Eyewitness details chaos at WHCA dinner shooting

Added: 2026-04-28

[00:00:01]Joining me now are two people who were at Saturday night's event. Fox News political analyst Giano Caldwell and XXXY athletics founder and CEO Jennifer SE. Welcome to you both. I got a lot I want to get to with you. Jennifer, I'm going to start with you. You were there Saturday night. I want you to tell us about what you saw, what you experienced, but I want you to put it in context for us. You're a big free speech advocate. a lot of journalists in that room who were wearing pins saying it's all about free speech tonight. I want you to tell us what it felt like to think about that issue in light of what happened with this attempted assassin.

[00:00:40]>> Well, that's why I was honored to be there. I mean, in many ways, I have no business being there. I'm not a journalist. I'm a mom and I'm a business owner. But I have uh put my career on the line to say what I believe. And in in that regard, I had every right to be there and I was honored to be there.

[00:00:55]I've been to so many cultural milestone events. I've been to multiple Super Bowls, Coachella, the Grammys, the VMAs when that was a thing. Um, the worst thing we were ever worried about at Coachella was some was somebody would take too too many party drugs. You know, we had to have doctors there. I certainly um never contended with anything like this. It was it was obviously terrifying. And I will tell you um as I was huddled under the table along with multiple weight staff members I thought if this is my time it's my time but I will never stop speaking up.

[00:01:25]We cannot it's such a cliche at this point I almost hesitate to say it. But if we silence ourselves and we stop going to these events um then the worst of us has won. And so you know I got myself out of there. I snuck out a side door. I ran back to my hotel and I recommitted to speaking the truth and to speaking up because we cannot, our country was founded on free speech. It's about to be 250 years old. We cannot let let the worst of us win. Uh but it's astonishing that you could go to this sort of cultural event and this is what you're contending with hiding under a table for a half an hour.

[00:02:00]>> Yeah.

[00:02:00]>> Gonno, you were there. You were, as I understand it, you were outside of the ballroom actually, so you had a different perspective on how things went down. Again, talk about that. But I want you also to address the other side of the issue. Okay? So Jennifer's right.

[00:02:12]We're talking about free speech. But on the other side, you've got these very prominent politicians and supposed leaders in our country who are using rhetoric that is clearly feeding in to very unhealthy patterns of thought and behavior on the left. So there's got to be some kind of prudence used here to think about speech. Giana, go ahead. And and I just posted a clip on my uh Instagram at Giano Caldwell with multiple Democrats using this language pretty much declaring war on Donald Trump saying that they would physically attack him if they could, radicalizing many of their base. I'll tell you, I was there at the the Washington Hilton because I was supposed to broadcast live on Fox News Channel from 9 to 12 with Jimmy Phala. We were going to do his comedy show uh pre before President Trump and then after Carry it on. I happened to be right there at the red carpet. There wasn't many other folks there. Um, and I was the only journalist speaking to a Secret Service agent because we were going live in 30 minutes when I heard a boom and we both looked around trying to figure out where it was coming from. Then boom, boom, boom, boom. We're about 30 feet away. I was the closest person to this and I happened to capture after the Secret Service agent said, "Get down. Get down." It shook me, startled me. I'm feeling to see if I got hit or if someone else did, but I didn't fall. I pulled out my phone and immediately the journalistic instincts took over and I recorded six videos or so, which our Fox put out uh and you can find again at Giano Calwell on Instagram to see exactly what happened immediately after those shot took place. And that was within one minute um after that happened. You can see the law enforcement response. Thank God for these guys, these men and women in uniform who are putting their lives on the line. And one thing I would say, you know, when you look at the the most recent polling data, it shows that 25% of folks on the left, they believe that political violence is okay in certain situations and you see about 3% on the right says the same. We know where it's coming coming from. It is not a both sides argument as some would try to say that it needs to calm down. These are folks who are who clearly over the course of years have celebrated Trump um the assassination attempts, him being indicted, uh him potentially going to jail, being life on the line, and all these other things. Even if even if said after there was an assassination attempt that they need to take away his Secret Service protection. This is insane. The these folks need to be condemned. And my only hope is because it was the media apparatus and and across the nation in that room, executives and otherwise, that they will have them turn down the temperature. That is my hope.

[00:04:57]>> I want to get to this as well. So, you've got Jimmy Kimble under major fire for this comment. Listen to this.

[00:05:05]>> And of course, our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.

[00:05:14]Okay, so Melania Trump is calling on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel for that comment.

[00:05:19]First lady posting on X, quote, "Enough is enough. It's time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC's leadership enable Kimmel's atrocious behavior at the expense of our community?" Uh, Jennifer, weigh in on this.

[00:05:34]>> Yeah, I mean, I think uh Johnny's right.

[00:05:37]The the jokes go in one direction and so do the bullets. Let's be clear. Um, I am going to take what may be a controversial position and I'm going to say he should be able to tell his terrible, horrible jokes. I believe in free speech. Let the show die on its own merits. It's not funny. Uh, the jokes, like I said, go in one direction. It used to be on Saturday Night Live on all these late night shows, they made fun of everyone. It was equal opportunity.

[00:06:01]That's not how it is anymore. Uh, there's incitement to violence at every turn. There's mocking of only one side.

[00:06:07]And there is attempted assassinations only going in one direction, three of them already. Uh and and let's be clear, the shooter said he was willing to kill anybody in that room to get to the president. He said that in the manifesto. He doesn't care how many innocent people uh he had to take out if he was going to. So, you know, it's all going in one direction. That said, the show is terrible. The ratings are down.

[00:06:31]Who thinks he's funny? Nobody thinks he's funny. And I'm just going to say I believe in free speech. He should be allowed to make those terrible, terrible jokes. He should be censured. He should be criticized. Um, and he should lose the show because it stinks.

[00:06:43]>> Giana, real quick, final word.

[00:06:46]>> It stinks.

[00:06:48]>> I agree. Watch Jimmy Phala Fox News Saturday night at 10 p.m. That's good advice. Good one to end on Fox News Channel.

[00:06:55]>> Yeah. Ganna Cwell, Jennifer say, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[00:06:59]Good to see you. Thank you. All right.