Jack Posobiec spoke with Alina Habba on Human Events Daily following the assassination attempt by a leftist targeting President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where Habba said she was inside the venue when shots rang out. The discussion focused on the moment chaos erupted, the Secret Service response, and what Habba described as a worsening climate of political hostility.
Habba described the sudden shift in the room as people realized something was wrong. “The night started out normal, obviously,” she said, “and it's pretty much your nightmare for anybody that's there for a purpose, which was to support each other and see the president speak for the first time as a president at the White House Correspondents Dinner.”
Then, she said, everything changed. “I just heard gunshots and I wasn't really, I thought I heard it, and then I looked around and realized people started hitting the floor and they were screaming shots fired, get down, get down,” Habba said. “So I, you know, in my gown, got on the floor like everybody else and took cover.”
She added that the response from security confirmed the severity of the situation. “It was frightening, honestly, and then I saw Secret Service run in, I saw them with their guns up, so I knew something was wrong,” she said. “I saw the president get rushed off.”
Habba added that she was not surprised by the attempt. “I wish I could say I was [surprised]," she said. “I think it's a real result of the rhetoric.”
Habba said she believed political discourse had contributed to repeated incidents of violence targeting Trump and his administration. “This is political violence; it has to stop,” she said. “There’s not a question, it's not a debatable fact, it's a fact.”
She pointed to what she described as ongoing radicalization. “We saw his manifesto, the fact that he wanted to take down Trump officials, the fact that a lot of his sentiments echo those statements that you see on social media, that you see on networks that are so, frankly, creating radicalization,” Habba said.
She added that the issue has become persistent and widespread. “And we're seeing it time and time again,” she said. “I mean, the man has publicly had three assassination attempts.”
Habba rejected what she called a simplified explanation of the hostility toward Trump. “It’s not Trump Derangement Syndrome, it’s much deeper than that,” she said. “It’s a hatred that not just goes to President Trump, but anybody in his cabinet, anybody who's working for him and his administration.”
Habba described the sudden shift in the room as people realized something was wrong. “The night started out normal, obviously,” she said, “and it's pretty much your nightmare for anybody that's there for a purpose, which was to support each other and see the president speak for the first time as a president at the White House Correspondents Dinner.”
Then, she said, everything changed. “I just heard gunshots and I wasn't really, I thought I heard it, and then I looked around and realized people started hitting the floor and they were screaming shots fired, get down, get down,” Habba said. “So I, you know, in my gown, got on the floor like everybody else and took cover.”
She added that the response from security confirmed the severity of the situation. “It was frightening, honestly, and then I saw Secret Service run in, I saw them with their guns up, so I knew something was wrong,” she said. “I saw the president get rushed off.”
Habba added that she was not surprised by the attempt. “I wish I could say I was [surprised]," she said. “I think it's a real result of the rhetoric.”
Habba said she believed political discourse had contributed to repeated incidents of violence targeting Trump and his administration. “This is political violence; it has to stop,” she said. “There’s not a question, it's not a debatable fact, it's a fact.”
She pointed to what she described as ongoing radicalization. “We saw his manifesto, the fact that he wanted to take down Trump officials, the fact that a lot of his sentiments echo those statements that you see on social media, that you see on networks that are so, frankly, creating radicalization,” Habba said.
She added that the issue has become persistent and widespread. “And we're seeing it time and time again,” she said. “I mean, the man has publicly had three assassination attempts.”
Habba rejected what she called a simplified explanation of the hostility toward Trump. “It’s not Trump Derangement Syndrome, it’s much deeper than that,” she said. “It’s a hatred that not just goes to President Trump, but anybody in his cabinet, anybody who's working for him and his administration.”
