WASHINGTON – The Washington Hilton for the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner is one of the most tightly secured sites visited every year by the president of the United States and much of the capital's elite.
Hundreds of agents and more senior officials from the Secret Service, including the paramilitary Counter Assault Team that travels everywhere with President Donald Trump.
Secret Service snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings, who are part of a massive security contingent that has prepared for weeks, or even months for the annual event. Almost certainly drones flying overhead.
And probably just as many officers and other personnel from Washington’s Metropolitan Police, who work “hand in glove” with numerous federal agencies to secure the building and create what is supposed to be an impenetrable perimeter in case anyone with bad intentions tries to do something.
That’s all according to A.T. Smith, a private security consultant who was deputy director of the Secret Service from 2012 to 2015 and has worked many events like this, including the annual dinner that’s traditionally attended by the president, vice president, Cabinet officials, senior White House aides, lawmakers and hundreds of journalists.
