Elizabeth B Smith

[Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson]

This powerful 60-second video captures the true meaning of Memorial Day

CHILLS 🇺🇸

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am a senior coordinating producer for the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. I have worked eleven of these. I was backstage at the Washington Hilton when the shots were fired.

The first thing I heard was not the gunfire. It was glass.

A champagne flute hit the floor of the International Ballroom at approximately 9:47 PM. Then a second. Then the sound that I have since been told was a 12-gauge shotgun, which from inside the ballroom sounded like a heavy door slamming in a parking garage. Then the Secret Service moved. They moved the President, the Vice President, the First Lady through the east corridor in under ninety seconds, which is protocol, which is practiced, which is the one part of the evening that worked exactly as it was designed.

Everything else was improvised.

I know this because I ordered the wine. 94 tables. Two bottles per table. 188 bottles of a Willamette Valley pinot noir that the Association selected in February after a tasting committee spent three meetings debating between Oregon and Burgundy. Oregon won. The budget was $14,200. I signed the invoice. I can tell you the vintage. I can tell you the distributor. I can tell you the per-bottle cost because I negotiated it down from $89 to $76.

What I cannot tell you is how 147 of those bottles left the building during an active shooter evacuation.

I can tell you what I saw. A correspondent from a network I will not name picked up two bottles on her way to the east exit. Full bottles. One in each hand. She was wearing heels and she did not spill. A man in a tuxedo tucked one inside his jacket the way you'd shoplift a paperback at an airport bookstore. A woman picked up a bottle, looked at the label, put it back, and took a different one.

She checked the vintage. During an evacuation. That's editorial judgment under pressure.

The theme of the dinner was "A Free Press for a Free People." The banners were still hanging when the evacuation began. I know because I hung them. Twenty-three banners, navy blue, gold serif lettering, $11,400 for the set. They were still hanging when 2,600 guests were directed to the exits by Secret Service agents, one of whom had just taken a shotgun round in his ballistic vest and walked to the ambulance on his own feet.

The agent's vest costs approximately $800. The wine that left the building was worth $11,172 at Association cost. At restaurant markup, roughly $29,000. The guests saved more in wine than the vest that saved the agent.

That's priority.

The video went viral by 10:15 PM. Not the video of the evacuation. Not the Secret Service response. The wine. Three guests in formalwear grabbing bottles off white tablecloths while being told to move toward the exits, while a man with a shotgun stood in the same motor entrance where John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan 45 years ago.

A woman near the service entrance was crying. She said "I just wanna go home." She was not holding wine. She was holding her phone. She was the only person I saw that night who looked afraid rather than inconvenienced.

That's the distinction. The rest of the ballroom did not look afraid. They looked interrupted. An active shooter at the WHCD is a logistical problem. The dinner was disrupted. The timeline was off. The after-party at the French Ambassador's residence would need to be rescheduled. These are contingency matters. Contingency matters have solutions. Fear is for people who attend events without security details.

I have produced eleven of these dinners. I have managed seating charts that require diplomatic-grade negotiations. I have handled comedians, cabinet secretaries, network anchors, and the editor of a major newspaper who once threatened to leave because his table was behind a column.

I have never, in eleven years, seen a guest leave a $76 bottle on the table during an evacuation. I have also never seen a guest check the label first. Both observations are consistent. The bottle is worth taking. The evacuation is worth surviving. The instinct is to do both simultaneously.

188 bottles placed. 41 recovered. 147 unaccounted for. One agent shot. Zero guests injured. Zero bottles broken.

A free press for a free people. The press is free. The wine was $76 a bottle. They took it anyway.

[Elizabeth B Smith @elizBsmith]

@AnthonyG0528 Went through this with Dad in November. Hospice said when they get to that point they don’t feel the effects of hunger and dehydration anymore.They honored him by keeping him comfortable until he breathed his last. Dad could still hear and respond to our voices until the end🙏

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

3/3 ✅

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

About that time to grab the popcorn! Come hang out with the Walker Campaign tonight for our Debate watch party! ⬇️⬇️

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

Ted Budd‘s DC dark money is releasing a hit piece ad claiming I took 350K dollars while missing some votes in DC. Ironically, 350K is the amount Budd is receiving from taxpayers while running for Senate - I’ve not taken a dime. It’s another reason Ted Budd won’t debate. #ncsen

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

I didn’t play this game in DC and I won’t do it now. I will continue to fight for North Carolinians and for the nomination to be your next United States Senator. May God provide the path forward.
“Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.” - Winston Churchill
#ncsen

[Brian Murphy @MurphinNC]

Matching up Budd internal poll today vs. Budd-backing Club For Growth poll in November:

McCrory: 31% (-5 from Nov.)
Budd: 25% (-8 from Nov.)
Walker 16% (+3 from Nov.)
Eastman 4% (not polled in Nov.)
Undecided 23% (+5 from Nov.)

Be helpful to have high-quality poll of #ncsen.

[Elizabeth B Smith @elizBsmith]

@CarolinaJournal Walker 💯

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

Two questions on Biden‘s belief that the 2022 election could be illegitimate if Congress doesn’t pass his federal elections takeover: 1. Does that mean the 2020 election was illegitimate? 2. Why is this any different than what Trump has said?

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Nothing is more permanent than a “temporary” government program

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

Arrived in DC this morning and the place is buzzing. Millions are praying SCOTUS makes the right decision in defending life. 🙏 #ProLife #ModernizeOurLaw #SCOTUS

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

#winwithglenn #ConservativeMemes #ncpol

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

Here in Orange County today but not allowed to speak with the other Senate candidates. That’s OK, had the chance to connect with some great people who inspire us to work harder. We're not the establishment’s choice but we are the people's choice. #ncpol #ncsen

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

China cyber attacks us 10K+ per day, our border crisis is worst in history, supply chains have been crippled, inflation is spiking and labor shortage is crushing businesses. Yet, this is your “vision for our nation.” One more thing - don’t end your sentences with a preposition…

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

THREE IN A ROW! Thank you to everyone who attended tonight's Tri-County Senate Forum in Gold Hill. Much work remains but 3 - 0 on Straw Poll wins! Thank you to our growing grassroots conservatives across the state. People>PAC’s! #ncsen #ncpol

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

In 13 years as VP and POTUS, Biden has never visited the border - not to thank border agents or view the crisis itself.  A record-breaking 1.73M illegals have been apprehended this year alone. The drugs & human trafficking destroying lives should be enough to elicit a visit.

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

Gun control activists exploiting this movie photographer’s tragic loss of life is deplorable. “Christian conservatives” doing the same is equally abhorrent. Do better!

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

Speaking of helping people: You have represented a majority Black district for 6 years. Let’s compare records.

Me trying to find a single thing you have done for North Carolinians who don’t look like you:

[Mark Walker @RepMarkWalker]

.@JeffJacksonNC – be sure to screenshot this one too.

I’d rather have the endorsement of NC conservatives across the spectrum than an organization that ended the life of 345,672 babies in their last reported year.