Well, This Has Happened

Person in custody after Trump evacuated in shooting incident at White House correspondents’ dinner

Event ended suddenly with loud gunshots and immediate commotion, and will be rescheduled

Suspected shooter apprehended after Donald Trump evacuated from White House correspondents’ dinner – latest updates

Donald and Melania Trump were evacuated from the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday evening after the event was interrupted by loud gunshots.

A suspect was in custody, the FBI said, after the annual black tie dinner honoring the White House press corps was suddenly interrupted by confusion and chaos. Journalists ducked under tables as authorities rushed the president and members of his cabinet out of the room.

There were reports that the US Secret Service had guns drawn as White House pool reporters were rushed out of the room and Secret Service agents yelled “shots fired”.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump praised the Secret Service and law enforcement and said the shooter had been apprehended.

The FBI confirmed later on Saturday that a suspect was apprehended.

The Secret Service said in a statement that the shooting incident occurred near the main magnetometer screening area at the hotel.

Weijia Jang, president of the White House correspondents’ dinner, told the room that the president is planning a press conference from the White House later Saturday and that he wants to reschedule the dinner in the next 30 days.

“Thank God everyone is safe, and thank you for coming together tonight,” she said. “We will do this again.”

Guardian reporters in the room said there were initially mixed messages about whether press and guests should stay in the room. Many people who stayed in the ballroom said the program was scheduled to resume, although the presidential seal was removed from the podium.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer reported that he saw someone with a gun at the event.

“I did see the gunman on the ground after he started shooting,” he said. “Police officers threw him to the ground.”

Guests had just started eating dinner when the commotion began. The atmosphere in the room was tense as journalists waited to hear what happened and what to do next.

Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman from Maryland, who was attending the dinner said he never saw a shooter, but “I think a Secret Service agent threw me to the ground and on top of some other people and people were screaming and yelling”.

“I heard some loud noises but I don’t know if that was people reacting or if that was something outside, it was hard to know, but people very quickly were saying that was a shot, that was the gunshot,” he added. “People were terrified; people seem to be relieved now.”

Outside the hotel, helicopters circled overhead.

This year’s dinner was already tense given the presence of Trump and top members of his cabinet, including Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state. Trump agreed to attend this year’s dinner after refusing to attend last year and during his first term. The correspondents’ dinner tradition began in 1921, though the tradition of a presidential guest started in 1924, when Calvin Coolidge attended.

A Sunday Read

There is frank recital of the grooming and threats that happened to these women, in case you might need to skip reading this one. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888, or text INFO to 233733. See the website at https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en

They all survived Jeffrey Epstein. They have something to tell you

Saturday marks one year since Virginia Giuffre’s death – and other survivors are making a public reckoning possible

Fabiola Cineas

Saturday will mark one year since the death of Virginia Giuffre, one of the first women to surrender her anonymity, detail her experiences and publicly call for criminal charges against convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. For other Epstein survivors such as Liz Stein and Jess Michaels, Giuffre’s public reckoning made it possible to finally name what had happened to them.

“I saw myself in Virginia, in [Epstein survivor] Maria Farmer, in all of them,” said Danielle Bensky, who was pulled into Epstein’s orbit when she was 17. “And I thought: if they can be victimized, anyone can be. I was not alone. I finally understood that we were not going to be silent any more.

More than a dozen Epstein survivors will gather in Washington DC this weekend for a memorial vigil in Giuffre’s honor. But they will also be marking something larger: the emergence of a survivors’ movement Giuffre helped make possible – and that is only gaining momentum.

Epstein survivors have held press conferences and met with congressional lawmakers; in November, the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed, and the release of more than 3.5m pages of documents followed. However, in the more than two months since the justice department released its latest batch of files – more than 2m documents have yet to be released – prosecutors have not brought any new charges, despite federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continuing to demand accountability.

As for Ghislaine Maxwell – the only person convicted in connection with Epstein’s network – she was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 and has exhausted her appeals. Rather than facing harsher scrutiny, however, Maxwell was controversially transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security federal camp in Texas in August.

While the lack of action has left survivors with little faith that the full scope of Epstein’s network will ever face justice, they don’t intend to back down.

Stein, Bensky, Lisa Phillips and Michaels discuss, in their own words, what made them come forward, the power of survivors banding together and where they want the movement to go.

‘If I could go back, I would tell someone’
Liz Stein, human trafficking specialist and survivor advocate

When I met Epstein and Maxwell, I was a senior in college. I had aspirations of going to law school. People had a lot of expectations for what my life would look like. But my life turned out the exact opposite. For decades, I buried what happened to me. I thought these were friends I had met in New York – that is how they made the relationship feel. So the narrative in my mind was that I had these unspeakable, horrific experiences with people I thought cared about me. I never wanted to think about it. I never wanted to talk about it. I just lived with it.I wasn’t ready for his face to appear on television the day he was arrested. And what followed confused me further, because the coverage focused on the girls in Florida – and I had these preconceived notions about what trafficking was and who it happened to. I wasn’t underage. I never went to the island. So I thought: that’s different, that’s separate. But I educated myself. I immersed myself in the national anti-trafficking movement, consuming every webinar and publication I could find. And when I did that, I thought: this is exactly what happened to me. And I was just enraged and saddened to know it wasn’t just me – that it was potentially hundreds of other young women.When I delivered my victim impact statement after Maxwell’s sentencing [for sex trafficking], I nearly shouted. I talked about my emotional health, my physical health, how this derailed my life. I wanted to project my voice so that no one in that courtroom could ignore what I was saying. And it was important to me to look at her directly while I spoke. I didn’t want her to see me cry. I didn’t want to give her that satisfaction.That moment changed something. I couldn’t imagine having this visibility and not fighting for justice. If I could go back, I would tell someone. And if they didn’t listen, I would tell someone else, and I would just keep telling until someone listened.What I want people to understand is that speaking out publicly is not a requirement. For those who aren’t ready, know that there are women standing in their truth on your behalf. And for those who are afraid, if you tell someone and they don’t listen, tell someone else. Just keep telling until someone listens. Even if it falls on deaf ears, you will still be proud of yourself for being willing to stand in your uncomfortable truth.
‘What changed everything was meeting other survivors’
Danielle Bensky, choreographer, performer and survivor advocate

(snip-MORE [because of course we know there is])

Post 2-Trans Pregnancy

These pages are an excerpt of Will Betke-Brunswick’s work-in-progress book, Transpregnant.

See Part 1 post here.

From Crucial Comix-

Excited to Love More: Moments from My Trans Pregnancy

Will Betke-Brunswick

Being pregnant is a journey—especially when you’re transgender.

(continued next post)

It’s A Real Day!

There is a link within. Penguins are many of my favorite things! From that linked page:

It’s practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry. Joe Moore

Happy World Penguin Day

Some Art From Jenny Lawson

Accidental art therapy

(not tiny monster penises)

Jenny Lawson (thebloggess)

Hello, friend!

This week I revisited the Lynda Barry Making Comics book because I was on book tour and a tiny sketch book was easy to bring along on plane rides. The exercises were out of my comfort zone but sometimes I think that can be a good thing. This exercise was called “Close your eyes and draw a mermaid.”

Another was to choose a character and sketch their entire life cycle. I chose Beyoncé the Giant Metal Chicken, obviously:

I did a self-portrait…sort of:

And drew with both hands at the same time, which is much harder than it sounds: (snip-MORE; go see!)

Your Saturday Morning Birds Post

From Cornell Lab Bird Cams:

From American Bird Conservancy:

Three-wattled Bellbird

Procnias tricarunculatus

Also Known As

Campanero Tricarunculado (Spanish)
Pájaro Campana Centroamericano (Spanish)

About

The Three-wattled Bellbird, like other Central and South American bellbirds in the Cotinga family, is a natural history paradox. Breeding males perch on exposed branches and sing one of the loudest songs of any bird, impossible to ignore and audible from more than half a mile away. However, despite this extremely conspicuous breeding season behavior, females and nonbreeding males are notoriously difficult to observe, foraging in the higher levels of the canopy and remaining remarkably silent. As a result, this species has been subject to fascinating and in-depth studies of its song and courtship behavior, but some of the most basic aspects of its natural history are unknown. For instance, only two nests have been recorded, one in 1975 and one in 2012, and no eggs or young have been documented.

But biologists have learned a great deal from studying the Three-wattled Bellbird’s song. The bellbirds belong to a group of perching birds known as the suboscines, which also includes tyrant flycatchers like the Western Kingbird and antbirds, such as the Marsh Antwren. While the “true” songbirds (or oscines) are famous for their song-learning abilities, suboscine songs are classically considered to be completely innate, with no learning taking place. However, the Three-wattled Bellbird shares an important feature with birds that learn their songs: dialects. Birds from Nicaragua sound noticeably different from Costa Rican birds in the Cordillera de Talamanca and the Cordillera de Tilarán, which each host populations with distinct songs. (snip-MORE)

Some Toons: Clay Jones, Open Windows

The WH Correspondents’ Dinner

Unethical and tone deaf

Ann Telnaes

Never a good idea for journalists to become chummy with politicians and people in power but this year particularly, it’s allowing an autocrat to continue his attack against the free press.

Tucker Treason

Tucker’s breaking MAGAt hearts

Clay Jones

Right-wing commentator, white nationalist, Vladimir Putin fan, former Fox News host, and former bowtie aficionado, Tucker Carlson, is now sorry that he helped elect Donald Trump to the presidency.

Tucker, who was often at Trump’s side during the presidential campaign in 2024 and who was a huge lobbyist to get JD Vance on the ticket, now says he will long be “tormented” for helping Donald Trump get to the White House and start a war with Iran.

Tucker is just one of several right-wing goons who have gone from being full-fledged MAGAts to personal enemies of Donald Trump. They include not just Tucker, but Marjorie Taylor Greene, Alex Jones, Megyn Kelly, and Candace Owens. (snip-MORE)

Prediction Markets

Are you betting on a Crystal ball?

Clay Jones

I was surprised a year or so ago when I learned that people were betting on professional wrestling. As you are probably aware, professional wrestling matches are pre-determined, as in, they are fake. I guess the only thing that prevents a writer of the matches from cleaning up is that the stakes are very low.

When I was a kid, my mother told me that people could not bet on who shot JR from the TV show Dallas because one of the writers could go to Vegas and place a large wager on it. That would have been insider trading. That’s not allowed, right?

Yesterday, a U.S. Army special forces soldier involved in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela was charged with using classified information to bet on events related to the mission. The soldier made more than $400,000 by betting on the prediction markets that the capture would happen. (snip-MORE)

Take A Look!

Saturday, April 25, Is the “Communities Not Cages National Day of Action to Stop ICE Warehouse Detention”

A Morning Read:

A Wonkette Guest Substack. Also, a bit of blue language within.

Congressional Republicans, You Are Running out of Time

Tick-tock motherfuckers!

Ali Davis Apr 24, 2026

Ali Davis invited us to reprint this post from The Camelopard. As always, we said yes.

Hello, Goopers!

Wow, things are getting wild, huh? Did you ever think, during all those long years when you boosted him and covered for him, that the Trump Train would be plowing through so many guardrails? Rumor has it — or at least a Gateway Pundit writer has it — he tried to use nukes last Saturday!

I would write something about you being the last hope and your duty to your country, but that’s clearly no incentive, so here’s something that will hit.

You have a very small window to act before your name is on the Bad Guys list forever.

You must remove Trump before a) he goes undeniably off the rails or dies or b) another country’s investigation turns up his full involvement with Jeffrey Epstein and child sex trafficking. If you don’t, you, personally, go down in history as a willing toady to evil. Your name and your failure to act will be preserved forever. Family members will change their last names or claim no relation. Corporations will find hiring you too big a risk. No more political career, no cushy lobbying job, no lucrative TV punditry. Just burned relationships and strangers asking why the hell you didn’t stop it when you had the chance, right before they spit on you.

You see how Tucker is scrambling to position himself as A Guy Who Sees the Light and Wants to Stop Trump? Do you think he had a deep change of heart, or do you think he noticed the way the wind is blowing and is doing everything he could to save his own ass and future? You should study those instincts.

Tucker knows that he will need to be able to point, however ludicrously, however tenuously, to how he saw that Trump was dangerous and spoke up.

You need to do more than that. You must remove Trump from office before his own body removes him or you go on the Forever Trumpers list.

If you don’t have real moral fortitude, try to develop the sense and eyes that God gave a potato and read a few polls while you’re at it. Trump is losing, so you need to act like him one more time: Switch to the winning team and pretend you were always wearing that jersey.

Do it fast if you ever want to keep seeing your grandchildren after they’re old enough to understand this moment in history and what you failed to do.

Oh, there’s no evidence that Mr. Trump ever —

Look into your soul and be real for a moment. At best — at best — he knew exactly what Epstein was up to and winked at it. The birthday card. The famous quote where he said “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” The constantly changing stories about when and why Epstein was removed (was he?) from Mar-a-Lago.

Trump knew. He at least knew.

Now factor in the purchase of a teen beauty pageant and the founding of a model management company, two perfect ways to move underage girls across international lines. His own on-air brag that he liked to burst into the changing rooms of teenage pageant contestants. The time he speculated on his dating prospects with a child on an escalator.

We may never know everything, but we will know more. You can be one of the heroes who bravely stood up to stop Trump, or you can be one of the craven sleazebags who went all out to shield an aspiring dictator and bunch of wealthy child molesters. Every moment you don’t choose the first one will itself be a black mark against your name, so you might want to hurry up and flip a coin or something.

But I’m being blackmailed.

I have news for you: There has never been a better time to get out from under being blackmailed. The crimes in the Epstein Files are so heinous that even Swalwell and Gonzales’s horrifying conduct barely made a blip. Make your peace with your family, take some responsibility, and hope that whatever the regime has on you isn’t as hilarious as what someone had on Kristy Noem’s husband.

Need a little more incentive? Not that I am diagnosing anyone, but people who become disinhibited as a part of their cognitive decline have an increasing tendency to just … blurt things out. Do you want to have a nice, preplanned statement to the press about respecting your privacy during this challenging time, or do you want the most personal thing you can imagine barfed out randomly during an official statement on the soybean trade?

I will also mention that people with some types of dementia have a tendency to fill in memory gaps with invented details. Do you really want to explain to the nation that yes, the thing about the carnival is overall true, just not the part about the plate spinner and the Tilt-a-Whirl?

Besides, if enough of you move quickly and work together, you might just get off scot-free.

Surely you’ve heard the broad hints about Congressional Republicans being physically threatened.

I have news for you, Sparky: We are all being physically threatened. A man who has never in his life experienced a consequence has access to nuclear weapons and is eager to use them.

Move quickly. Get your family somewhere safe, choose a Democrat as a point person — do not trust your fellow Republicans, you know full well how craven they can be — and let the opposition party count up the votes. Move together, publicly report the threats, and save yourself by bravely impeaching the sumbitch.

But what if no one believes us? What if reporting gets us ridiculed or puts us more at risk?

Well, now you know what it’s like to be a victim of a powerful serial sex offender. Please use that perspective wisely in the future if you have any shreds of a political career left.

For real though — a lot of Trump’s power comes from the perception that he is powerful. Puncture that and the whole thing deflates.

You want to save your own tail? Help the Democrats start prosecuting him and his cronies immediately after impeachment. No professional courtesy, no putting this all behind us so we can move forward, no honoring the frantic pardons of a rogue President. Everything comes out and everyone gets real consequences. Seize and freeze assets, put Trump’s thugs and cronies on the no-fly list, and start the trials. Nobody squeaks by, not even the very wealthy ones.

Once you find some rudimentary bits of calcium spinning around your spinal nerve, you may even discover that you like using them in the service of something good.

But you must act immediately.

Trump is spinning out and trying to take the world with him. You can help put a stop to it, or you can forever be on the list of people who had the power but were too evil or craven to do anything about it.

You can choose the story that other people will tell about you.

But you’d better make it quick. (snip)