately removed when these loud sounds were heard. We also know, [9:33] Manuel, that there are a number of members of the president's cabinet that were in attendance at this [9:39] meeting. As you mentioned, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was seen on the red carpet arriving earlier. [9:45] This is a dinner that is normally attended not just by members of the administration, members of [9:52] the Washington press corps. Celebrities also are generally present at this event. These are the live [9:59] pictures again where you can see that there are still people inside this ballroom. But Manuel, [10:03] bring us up to speed, if you could, about the security that surrounds the president, obviously [10:09] wherever he goes, but certainly given that there have been concerns over this president's security since [10:16] his campaign. Riley, that's absolutely right. And we're talking about one of the most [10:24] secured individuals in the world, the president of the United States, in one of the buildings that is [10:29] most heavily guarded in the world, which is the White House, the executive building of the U.S., [10:36] of the U.S. government here in Washington, D.C. What I can tell you is that this is an event [10:40] that began approximately 46 minutes ago at 8 p.m. local time, Washington, D.C., a much anticipated event. [10:48] As you mentioned in your introduction there, Riley, this is not just an event that's meant to celebrate [10:54] the White House Correspondence Association. This is an event that draws in celebrities from all over [11:00] the country and all over the world. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has not attended [11:05] one of these Correspondence Dinners before. This is the very first one that he attends. And knowing [11:12] that at high-profile events like this, there's always the potential for there to be some form of [11:17] activism. This is something that President Trump's security does take into account. But what's [11:22] concerning here is the reports of those loud noises that took place shortly before [11:28] the Secret Service, or presumably the Secret Service, the security detail that came out [11:33] into the main table to help escort President Trump, the First Lady, the Press Secretary Caroline [11:39] Leavitt, and other members of the administration that were sitting at that head table. That's the [11:45] concern right now. That's the information that we're trying to get more clarity on right now, [11:48] is what exactly were those loud noises? Now, again, looking at the live pictures, [11:53] this is a ballroom that has not been evacuated. People who were standing, holding cell phones up, [12:00] presumably live streaming what had happened, have since put away those phones. They seem to be, [12:05] many of them sitting back down. They're talking amongst themselves. But until now, [12:10] we cannot confirm what it was that took place, exactly what those sounds were. But that head [12:16] table has not returned. President Trump has not returned to that head table, nor has anyone that [12:21] was sitting with him prior to what took place. What we can expect at this point is for security to [12:27] conduct another sweep to make sure that there aren't any, that there isn't anything that could be [12:33] perceived as a threat before the event continues to take place. But this is, again, a highly anticipated [12:39] event in Washington, D.C., certainly one of the most high profile that takes place during the course [12:44] of the year. It draws in national press, international press, celebrities from all over the world, [12:49] and of course, senior members of any presidential administration. And one of the things that we were [12:57] talking about here in the lead up to the press, to the White House Correspondence Dinner, given the [13:02] fact that this is the first time that President Trump has attended one of these events, and given the [13:07] past security problems, to say the least, the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, security details [13:17] have, of course, been beefed up when it comes to his trips, when it comes to any sort of moving around. [13:23] So you can imagine the amount of excessive care that the president's security detail has to take [13:30] when coming to these events. But what we, the chatter here in Washington in anticipation of this event [13:36] was to expect anything. And of course, this is to some extent not terribly surprising, but again, [13:43] very concerning. What we are trying to hope right now is that whatever it was that was disruptive of [13:50] this is under control. And at the moment, again, looking at those live pictures, it does appear [13:55] that this is a calm scene. But again, security would not be taking any risks in making sure that any [14:03] potential threat, anything that could be perceived as a threat, is taken care of. [14:06] Right. So as we await news on what that security situation was, what those loud noises may have been, [14:15] Manuel, I think you touched on an interesting point there, because the president has not attended the [14:19] White House Correspondents Association dinner, at least not as president. I do believe that he did [14:24] attend in the past as a celebrity, as one of those celebrities that we mentioned joins in at this event [14:31] normally, because this is a very big, as you say, who's who of Washington that takes place every year. [14:38] Given all of this, and I want to remind our viewers what we're seeing, on the left side of your [14:44] screen, these are the pictures of the president being removed from the dinner as those noises were [14:51] heard. Again, we are unclear on what those noises were. But as you mentioned, Manny, important to note [14:57] that this this ballroom, this banquet room has not been emptied out. So all of the other people who [15:03] were in attendance here are still here.