WHCD shooting: What the person closest to Trump saw

[0:00] There was no one physically closer to President Trump last night during the attack than my next [0:04] guest. In fact, he was supposed to perform at the dinner. This is just moments before [0:10] the president was rushed off stage. Here with me now is mentalist Oz Perlman. Thank you so [0:17] much for being here. I know you got very little sleep last night, but I just want to talk about [0:22] that moment. You are leaning down with a card and you and we're playing it right now. You're talking [0:30] to looks like the first lady. The president is right next to you. And then clearly things got [0:39] insane. Explain. Yeah, I was performing right then for the president, the press secretary and the [0:46] first lady. It's kind of like a pivotal moment in the trick where you're just about to do the reveal [0:51] of like, wow. And we hear commotion. And, you know, in the room when there's commotion of that sort, [0:57] you tend to think we've been on a lot of events. Is this a medical emergency? Is somebody having a [1:02] heart attack? Because you heard a noise. It wasn't gunshots. I wasn't sure it was a tray. We're also [1:07] higher than everyone. So we have a very good vantage point versus the thousands of people in the room. [1:11] And I see everyone swarming one table and I'm looking and trying to understand. And then you [1:16] see people getting down. And I personally thought like before I went down, I didn't hear any shots [1:22] or see what looked like a shooter. I thought there was about to be a bomb. Like I really very much [1:27] thought, oh my God, it's about to explode because of the way that it was being approached. Wasn't like [1:32] guns out. It was like to stop someone. So my first panic, when you see in the videos, looking, looking, [1:38] and then I go down. One person next to me, I can't remember if it was Courtney, went down quicker [1:43] than me. And I'm like, I got to get down. Something's about to explode. Um, it was incredibly [1:48] surreal. I get down. I kind of get down on all fours facing left, stage left. And then [1:55] I watch, it feels like slow motion because of the way the adrenaline is. So there's Ouija. [2:00] She was blown away and she's amazed. And then they rush across to get POTUS and the president [2:06] gets like taken down by secret service. And we don't know what's going on. And he came down. [2:12] And you can look at the video. I don't know the distance, but less than a foot away from [2:15] me, I'll never forget the image for my whole life because I'm on all fours turn like this. [2:20] They bring the president down directly in front of me. And we just look at each other for about [2:25] two seconds. And my mind, obviously, this is like a huge adrenaline. It's just like, oh no, [2:30] are we about to die? Uh, I thought it was about to explode. I thought that was really my instinct. [2:36] Then I heard what sounded like I thought were shots. So at that point, my mind shifted. [2:40] I also wasn't sure if he was hurt because his face was not, it wasn't like he went down [2:47] really hard. The secret service. It's not, I thought in the movies, I don't know if they [2:51] take you down easy. It was a tackle. Like it was NFL and that would hurt anyone. I don't [2:56] care what age you are. So when we were looking at each other, he was just looking, but the [2:59] expression in his face didn't show whether there was pain or what was going on. Uh, and [3:04] then one Mississippi, two Mississippi, it's like, oh, it's searing my brain. They pick [3:10] him up kind of, and they go out and then we're on all fours and I see Courtney and I see one [3:15] or two of the other people at the dais. And we're like, are they shooting? Like, we don't [3:19] know what's going on. So I don't want to get up. So we army crawl. She went first and the [3:24] rest of us army crawl out because we didn't want to stand up. Cause I, I don't want to get [3:28] hit. I thought there might be somebody still shooting. [3:29] I mean, wow. I'm just taking in, uh, the story that you just told us. I'm sure all [3:36] of our viewers are, you mentioned the president's face and you were face to face with him for [3:41] two very long seconds. The craziest vision ever. It was very high. Like you never expect [3:49] that situation ever. I mean, your, your job is reading people's faces. It's part of your [3:54] craft. What did you gather from that very quick reaction? [3:58] So I think they were well-trained. I gotta, you gotta right away, say the secret service [4:04] did what they were supposed to do, which is they are supposed to, you know, take charge [4:08] and save lives. Uh, they, they sprang into action. Obviously I can't speak to what happened [4:13] in the room because we all took it in at the same moment when they had to, they went into [4:17] action. Uh, I, it was near impossible to read his face because again, I couldn't tell if [4:24] he had been injured or hurt. Just, I think it was more of the way he was taken down. It's [4:29] quite sudden and lightly violent. So I registered him where we weren't there for a minute. It [4:34] was just, boom, he's down. I, I was really surprised. I've never been that close to the [4:38] president. We're like face to face in a very intimate moment. So we're like looking at each [4:43] other and I don't know what's going on, but he was just, it was just a stare and then out. [4:48] Uh, but yeah, it was really shocking. Oh, as you said that you were in the middle of, uh, [4:54] doing a, uh, a trick for him and for the first lady, I mean, you could see you were holding [4:59] up a card for the first lady. What, what were you doing? So I was actually doing a trick [5:05] for the press secretary where she was thinking of a name. I've done this with you before on [5:09] air, Dana. And I started guessing how many letters are in the name. And right at that moment, [5:13] if you see their expressions, the timing is so weird because you see them be amazed because of [5:20] the name and they go, Oh, and then right at that moment is when we all see what happened. So we were [5:24] all taken in and you watch the moment, watch them react. You can see Ouija to the left and the [5:29] president gives a smile because they just saw it go. Oh my God. Then they saw what's going on in [5:32] the audience. So the trick directly went into the, the, the, you know, the sudden sense of [5:38] tremendous danger. What was the name that you asked her? So I can't really say that [5:46] right now. I need to get that. That's not, it's, it's, I can't tell you whose name it is [5:49] or what it is yet. I haven't really discussed that or said if it's a personal of a personal [5:54] nature. Okay. Okay. So it was understood. Well, you'll get back to us on that. And before I let [6:00] you go, I haven't spoken to the people there yet. So there's no real context. Yeah. Yep. I totally [6:06] understand before I let you go. So that was, you were on all fours and then you went backstage. [6:13] Were you then again with the president or other people? Can you just explain quickly [6:18] what happened? No. So backstage was chaos. Like you think that we got off and now we don't feel [6:23] really danger. I don't really think anybody's going to kill us at this point, but we heard [6:27] someone's been killed. There's been shots fired. We heard that very quickly. Uh, and then we did not [6:33] know if the president or first lady had been injured or hurt because they were whisked away. There was no [6:38] blood anywhere, but there are literally 50 or 60 people, assault rifles, guns, everyone's running [6:44] through us, guns blazing. Uh, I saw the vice president at one point about five minutes later and he [6:51] looked very calm and he actually was very assuring. Um, we, we, we didn't know after that, we found out [6:57] that POTUS is okay. That first lady's okay. But that was like, again, I want to say five minutes [7:03] later, it was chaos backstage. We didn't know if there was more than one shooter, just one shooter. [7:08] Then we heard the shooter was killed. Then we just, it was, no one really knew what had happened [7:14] for an extended period. Uh, which was, which was kind of, you know, jarring. We didn't know what to [7:20] do. Yeah. Well, you said beforehand it would be a night to remember. I, I unfortunately said that [7:28] the clip with me and president Trump will be seen five years, 10 years and 20 years from now. And it was [7:33] spot on, but for all the wrong reasons. Well, here with me now is Jamie Raskin, who is a member [7:39] of Congress from Maryland and top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Wow. What a story. Tell [7:45] me what happened. Well, I had just come in the room a few minutes before. Um, unlike most of the [7:51] people there, I was not dressed in black tie. I'd been at a, uh, memorial service for Virginia [7:57] Roberts Giuffre. Uh, it was one year since her passing and I came from that in another event in [8:04] Annapolis, uh, at the home of Iris Crasnell. And I arrived and I had just been there for [8:08] a few moments. I had not even gotten to the table where I was going to be, uh, table 36 [8:14] with the people from NBC. Uh, the people at the Boston Globe table, uh, saw me, got up. [8:22] They wanted to greet me and say hello. And they said, your old friend Kerry Kennedy is here. [8:26] They wanted to go back to law school in the 20th century, you know? And, uh, so Kerry came [8:31] over, we were talking. There was, uh, also to my right was a former student of mine, Paul [8:37] Strauss, who's the statehood Senator of Washington DC. And they came up, I started telling Kerry [8:42] a story because I'd been speaking at the Kennedy's King dinner the night before. Uh, and I, I was [8:47] talking about how, you know, they weren't honoring all Kings, just Dr. King. And they weren't honoring [8:54] all Kennedys, but JFK and RFK, but also Kerry. But anyway, and suddenly there's loud booms, [9:01] crashing sounds, plates, uh, silverware, everything flying all over the place. Um, and people started [9:08] yelling, get down, get down. Somebody kind of grabbed me and pushed me from behind. Uh, [9:13] I landed on Kerry and a couple other people. And then, um, you know, people were panicked. [9:19] Uh, and, uh, you know, I thought immediately about Kerry's situation, having lost her father, [9:26] uh, in gun violence assassination and her uncle. And, um, we were down on the ground for about [9:33] two or three minutes before people were saying it's safe to get back up. They got him, we got [9:38] up. And the first thing that Kerry said to me was, this is happening, uh, in schools across [9:44] the country. And, um, the kids have no resources to process their trauma. And so she was talking [9:54] about gun violence and thinking about other people. And, uh, she's a great human rights [9:59] activist. And, um, you know, nobody wants to meet a situation like that, but, uh, I was [10:04] glad to have been with her. Yeah. I mean, it's the first thing that you thought of. You thought [10:09] about the, the trauma obviously that she had when she was, you know, a baby or she certainly, [10:15] uh, has known about because it's not only American history, it's obviously how she lost [10:20] her family history, but, but we've not dealt with the problem. I mean, we're losing, you [10:24] know, thousands of people a year to gun violence. There are a hundred people shot every day. [10:28] So yesterday, while that nightmare was going on at the White House correspondence ball, dozens [10:33] of people had been shot across the country. And we just accept that as the normal course [10:38] of business. So, you know, I think before we get back to all the political divisions and [10:44] fighting about stuff, maybe this could be a moment, uh, of unity for trying to focus on [10:48] the things that the vast majority of the American people want, like a universal violent criminal [10:54] background check.