Former Clinton communications director and veteran media figure, George Stephanopoulos, told Dan Abrams on his SiriusXM show Monday that what surprised him about the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was that something like that hadn’t happened before now.

The dinners, put on by the non-profit White House Correspondents’ Association, have been ongoing since 1921, and are typically attended by the president of the United States, although Saturday was the first time Donald Trump attended as POTUS.

Trump, his cabinet officials, and members of Congress were all rushed to safety as authorities subdued the gunman who managed to fire several rounds, hitting a Secret Service agent in the chest. Fortunately, the agent’s bulletproof vest saved him from mortal injury.

Stephanopoulos said he was “Horrified, like anyone would be,” when he heard how the night went down, and “a little surprised this hasn’t happened before.”

“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 said.

Abrams, the founder of Mediaite, asked why Stephanopoulos expressed surprise.

“Because it’s such a rich target,” Stephanopoulos answered. “I would think somebody would have tried before. I don’t know how close they would have gotten.”

He continued, “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.”

Abrams asked if Stephanopoulos thought there should be a follow-up dinner, as Trump has promised.

“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 argued, 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.”

Watch above via The Dan Abrams Show on SiriusXM.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!