‘Don’t politicize a political event’ / ‘The Trump administration preyed on her name’ / Kissin’ cousins

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‘Don’t politicize a political event.’ One of those in the room during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner shooting—puppet-American Triumph the Comic Insult Dog—reviewed the night’s events on last night’s Daily Show.
■ Promoting the segment, Robert (Triumph) Smigel said plenty of reporters were on the scene, but “only one had another man’s hand up his ass—sorry, two: Me and [acting Attorney General] Todd Blanche.”
■ Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse (gift link) on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s wife getting left to fend for herself in the evacuation: “We are all Cheryl Hines … watching the important people be whisked away.”
■ Jimmy Kimmel: Kennedy “cut out of there like he saw a raccoon penis on the side of the road.”
■ Popular Information debunks Trump’s assertion that the assassination attempt was a result of the “No Kings” protests.
■ The shooting suspect’s been charged with attempted assassination of the president …
■ … based on what law professor Joyce Vance calls “solid evidence. … Unfortunately, it’s also now all about the ballroom.”
■ Former Politico editor Garrett Graff: “A central point of the government’s case doesn’t add up.”

Some cynics aren’t convinced, of course
They say the thing was staged—
Diversion from my sinking polls—
That leaves me so enraged!
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “It was a reminder of how totally inappropriate it is for the men and women covering the halls of power … to be hobnobbing in their fanciest duds with those whose actions they are supposed to scrutinize.”
■ Journalism watchdog Margaret Sullivan: “If this is really about celebrating the First Amendment, free expression and press rights, don’t invite people who stand in clear opposition to that.”
■ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob: “I fear the shooting will create a stronger emotional bond between Washington journalists and the people in power.”

‘You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the first lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job?’ That’s Kimmel opening his monologue after the Trumps condemned his joking description of Melania Trump as having “the glow of an expectant widow.”
■ … and he counseled Mrs. Trump: “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject … and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband.”
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones assesses the delicate spot TV comedians are in: “Is it better to stay away from a silly joke now to get to the really big and important stuff later? These are questions that hosts and shows must ask themselves, while knowing full well that self-editing is exactly what the Trump threats are aimed at.”

‘The Trump administration preyed on her name.’ Opening the final round of hearings for Gov. Pritzker’s Illinois Accountability Commission on “Operation Midway Blitz,” the mother of a woman whose death was the incursion’s ostensible justification said her daughter “would have hated” that.
■ Giving federal prosecutors a second guilty plea for a non-immigration crime in those days, a man’s admitted to opening fire near border agents.
■ The Poynter Institute has bestowed a Batten Medal for public service on the Tribune for its “clear and comprehensive account of what unfolded” here last year (gift link).

‘Overhaul our process.’ A Tribune editorial says a Chicago cop would still be alive today if not for “our broken system of enforcing arrest warrants.”
■ Prosecutors say the suspect in that killing pulled the gun from under a blanket at Swedish Hospital …
■ Block Club: “The ‘Lakeview Goons’ have been harassing locals for years. Will police be able to stop them?”

‘A perfect storm.’ A Chicago-area grocery executive warns that the federal government’s shutdown of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for the needy will hurt the food biz for everyone.
■ The Sun-Times runs down ways you can help.

Kissin’ cousins. Updating coverage: As the White House prepped to welcome King Charles III, the president celebrated research concluding that he’s a distant relative to the king.
■ Columnist Elaine Soloway: “Trump believes a page from popular British dramas will save his image and presidency.”

‘I am just taking a break.’ Chicago Public Square lost a reader yesterday—and please know: We get it. But Square will be here when you come back—thanks to people such as Bill and Lynne Higgins (again!), Jim Peterson, Paul Francuch, Colleen Fahey, Alexander Domanskis, Mary Ellen Nelligan, Annette Cade, Jean Johnson, Sherry Kent, Chip Mitchell, Jean Davis, Kate Arias, Patricia Solano, Paul Crossey, Andrew Stancioff, Rhona Taylor, Frederick Nachman, Ken Stroble, Ilene Siemer, Ira Pilchen, Karen Conti, Philip Prale, Tom Shepherd, Ken Trainor, Gordon Hellwig, Phil Huckelberry, Kristin Lems, Michael Johnson, Geneen Harston, Susan Yessne, Theresa Rattenbury, Susy Schultz, Mike McDonagh, Jim Parks, Timothy Cunningham, Ted Naron, Jeannie Affelder, Craig Parshall, Paul Buchbinder, Julie Ross, Terri Colby, Evan McKenzie, Mark Mueller, Julia Winn, Meg Tebo and Ann Johnson Arellano.
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Your ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ / Conspiracy theories everywhere / ‘HACK THE PLANET’

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Your ‘Friendly Federal Assassin.’ That’s how the man accused of opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner referred to himself in messages that the Associated Press says he sent relatives just before the shooting began.
■ The New York Post has published the full text of that “manifesto.”
■ Bloomberg: The suspect—who was due in court today—spent years building an arsenal.
■ CNN and WXRT News alumnus Charles Jaco: “What he did was wrong … but his observations are 100% sane.”
■ Former AP D.C. bureau chief Ron Fournier on what disturbs him most: The language in that note “mirrors so much of what we read and hear online from MAGA lovers and MAGA haters”—and from President Trump himself.
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “If you’re a Democrat … be prepared to apologize, in case some lunatic overhears you. But if you’re Dear Leader, you are forever a Very Special Boy Who Gets To Say And Do Anything He Wants.”

‘Remarkably zen.’ That’s how The New York Times (gift link) describes Trump’s demeanor after the incident …
■ … but Axios’ Zachary Basu says the president’s truce with journalists lasted less than 24 hours …
■ … crashing to an end as he sat down with CBS’ 60 Minutes.

‘Reporters in formalwear quickly pivoted.’ Poynter’s Tom Jones surveys the work of journalists who shifted from celebration to coverage.
■ The AP unwinds a tick-tock of what happened at the Washington Hilton—the scene of a 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan.
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link): “America is growing so numb to political violence that the first instinct of the president and the elite media after an attempted assassination is to sit back down for the next dinner course.”
■ CNN’s Victor Blackwell: “The people in that room were confronted with what schoolchildren and moviegoers and congregants and people at grocery stores have been confronted with, and that is the threat of gun violence.”
■ The Times (gift link) catches up with the guy dubbed “Salad Man”—for calmly picking at his plate as the mayhem unfolded.

Had things gone differently … With five of the top six officials in the presidential line of succession present Saturday night, law professor Joyce Vance notes it’s not clear who in the administration was the “designated survivor.”
■ Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein: The suspect wasn’t on the FBI’s domestic counterterrorism radar.
■ The havoc has law enforcement rethinking security at Trump’s future public events …
■ … as Trump and his Justice Department assert it justifies his plans for a $400 million White House ballroom …
■ … a position that historian Heather Cox Richardson calls “an odd angle to take.”
■ Law Dork Chris Geidner: “Trump’s proposed ballroom would not fix the problem.”
■ Former Politico editor Garrett Graff says Congress needs to OK the ballroom, exercising check-and-balance control over “just how extensive the fortifications of the White House end up being. Strong enough to sustain a hostile attack? Absolutely! Strong enough to withstand the end of democracy? Absolutely not.”
■ Political analyst Brian Beutler counsels Democrats: “Do not authorize the f@cking ballroom.”

Conspiracy theories everywhere. Wired says the word “staged” exploded on social media Saturday night.
■ PolitiFact has had its hands full quashing falsehoods.
■ Yes, Snopes confirms, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did predict there would be “shots fired” at the dinner.

‘Conservatives are supposedly pro-life, and we’re celebrating the deaths of people just because we don’t agree with their politics.’ A veteran Illinois Republican strategist tells Politico why he’s quitting the party.

Cop-killing suspect. Police have charged a 26-year-old man with the shooting that left one Chicago officer dead and another wounded and “fighting for his life” at Swedish Hospital.
■ The suspect had been released on parole in January.

Bridges to trouble? A Sun-Times analysis of federal bridge inspection records finds an above-average one in six Chicago bridges in poor condition.
■ Got a favorite bridge? Check its specs here.

‘HACK THE PLANET.’ A criminal complaint briefly made public—and spotted by the Tribune before the feds resealed it—says that’s the edict spelled out on a diamond-studded necklace worn by a 19-year-old cyber-hacker charged in Chicago with helping infiltrate big corporations’ computer systems, collecting millions of dollars in ransom.
■ Medtronic, manufacturer of pacemakers and other medical devices, says a cyberattack last week didn’t compromise its products or its services to patients …
■ …but the data extortion group ShinyHunters claims to have snagged more than 9 million records.
■ The AP: As college students scramble to find “AI-proof” majors, no one knows what those are.

‘The march toward extinction continues.’ Award-winning former radio reporter turned media critic Rob Archer quotes another radio veteran as he assesses a potential merger for iHeartMedia and SiriusXM.
■ Your Chicago Public Square columnist in a 1998 note to radio colleagues: “Internet startups represent the biggest challenges to … traditional radio.”

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