'Horrified' George Stephanopoulos Is 'Surprised' a WHCD Tragedy Hasn't Happened Before

Journalist George Stephanopoulos said that while he was "horrified" by the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend, he was also "a little surprised" this hasn't happened before.

The former White House Communications Director under President Bill Clinton told journalist Dan Abrams on his SiriusXM show that the event was a "rich target" because it crams thousands of people into the basement of the Washington Hilton, often including several people in the presidential line of succession at once.

When Abrams asked him what made him so surprised, this was the first time someone tried to breach the dinner, Stephanopoulos answered, “Because it’s such a rich target. I would think somebody would have tried before. I don’t know how close they would have gotten.”

“You’ve got thousands, literally thousands of people crammed into the basement of the Washington Hilton…and we had six out of the top seven people on the president’s line of succession all in the same room at the same time,” Stephanopoulos explained.

He cited the difficulty of navigating the area, noting that "anybody that's got any kind of profile or visibility" is often swarmed by members of the public allowed near the hotel or on the street outside.

The Good Morning America host admitted he stopped attending the dinner partly because of the uncomfortable environment and questioned whether the event should have taken place given the current political climate.

“One of the reasons I stopped going is that for anybody that’s got any kind of profile or visibility, they let just people who have nothing to do with the dinner into the hotel, on the street outside. You can’t walk three feet without getting yelled at or asked for a selfie. So, it’s pretty uncomfortable.”

When asked if the dinner should be rescheduled as Trump promised, the host was reluctant to answer.

“I’m probably the wrong person to ask,” Stephanopoulos said. “I don’t think that this dinner should have happened on Saturday night. I understand why it happened. I understand why news organizations decided to go. But this dinner is supposed to be a celebration of the First Amendment and those who uphold the First Amendment.”

“And I think we’ve seen a pattern of the president and his administration of actually undermining the First Amendment,” Stephanopoulos explained, adding, “So, it was always a little bit odd to me that he was being honored in this way at this dinner. I know it’s been a tradition. You know, we’ve never had a president take the kind of steps that President Trump is taking versus the press.”

Before the dinner, hundreds of prominent media figures, including Dan Rather and Ann Curry, and major journalism organizations urged the White House Correspondents’ Association to “forcefully demonstrate opposition” to Trump’s record on press freedom. The group argued that his presence at the dinner is a “profound contradiction,” citing years of attacks on the media, restrictions on access, and regulatory pressure.