Shooting again puts Washington Hilton at center of presidential history

Politics White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting again put Washington Hilton at center of presidential history By Katrina Kaufman April 28, 2026 / 5:45 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google When shots rang out at the Washington Hilton as President Trump sat in the ballroom for the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday night, there were echoes of the hotel's storied presidential history.On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nearly died after John Hinckley Jr. pulled out a .22 caliber revolver and unleashed six shots in 1.7 seconds, from a mere 15 feet away, as the president was leaving the hotel. He had come from addressing union members of the AFL-CIO in the ballroom, ending his remarks with a familiar line: "Together we'll make America great again."Lead U.S. Secret Service agent Jerry Parr – who was inspired to become an agent after seeing Reagan play one in a film as a boy – acted quickly to throw Reagan in the limousine, according to Del Wilbur, author of "Rawhide Down" (Rawhide was Reagan's Secret Service code name).But, said Wilbur, Hinckley's sixth shot "slaps against the side of the limousine, flattens to the size of a dime, slips through a gap an inch and a half wide between the door and the door frame and hits Reagan."Bullets hit White House press secretary James Brady in the head – paralyzing him, D.C. police officer Thomas Delehanty in the back, and U.S. Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy in the chest."It's important to remember how close he came to dying," said Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and senior fellow at the Reagan Institute, recalling how the president insisted on walking into the hospital despite his grave condition, then collapsed inside. "He rallied so the nation wouldn't panic and think he was dying."The assassination attempt was a pivotal moment for the Washington Hilton – and for presidential security. The Hilton's presidential attractionSince its inception, presidents have frequented the Washington Hilton. A wing-shaped building that looks like a bird in flight, the hotel was designed to attract them, featuring a secret passageway, safe room, and spacious ballroom.The hotel opened 16 months after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. A few years later, the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner was held there for the first time and became a tradition that has continued ever since."So how do you get the president to go?" said Wilbur. "Well, you make sure he has his own entrance. They built a whole separate entrance on T Street. And it's beautiful. There's a spiral staircase down. There's a personal elevator. And there's a holding room down there for him that, at the time before all these great wireless communications, they had wired to communicate with the White House.""So that's where they took Trump right after, to that holding room. No windows, subterranean, and they built that just to attract the president. And the president went there all the time," he added. "There's a safe hallway that goes from the bunker, that holding room, all the way to the top. It's like his own hallway that leads from that to the speech." The ballroom is one of the largest in Washington D.C. Presidents speak there several times a year – and have since Lyndon Johnson. In April 2024, President Biden appeared for three speeches in 8 days. It has been home to the National Prayer Breakfast, the First Lady's Luncheon, and inaugural balls.Presidents Richard Nixon, Barack Obama, George…

This excerpt is published under fair use for community discussion. Read the full article at Cbsnews.