The image of raw emotion stood out even amid all the chaos.
Erika Kirk, widow of the conservative movement, sobbing in her shimmering white ball gown, as men in suits ushered her out of the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner after another moment of violence overtook politics.
It was a symbol of one political trauma fleeing the scene of yet another.
“I just want to go home,” she said, her voice breaking and head bowed.
For Americans across the country, the events of Saturday night were at once shocking and familiar. Violence has become a routine intruder in the rituals of the nation’s political life, a numbing narrative of assaults, bomb threats and assassination attempts.
But the location of this incident, in proximity to hundreds of elected officials, aides and lawmakers, underscored another unsettling reality of this violent era: The ever growing club of people whose lives have been upended by it.
There was Ms. Kirk, whose husband, Charlie, was fatally shot while speaking at a political event hosted by his conservative organization, Turning Point USA, seven months ago. Earlier this month, she canceled an appearance at the organization’s event in Athens, Ga., after receiving what a spokesman described as “very serious threats.”
Within moments after the gunfire erupted Saturday night inside the Washington Hilton, Representative Steve Scalise, who was shot at a congressional baseball game practice in 2017, was seen being escorted to a secure room by the U.S. Secret Service. Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, grabbed Representative Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida and a target of an assassination plot in October 2024.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father was assassinated after leaving a hotel ballroom in Los Angeles in 1968 in an earlier era of political violence, was rushed out by Secret Service, with his wife, Cheryl Hines, scampering in her gown and heels to catch up.
And, of course, there was President Trump, who had already survived two assassination attempts, including one where a bullet grazed his ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
In remarks to reporters after the shooting, the president said he was resigned to the violence, viewing the threats as an inescapable part of presidential life.
“It’s a dangerous profession,” he told reporters gathered in their gowns and tuxedos in the White House briefing room late Saturday night. “It’s part of the job. I can’t imagine that there’s any profession that’s more dangerous.”
Privately, lawmakers, officials and aides often detail how the increase in threats has transformed their lives. Several have said they suffer from intrusive thoughts of violence when they campaign in public. Others frequently worry about the safety of their families and effect of violence on their children. And many have adopted a series of security measures in their private lives, implementing complicated systems of alarms, cameras and even police positioned outside their homes.
Spending on security by federal political committees surged to $40 million during the 2024 campaign, according to a report released earlier this month by the Public Service Alliance, a nonpartisan group focused on security for public officials. That total is a “conservative, minimum estimate,” according to the group, and does not account for government-incurred costs, such as Secret Service.
“I always look for exits every time I’m in a room,” Mr. Moskowitz said in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning. “We can do a lot of stuff, we can mitigate it. But if someone really wants to try to cause harm, it’s almost impossible to prevent it.”
Some have decided the job is no longer worth the risk.
In an essay announcing his decision not to seek re-election, Representative Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine and a Marine veteran, recounted spending Thanksgiving 2024 in a hotel room with his family after “yet another threat against our home.”
“As a father, I have to consider whether the good I can achieve outweighs everything my family endures as a result,” he wrote last November.
Violence appears to have accelerated since the 2024 election. Last year, the number of threats and other “concerning statements” against lawmakers, their families and staff members spiked to nearly 15,000, according to the United States Capitol Police.
The violence has engulfed the nation’s entire political system at all levels of government. Those facing threats now include school board members, election officials and local legislators who have had to scrub their home addresses from public websites after the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker at her home last June.
But with few easy solutions, the shock of the latest incident in Washington quickly faded into a standard pattern: efforts to weaponize early reports of the shooter’s political ideology, appeals to cool the rhetorical temperature and partisan criticism.
Details about the shooter began to emerge throughout the day on Sunday, with reports circulating that he sent messages to his relatives denouncing Trump administration policies and suggesting he intended to take violent action.
As the criminal investigation continued, Democrats offered calls for stricter gun laws, citing the rise in school shootings and mass violence. Republicans jumped on concerns about security at the Washington Hilton, the longtime venue of the dinner, to marshal support for the ballroom Mr. Trump is constructing on the White House grounds.
Activists and politicians from both parties blamed the other for stoking violence with dangerous rhetoric and inflammatory imagery. Others offered pleas for a reset in the country’s political tone.
“Our words matter. The weight of our words matter, and we need to be very measured in the way that we use them,” Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Mr. Tillis has described the routine of threats against him, his family and his staff as akin to “going to 7-Eleven and getting a gallon of milk.”
And for some, by late Sunday afternoon, the incident had morphed into a wry cocktail story with a dark punchline.
“On the positive side — was exciting, no one was killed, and ended early,” Lloyd Blankfein, the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, posted on X. “I noted a new litmus for status among the gov’t elite — whether you were whisked away by secret service, or left to fend.”
Tim Balk contributed reporting from New York.
Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades.
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