It was one of the largest gatherings of media in Washington as the British Ambassador Christian Turner and Lady Claire Turner, Spotify’s Chief Public Affairs Officer Dustee Jenkins, and White House Correspondents Insider founder Tammy Haddad hosted a reception in honor of Weijia Jiang, 2025-2026 president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, at the Ambassador’s residence on Thursday night.  

CBS executives, including News president and executive editor Tom Cibrowski and new 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton, joined the Washington team including Margaret Brennan, Robert Costa, Nancy Cordes, Sara Cook, Fin Gomez and Isabelle Pellegrino. 

Ambassador Turner told the crowd of over 300 administration, media and business leaders, “Both our democracies survive and thrive on accountability. A free press represented by so many of you here tonight. And that’s the heart of our free societies.”

Dustee Jenkins, Spotify, added,  “It is wonderful to be surrounded by so many journalists and policymakers and staffers and leaders, and that’s really what we’re all here for. That’s what this is really about.”

Jenkins presented Jiang with a Maggie O’Neill White House print signed, “For Her Courage, Composure, and professionalism in leading the White House Correspondents Association 2025-2026.” I am deeply honored by this recognition, but I want to be clear that it belongs to all of us. I have heard a lot about grace and composure and bravery, but any of that I showed on April 25th, I borrowed from everybody else in that room. And that includes so many of you. You put your personal fears aside to do our jobs, and I still find it hard to look at the videos sometimes to see us in our tuxes, in our gowns, in the briefing room, because there’s a cognitive dissonance. But also, what else would we expect to see? There’s nothing that would stand in the way of us making sure we were asking questions and informing the public at such a critical time.”

Tammy Haddad, veteran TV executive and founder of White House Correspondents Insider, wrapped up the program with a reminder of the important role journalists play in democracy. “A healthy democracy depends on an independent, vigorous press and the relationship between the president and all the reporters. This dinner tomorrow night is a return to those roots. A gathering centered on the enduring importance of that relationship and all the institutions that support it.”

The evening went late with a surprise set by Grammy Award-winning DJ Jazzy Jeff courtesy of Spotify. 

The official White House Correspondents Association dinner, or as the Ambassador called it “Season 2” of the dinner, takes place at the Waldorf Hotel on Friday night.  The ballroom, which was designed by President Trump when he owned the hotel, seats 600, so it will be primarily news organizations with their teams. Trump Cabinet Secretaries and White House officials are expected to attend. 

SPOTTED: Rep. Nicole Malliotakas (R-NY), Sean Cairncross, Kellyanne Conway, Patrick Witt, Chris Klomp, Alex Flemister, James Van Den Berg, Mike Caswell, Senay Bulbul, Rima al Sabah, H.E. Nicole Bintner-Bakshian.

CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, Nancy Cordes, Jonathan Karl, Margaret Brennan, Jacqui Heinrich, Andrea Mitchell, Wolf Blitzer, Nick Bilton, Jennifer Griffin, Shawn McCreesh, Josh Dawsey, Matea Gold, Tyler Pager, Sumi Somaskanda, Leigh Ann Caldwell, Sally Quinn, Caitriona Perry, Michael Beschloss, Adrienne Arsht, Susan Blumenthal, Kinsey Fabrizio, Katie Pavlich, Dmitri Alperovitch, Maureen Hinman, Stephanie Cutter, Susan Fox, Susannah Quinn, Meridith McGraw, Liz Bourgeois, Alexandra Veitch, Katelyn Bledsoe, Christian Garrett, Emily Skor, Jasmine Wright, Sara Fischer, Francesca Chambers, Jeff Mason, April Boyd, Steve Holland, Jeanne Moran, Dominique Yelinski, Marisa Schultz, Olivia Igbokwe, Courtney Rozen, Mario Parker, Colin Moneymaker, Cat Zakrzewski, T.W. Arrighi and Doug Heye.

The 33rd White House Correspondents’ Garden Brunch brought together guests from government, media, tech, business, and entertainment in honor of the press, public servants, and military families. The annual gathering was co-hosted by Tammy Haddad, Kevin Sheekey, David Urban, Mark and Sally Ein, Jon Banner, and Franco Nuschese. A few of the names spotted in the crowd at the historic Beall-Washington House include: Dr. Mehmet Oz, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, actors Michael Chiklis and Iain Armitage, Oz the Mentalist, UN Ambassador Mike Waltz, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and NobleReach CEO Arun Gupta who received the Mission Generation Award.

Video highlights of this year’s Garden Brunch can be found HERE!

The White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner made headlines this year after gunshots were fired outside the Washington Hilton ballroom. It was a dramatic end to what had been an otherwise sunny Saturday in April. The dinner was rescheduled for Friday, July 24, and the venue moved to the Waldorf Astoria on Pennsylvania Avenue. The event will conclude the term of Weijia Jiang, White House Correspondents’ Association president and CBS News senior White House correspondent.

Jiang is being honored for her leadership and grace under pressure in the aftermath of the shooting incident with a reception at the home of the British Ambassador Thursday evening. The event is hosted by the British Ambassador to the US Sir Christian Turner and Lady Turner, and sponsored by Spotify and WHC Insider.

You can support the WHCA mission of a free press, excellence in journalism, and journalism education at this link.

The Annual White House Correspondents’ Garden Brunch and White House Correspondents Insider (WHC Insider) are not affiliated with, or approved by, the White House Correspondents’ Association, which is a registered trademark of the WHCA.

ASPEN, COLORADO – At the Aspen Ideas Festival in June, three of the sharpest minds in energy, economics, and technology policy were interviewed by Tammy Haddad for a special edition of the Washington AI Network Podcast to tackle a question increasingly on the minds of policymakers, executives, and voters alike for the annual gathering of business leaders, politicos, academics and media.

Moderator Tammy Haddad, founder of the Washington AI Network, opened the session, recorded June 27 by framing the stakes plainly: “Is there a road to broadly shared prosperity with AI?” Lael Brainard, former director of the National Economic Council and former Federal Reserve vice chair; Chris Womack, chairman, president, and CEO of Southern Company; and Benedict Macon-Cooney, Chief Innovation Officer at the Tony Blair Institute – offered three distinct vantage points, but converged on a shared unease: the economic gains from AI are real, but so far concentrated.

Brainard was the most direct. Pointing to what she called the “20/90 rule,” she noted, “Top 20% of American households have 90% of stock market wealth.” Brainard warned that the economy’s current AI-driven strength masks real fragility. “Our economy right now is a little bit fragile,” she said, noting that AI-related investment last year roughly matched the entire normal annual level of U.S. business fixed investment. Left unaddressed, she argued, the dynamic risks repeating the mistakes of the Gilded Age and the China trade shock. “I don’t think AI on its own is going to reduce inequality,” Brainard said. “I think you need institutions and social agreements that condition how AI affects distribution opportunities.”

Womack, whose Southern Company built roughly 50 gigawatts of power last year and plans to build more than 80 additional gigawatts in the coming years, pushed back on the narrative that data centers are squeezing household ratepayers, arguing hyperscale customers are effectively subsidizing everyone else’s bills. Womack was equally emphatic that the technology’s benefits can’t stop at Silicon Valley’s door. “We’ve got to make sure AI benefits all parts of our economy, all parts of our society, and not just the top,” he said, pointing to a planned data center in rural South Alabama as a case study in how AI-driven investment could revive communities left behind by decades-earlier manufacturing losses. “The opportunity I see with the tax investments, with the revenue coming from that data center, can change the life and the economic vitality of that community and all those homeowners.”

Macon-Cooney brought a global lens, arguing most nations will never be able to build frontier AI infrastructure themselves and need to instead focus on adoption and comparative advantage – comparing the choice to buy aircraft from Boeing or Airbus rather than building an aircraft carrier from scratch. On education, he pointed to a pilot AI tutoring program that delivered two years of academic progress in just two months as evidence that the technology’s benefits can reach beyond markets and into everyday life. “An AI tutor for every child,” he touted, “would be the most democratizing and powerful way to transform your education system.”

What emerged from Aspen was less a roadmap than a reckoning. The panelists agreed that the AI boom is real, that its infrastructure demands are staggering, and that its benefits – so far – are flowing disproportionately upward. But they also agreed that none of this is predetermined. Brainard’s warning about the Gilded Age, Womack’s data center empowering rural South Alabama, Macon-Cooney’s AI tutor delivering two years of learning in two months – each pointed to the same underlying truth: the technology is not the policy. AI will not distribute its own gains. That work falls to institutions, governments, and companies to make deliberate choices about who gets to participate in the boom and who gets left behind. In Aspen, at least, the conversation is happening. The question now is whether Washington will catch up before the window closes.

Catch the full episode available now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Three months after gunfire shattered one of Washington’s most storied traditions, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is coming back.

The rescheduled dinner will take place on Friday, July 24, at the Waldorf Astoria on Pennsylvania Avenue – a venue with its own complicated Washington history as the former Trump International Hotel – with President Trump expected to attend. White House Correspondents’ Association president and CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang announced in a letter to members, framing the decision as much a statement of principle as a scheduling matter.

“This dinner will not only be an opportunity to carry out our program,” Jiang wrote. “It will be a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence. As you have all demonstrated, courage and community can and should rise above.”

The original dinner, held April 25 at the Washington Hilton, drew more than 2,500 guests. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and FBI Director Kash Patel were among those in attendance. It was the first WHCA dinner Trump had attended as president; he skipped both terms of his first presidency and the 2025 event.

Just before 9 p.m., as mentalist Oz Pearlman performed a trick on stage beside Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, chaos broke out. Suspect Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old from Torrance, California, who had been staying as a guest at the hotel, rushed the security checkpoint outside the ballroom armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38 semiautomatic pistol, and multiple knives. One Secret Service officer was struck in his bullet-resistant vest and hospitalized; he later recovered. Allen was arrested outside the ballroom.

Jiang was on stage beside the president when it happened. “It all happened so fast,” she recalled on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “When I heard something in the audience, I thought it was a protester – something we’re very used to. But then, when I saw SWAT team members come to the head table and say, ‘Down, down, down,’ we were crawling off the stage.”

After the Secret Service swept the principals to safety, Jiang returned to the podium to address the still-assembled crowd, directing guests to leave under law enforcement protocol. Trump, she said, refused to simply disappear into the night. “He really wanted to talk it through,” she said of a private conversation with the president backstage. “He told me that we were not going to be deterred. He refused to stand down, and that’s why he stayed.” Trump went on to deliver a late-night briefing from the White House press briefing room, where he called on Jiang for the first question.

At that briefing, Trump reflected on the strange bond the evening had forged. “This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press,” he said, “and in a certain way, it did, because of the fact that they just unified.”

Allen was charged with attempting to assassinate the President of the United States, use of a firearm during a crime of violence, transporting a firearm across state lines, and assaulting a federal officer. He pleaded not guilty on May 11. A manifesto attributed to him described his grievances against the Trump administration; he reportedly referred to himself as the “Friendly Federal Assassin.”

Jiang was unambiguous that rescheduling was a deliberate act, not a foregone conclusion. “Rescheduling was not automatic,” she wrote to WHCA members. “It was a choice that the WHCA board made after thoughtful consideration and input from our members. I want to thank board members for the time and care they brought to this decision, particularly on the security front.”

The July 24th event will look different from the traditional dinner. It will be more intimate in scale, with significantly enhanced security measures and new access procedures that Jiang said will be communicated directly to attendees. The WHCA has also fundraised to ensure members who paid for the April event will not have to pay again, and the organization is providing travel support to scholarship and journalism award winners so they can be recognized at the makeup dinner.

Trump announced his own attendance on Truth Social, calling the rescheduling “a sign of Strength and Fortitude” and accepting Jiang’s personal invitation to speak. He also revealed the venue — at the Waldorf Astoria, formerly the Trump International Hotel in the landmark Old Post Office building — before the WHCA had made a public announcement. “I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people,” Trump wrote, “but we will soon find out. In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket!”

The evening has placed Jiang, who has covered the White House for CBS since 2018, at the center of one of the more remarkable stories of a remarkable year. She had spent eight months planning the April dinner, and by her own account, hoped it might restore a measure of normalcy between the press and an administration with which many journalists have had an openly adversarial relationship. When she wrote to members about the rescheduled dinner, Jiang tied the decision explicitly to the broader stakes of the moment. “We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word,” she wrote, “especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for.”

The dinner is set for Friday, July 24.

Fight night energy came to Washington early! Dina Powell McCormick, president and vice chair of Meta; Dana White, president and CEO of UFC; and Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, hosted a Freedom 250 reception ahead of this weekend’s UFC fight on the Ned’s Club rooftop Friday night with special guest Ivanka Trump. The evening celebrated “our nation’s heroes” and Meta announced it will give 130,000 AI glasses to blind veterans.
 

Guests included Jared and Arabelle Kushner, Kai Trump, Doug Burgum, Todd Blanche, James Blair, Karoline Leavitt, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Keith Sonderling, Reps. Zach Nunn and Brian Jack, Chris Klomp, Stanley Woodward, Will Scharf, Alex Flemister, Ethan Klein, Ryan Baasch, Seval Oz, Kellyanne Conway, Reince Priebus, Karen Sessions, UK. Amb. Christian Turner, Terry McAuliffe, Adrienne Elrod, UFC fighters Kayla Harrison and Merab Dvalishvili, MacKenzie Dern, the NELK Boys, Josh Holmes, John Ashbrook, Michael Duncan, “Comfortably Smug,” Isabel Brown, Franco Nuschese, Michael Petricone, Tony Sayegh, Teresa Carlson and Maryam Mujica. Media guests included Mike Allen, Shawn McCreesh, Shannon Bream, Pamela Brown, Ed Luce, Robert Costa, Meridith McGraw, Jonathan Karl, Josh Dawsey, Jim VandeHei, Liz Gough, Aidan McLaughlin, Sara Fischer, Cathy Merrill, and Daniel Lippman.

Washington, DC—The Washington AI Network’s second annual AI Honors, Washington’s only black-tie AI gala, drew more than 400 leaders from government, tech, and academia last night to honor seven Americans shaping the future of artificial intelligence (AI). (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Washington AI Network) 

Here are the 2026 AI Honors Awardees:

• Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) accepted the Bipartisan Leadership on AI Award presented by actor Michael Kelly
• Entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary—a.k.a. Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful—(video interview) received the AI Global Ambassador Award from Ireland’s Ambassador to the United States, Geraldine Byrne Nason
• NVIDIA co-founder Chris Malachowsky received the Founder’s Education Accelerator Award from Washington AI Network founder Tammy Haddad
• Omidyar CEO Michele Jawando (video interview) was presented the Civic Technology Leadership Award by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser
• Major General Patrick J. Ellis, commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson, received the AI Leadership Award from Army Secretary Dan Driscoll
• Dr. Katherine (Kathy) Yelick (video interview) received the Public Science Award from Dr. Darío Gil who serves as both the Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Director of the Genesis Mission

The evening featured remarks by the newly appointed papal nuncio, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia; NVIDIA co-founder Chris Malachowsky; Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Secretary of Energy Chris Wright; and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary. 

“This gathering itself represents something that Pope Leo calls for in his recent encyclical entitled Magnifica Humanitas, a shared document involving many sectors of society. The future of this technology cannot be guided by one field alone. It needs science and policy, business and public service, ethics and faith,” said Archbishop Gabriele Caccia. “From the beginning, at every stage, the development and application of artificial intelligence must be guided by the dignity of the human person and by the common good of the human family.” 

“Energy is what drives progress. It’s what drives innovation. It’s what lifts people’s standard of living up. We need to get our act together with electricity,” said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “We’ve tripled our oil production, doubled our natural gas production — but energy in the form of electricity, we’ve barely grown in twenty years. We do not want to hold back this technology or push this technology overseas by not delivering the electricity.” 

NVIDIA co-founder Chris Malachowsky said, “The AI era will give the next generation of students and workers the most powerful tools ever created to learn, build, and discover. And even beyond this, it will help reindustrialize America and shape our next 250 years. But to realize that future, we must empower all to reach their full potential. And it’ll take industry, government, and academia working together to get it right.” 

Making the case that AI hesitation — not AI ambition — is the real threat, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll said, “The biggest risk to our national security is not moving too fast. It’s not moving fast enough.” 

Entrepreneur and honoree Kevin O’Leary escalated his months-long fight over his proposed Utah data center, accusing China of funding a coordinated disinformation campaign against American energy and AI infrastructure projects — and vowing to press forward regardless. “I’m going to use my voice to fix this,” O’Leary said. “I’d never seen this before. It’s wrong. And as far as Box Elder County is — I’m going to build this data center. I’m going to build it as a shining example of what we can do here in America.”

“When the Secretary of the Army, a cofounder of NVIDIA, a serial entrepreneur, a National Lab director, and the Vatican’s representative to the United States are all on one stage, this is Washington at its best,” said Washington AI Network founder and CEO Tammy Haddad. “The Washington AI Network has been the catalyst for how Washington talks about AI, and last night, it was the moment for celebrating those leading Washington — and the world — into what comes next.”

SPOTTED: Michael Kelly, Ambassador Mike Waltz, Dario Gil, Reps. Steven Horsford (D-NV), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Dr. Mehmet Oz, Secretary Dan Driscoll, Chris Klomp, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Jill Hazelbaker Franks, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Aaron Parnas, Shelley Zalis, Elizabeth Falcone, Sevel Oz, Ethan Klein, Helen Milby, Franco Nuschese, Jon Kelly, Arun Gupta, Dmitri Alperovitch and Maureen Hinman, David Ginsberg, Kyle Dropp, Scott Kupor, Ylli Bajraktari, Paras Malik, Alex Flemister, Reema Dodin, Tasia Jackson, Ed Luce, Niamh King, Brian Rice, Jessica Nigro, Olivia Igbokwe, Rohit Chopra, Gerry Petrella, Katelyn Bledsoe, Ned Finkel, Maryam Mujica, Felipe Million, Brian Peters, Missy Owens, Michael Petricone. The event, which was emceed by CNN anchor Pamela Brown, was aired on C-SPAN. Watch the entire AI Honors program on Washington AI Network’s YouTube.

MESSAGE From WHCA President CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang to association members:

“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner has served as a celebration of a free press and the vital role of journalism in our democracy for over a century. When gunfire interrupted this year’s event, it further clarified the WHCA’s mission to advocate for the freedoms that are protected in the First Amendment. We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for.

I am proud to announce we will host another dinner to be held in Washington, D.C. on Friday, July 24th.

Rescheduling was not automatic. It was a choice that the WHCA board made after thoughtful consideration and input from our members. I want to thank board members for the time and care they brought to this decision, particularly on the security front. The event will feature significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures. We will share additional details directly with attendees.”

Our thoughts remain with the officer who was injured and with everyone who experienced that evening. We are indebted to the US Secret Service, law enforcement and the hotel staff whose swift response protected our guests and our staff.

In the weeks since the last dinner, we have raised funds to ensure WHCA members who purchased tickets will not have to pay if they attend the second event, which will be a more intimate gathering. We will also offer financial support to our scholarship winners for travel back to Washington. They, along with our journalism award winners, deserve to be recognized for their hard work and dedication to reporting.”