Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is sharing new details about what happened behind the scenes on the night shots were fired at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April — and the picture she paints of President Trump is one of barely contained defiance.

Speaking on the “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” podcast, Leavitt revealed that after the Secret Service swept Trump out of the Washington Hilton ballroom, he immediately began pushing to go back. “He was like a caged lion backstage, like just roaring to get out, like, ‘We gotta go back out there,'” she said. “And I’m sitting there like, ‘I don’t know if I want to go back out there.'” According to Leavitt, Trump pressed his detail hard — telling them he would wait until 3 a.m. if that’s what it took for the event to resume.

The dinner had descended into chaos when Cole Allen, a 31-year-old from Torrance, California, allegedly stormed the hotel armed with multiple weapons just minutes into the program. A Secret Service officer was struck but survived. Allen’s manifesto reportedly identified Trump administration officials — with the exception of FBI Director Kash Patel — as his targets. He was apprehended outside the ballroom and has since pleaded not guilty to charges including attempted assassination of the president.

When it became clear the dinner would not resume that night, Trump channeled his energy into a late-night press briefing at the White House. “He wanted to say something and the best way to say it was in the briefing room. And we did,” Leavitt said. The dinner was ultimately rescheduled for July 24 at the Waldorf Astoria, where Trump attended and spoke. The shooting also reignited his push to build a dedicated ballroom at the White House — an idea that has gained new traction on Capitol Hill in the months since.

The week’s biggest press freedom story started with a Friday Truth Social post and escalated all the way to the floor of the United Nations General Assembly as the president addressed world leaders on Tuesday.

On September 18th, President Trump announced he was banning CNN, Politico, and MS NOW from the White House, citing what he called their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” Reporters from all three outlets were denied entry to the White House complex over the weekend and had their press credentials physically confiscated by the Secret Service. The announcement caught a number of senior White House aides off guard — chief of staff Susie Wiles was reportedly not in the West Wing when the ban was posted.

The move triggered an unusually unified response from the broader press community, with Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN issuing a rare joint statement: “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.” Television networks also refused to provide pool coverage of the president’s activities on Monday in solidarity with the banned outlets. The White House Correspondents’ Association condemned the ban, as did right-leaning voices — CNBC host Joe Kernen pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the move, saying, “I just don’t think this is something we do in this country.”

CNN, Politico, and MS NOW filed a lawsuit on First Amendment grounds Monday, and a federal judge ordered the Department of Justice to respond to an injunction request by Tuesday, with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

The confrontation then followed Trump to New York, where he was attending the UN General Assembly. When CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins asked him a question outside the General Assembly, Trump gestured at her and told reporters, “I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me. You should not be here covering me.” Collins replied on air: “The United Nations allowed us in here, sir.” Trump acknowledged he expected the presiding judge — who ordered the White House to restore CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s credentials in 2018 — to rule against him, but gave no indication he would reverse course voluntarily.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Washington AI Network podcast interview with host Tammy Haddad, cybersecurity veteran and author of “Dark Side of the Boom: How Scammers Hijack the AI Revolution” Patrick Coughlin examines how artificial intelligence has turned digital fraud into America’s fastest-growing — and now largest — economic crime and urges federal leadership, international cooperation, and know-your-customer rules for AI model access. 

Coughlin co-founded Savi Security with his brother, Ryan, after their mother, Beth Coughlin, then 73 and living alone in Prairie Village, Kansas, was targeted by an AI-generated voice-cloning “kidnapping” scam. Scammers used a cloned voice that convincingly mimicked Coughlin’s sister to tell their mother she had been kidnapped, then demanded $1,200 for her release. Although Beth Coughlin ended the call and confirmed her daughter was safe before sending any money, the experience left her badly shaken — and sent Patrick Coughlin, a two-decade veteran of cybersecurity, intelligence, and emerging technology, into what became years of research into global scam syndicates.

That research became the basis for “Dark Side of the Boom,” and ultimately for Savi Security, which Coughlin and his brother founded to build consumer-focused protection against AI-enabled fraud. The company raised $7 million this year and launched a consumer app designed to help everyday people identify scams before they become victims.

A Crime Growing Faster Than Any Regulatory Response

Citing data from the FTC and FBI, Coughlin told Haddad that Americans lost an estimated $200 billion to digital fraud over the past 12 months, with losses growing 25–30% year over year — a pace he compared to the revenue growth of top AI chip companies. Digital fraud, he said, is now both the fastest-growing and the largest economic crime in the United States.

Coughlin argued that the public conversation about AI has focused disproportionately on enterprise and national-security use cases, leaving everyday consumers out of the debate. “If you go to Middle America today, AI is a bad word,” he said. “Their experience with AI is in the fearmongering headlines and in the increase in scam and spam calls, messages, and emails they’re all getting.”

A Policy Agenda for Washington

Coughlin outlined several concrete steps he believes federal policymakers should take, including federal leadership over the current patchwork of roughly 1,200 state-level AI bills, which he said creates gaps and loopholes that scammers can exploit as they move across state lines.

Coughlin also made the case for international cooperation, since the majority of scam operations that target American consumers originate overseas, including in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and West Africa. He also advocated for a know-your-customer approach for access to sensitive components of AI models, such as bulk API access, similar to existing controls on bulk fertilizer or pharmacy purchases. Coughlin argued for enforcement of existing anti-fraud and anti-money-laundering laws against platforms that knowingly profit from fraudulent activity. He pointed to Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters reporting that found roughly 10% of Meta’s ad revenue comes from fraudulent advertisers — activity he said the company manages as a revenue stream rather than eliminates. “If it was covered by the existing mandates, then you’d see enforcement actions against the companies who we know are violating them,” he said.

Coughlin pushed back on the argument that AI regulation would put the United States at a disadvantage against China, noting that China has implemented far more extensive AI governance, including mandatory watermarking. “If these models are half as dangerous as the people creating them are constantly telling us they are,” he said, “then don’t you think that we should create some more regulation around who gets to access them?”

About the Book

“Dark Side of the Boom: How Scammers Hijack the AI Revolution,” by Patrick Coughlin, examines how AI has industrialized scams and fraud against everyday consumers and calls for a renewed focus on mitigating the real, present-day harms of AI alongside its benefits.

Watch the episode on YouTube, and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the platform of your choice.

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.