Days after a gunman opened fire at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a UT student who attended the dinner shares her firsthand perspective.
Gail Fanning, senior political science and journalism major, is the University of Tennessee’s fifth recipient of the Carter Holland Memorial Scholarship, which sends one student each year to represent UT at the dinner, which is traditionally attended by the president and vice president.
Fanning entered the banquet hall of the Washington Hilton at 7 p.m. as the dinner commenced Saturday, April 25.
“It felt super real to me, like, ‘this is really happening, and I’m so happy I get to be here,’” Fanning said. “We are closer to the president than we are to the exit doors.”
Attendees had not made it past appetizers when chaos erupted.
“I hear this clattering, clanking,” Fanning said. “I look over, and I just see people rushing in, and they’re all yelling, ‘get down!’”
Fanning said that though she didn’t hear gunshots, she realized something was happening based on the way the audience reacted, and her first instinct was to hide and call 911.
“While I’m on the phone with them, I text my family’s group chat,” Fanning said. “I say, ‘Oh my God, I’m under a table.’”
Fanning got in contact with her mother, who had traveled to Washington with her and was staying in a room floors above the banquet hall as the attack happened, to figure out what was going on.
“I’m in a ballroom with 2,000 people. I can’t see anything,” Fanning said. “I felt so scared.”
The reality of what happened didn’t hit her until 1 a.m. as she watched the night’s events recounted on news stations across the country. Fanning said she felt “devastated” when she realized that the weekend she had looked forward to for months was over.
“I had it scheduled out in my calendar since I found out in November,” Fanning said. “In the week leading up to it, I was so anxious about it.”
When she landed in Washington earlier in the weekend for the dinner, Fanning said the nerves went away, and she was faced with pure excitement.
“I texted in my family’s group chat coming from (Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) that I was in my happy place, which was a WMATA Metro car,” Fanning said.
The experience, Fanning said, is one she will not get back.
“You can go to D.C. as many times as you want,” Fanning said. “You only get honored at the White House Correspondents Dinner once.”
When asked if she would relive the weekend again if she knew how it would play out, Fanning gave an answer some might not expect.
“I would absolutely do it all over again,” Fanning said. “I got to meet so many amazing people. … I wish I’d been able to meet more.”
The suspected shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of California, has been charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump.
