Even Before the Gunfire, Many Guests Bore the Scars of Political Violence

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Even Before the Gunfire, Many Guests Bore the Scars of Political Violence

Gunfire at a press gala on Saturday underscored the ever growing club of political figures whose lives have been upended by violence.

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Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana, was seen being escorted to a secure room on Saturday. Mr. Scalise was shot at a congressional baseball game practice in 2017,

Credit...

Salwan Georges for The New York Times

By

Lisa Lerer

April 27, 2026,

5:04 a.m. ET

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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.

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