This was going to be a post about freedom of speech and the necessity of a free press in order for democracy to survive. 

It was to be inspired in part by this weekend’s annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where traditionally grants are awarded to young journalists, an emcee roasts the president AND the sitting president gets a chance to hit back with a speech of their own.

This was not to be.

Instead, an armed man rushed the security checkpoint at the dinner’s hotel venue and exchanged gunfire with law enforcement, an encounter where one officer was shot and the armed man was tackled to the ground and taken into custody.

The man, Cole Thomas Allen, 31, is a teacher and lives in a small tract home in Torrance, CA.  According to news reports, he is also a Cal Tech graduate, a game developer and, in Dec. 2024, was named teacher of the month at his local school.

More to come on that score.  In fact, so much more that he and this event will no doubt become the story rather than a necessary spotlight on the importance of journalism, facts and the right every U.S. citizen has to feel free to say what they think and to speak truth to power. 

Well, so much for best laid plans.

It should be noted that our sitting president had refused to attend this annual dinner every year of his first term and in the first year of his second term.  Not only did he decry the bias of the press in all of those years but had no stomach for being roasted by the usual comedian/host.

However, this year he agreed to attend.  Perhaps because there was to be no roast of the POTUS, and no comedian host.  In fact, the featured “entertainer” scheduled to appear at the podium was a mentalist named Oz Pearlman, an alumni from America’s Got Talent who specializes in “psychological illusions.”

Yup, that is the guy they booked to hold forth at the White House Correspondents’ dinner our current POTUS finally agreed to attend.

And no, I’m not making that up. 

That is a fact.

Another fact is that despite not being roasted himself by the “mentalist” this year, our current POTUS was to be given the chance to make an extended speech roasting the press and, presumably addressing freedom of the press.

Several journalists who were granted copies of the speech beforehand reported that it was quite brutal and extremely long. 

Of course, we don’t know for sure.

What is a fact is that the one time this POTUS attended a White House Correspondent’s Dinner it was as a private citizen in 2011.  At that time he was chided by host Seth Meyers, who famously noted, that:

Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising since I just assumed he was running as a joke.

The latter was in reference to his racist and since debunked birtherism claim about then Pres. Obama having a fake US birth certificate.

At this same dinner, Mr. Obama then went on to chide the former Apprentice host about his decision-making ability in that he was stepping up and “firing” actor Gary Busey on this TV show. “These are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night…”

It has often been said and written that the roasting that evening was perceived by the future and our current POTUS as humiliating and it tipped the scales for him to finally run for the highest office in the land. 

Of course, we will never know for sure.  Perhaps these are just the kind of “psychological illusions” liberals and free press advocates like to tell themselves in order to sleep at night.

One final fact we do know is that half an hour or so after the President, Vice President and various members of his cabinet were evacuated from the ballroom of the Washington Hilton Hotel Saturday night, our current POTUS gave a press conference.

He began his speech noting that in the five minutes or so when the members of the press and his administration were threatened by gun violence, Democrats, Republicans and the undecided were all one group who came together regardless of party lines.  He also added that this was the very purpose of the annual dinner.

So, well, that was nice. 

But then very quickly he expounded on the shooter, who he referred to as “a nut job,” and repeated three separate times that he lived in “California.”

As do 39.5 million other people. 

Which then led him to expound on the greatness of his presidency, since those are the ones that lead people like Mr. Allen to gun them down.

“I’ve studied assassinations and I must tell you the most impactful people, the people who do the most, they’re the ones they go after….And I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot.”

There were no arguments or follow-up questions about the latter.

It also stands as an indisputable fact.

The Clash – “Know Your Rights”