Once again, Sen. John Fetterman is proving himself to be the most rational Democrat in politics.

He is now actively calling for the White House ballroom to be built after last night’s shooting exposed serious security vulnerabilities.

In a post on X, Fetterman told Democrats to “drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these.”

Read it here:

The Mediaite article that Fetterman shared in that post was written by Editor-in-Chief Joe DePaolo, who attended his first-ever White House Correspondents Dinner last night.

He explained in detail how he was shocked by how lax and insufficient the security at the event was.

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Here’s an excerpt from that Mediaite article:

As I left the Washington Hilton at approximately 7:15 p.m. ET Saturday night and made my way down 19th street through a cold, clammy drizzle — with the unmistakable cry of protesters echoing behind me — I was struck by a singular thought.

Man… that security was awful.

Now, some key context here, before I get into my account from inside the Hilton: I’ve never been to White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend. This was my first. I was not attending the dinner itself, to be clear, but I was dropping by several of the network pre-parties. So I come at this with the perspective of an outsider — not a regular on the Beltway party circuit. I have no idea about how these things generally go.

And so as a WHCD rookie, I was extremely curious about the logistics. I was certain I was going to face endless security lines before I went inside. Metal detectors, patdowns, you name it. After all, President Donald Trump was going to be in that room. No way they were going to take any chances at an event like this — particularly not after the scares he faced in Butler, PA, and South Florida.

And on the periphery, the security protocol certainly checked many of the boxes. Traffic was closed off for blocks around the Hilton. There were helicopters overhead. Attendees got stopped twice by security before they were allowed inside the perimeter, and ultimately the building. It all seemed secure, if you didn’t scrutinize it too closely.

But here’s the thing: Getting past that security was comically easy. All you had to do was show — not even a ticket to the dinner, or even any of the pre-parties — but just some sort of evidence that you had business inside the Hilton on Saturday night.

In my case, it was a photo of the invitation to the Fox News pre-party. There was no QR code or anything. It was an image that would’ve taken someone with even a passing knowledge of Photoshop about 10 minutes to cobble together. Both gatekeepers I encountered took one quick glance at the photo I produced and were satisfied. They let me pass without issue.

From there, I stood in a line to get inside — where I was certain I was going to have to empty my pockets and remove jewelry. Nope. Nothing. There was a line for those who wanted to walk the red carpet. But those of us who didn’t want the paparazzi to capture our mugs just went straight through, and down an escalator one flight — where we went to our chosen network pre-party.

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In a post on X, Fox News reporter Bill Melugin shared some similar thoughts on the security situation at the event:

My thoughts on the security at the WHCD last night.

The first exterior security for me was on the street outside of the hotel. I flashed my ticket and was waved through in one second. My name was not checked against any list, I showed no ID, I was not patted down and did not go through a metal detector. I probably could have shown a ticket from a prior year or a fake one as they barely looked at it. (I don’t know who that exterior security was, they were guys in suits).

From that point, I walked into the hotel with no further security check, and I walked down to the Fox pre-party where there were multiple ballrooms that were absolutely PACKED with attendees. Still did not go through any security at that point.

Hypothetically, If I had hidden an explosive in my shoe or my jacket, I would have had no problem getting into one of those ballrooms.

Only once it was time to get into the main ballroom for the dinner did we pass through magnetometers, empty our pockets, and get a pat down. And even that checkpoint was just outside of the dinner room.

Two things can be true at the same time.

Secret Service reacted quickly to an active armed threat and prevented that threat from getting into the ballroom. But the security leading up to that point, in my opinion, appeared to be lacking severely.

President Trump came to the same conclusions as Bill Melugin, Joe DePaolo and John Fetterman.

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During a press conference after the shooting, President Trump called out the lack of security and pointed out the need for the ballroom.

Watch:

What are your thoughts?

Do you agree that the White House ballroom is needed?

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
 

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