“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
That was the now-infamous phrase uttered by Democrat Rahm Emanuel, then chief of staff to President Obama.
Learning their lessons well, members of the White House press corpse started pocketing bottles of wine from their annual dinner Saturday night.
The bizarre scene was recorded on video and posted on X after shots rang out at the Washington Hilton soiree attended by President Trump and thousands of alleged reporters and their guests.
As attendees are leaving the ballroom following the shooting, one of them, a woman in a long black slitted dress, can be seen grabbing first one bottle and then a second, from one of the dinner tables.
She then appears to stuff inside her jacket.
“A member of the media in action,” Mark Simone posted on X with the video.
Simone works for 710 WOR New York and is also a podcaster heard by 23 million radio and TV listeners a month.
By Sunday, media around the world were reporting in the bizarre wine theft.
“While Trump was rushed to safety after ‘shots fired’ at White House event, viral video shows press members ‘stealing’ wine amid chaos,” Times of India reported.
“A formal night in Washington, known for politics and media conversations, has now become a talking point for a completely unexpected reason,” the outlet reported. “What started as a serious situation inside a high-profile event quickly turned into a viral social media debate.”
“The shift from a tense moment to an online discussion has been fast, and reactions continue to pour in.”
The clip shows some members of the press picking up bottles of wine and champagne from tables as the hall was being cleared. One woman is seen carrying two bottles and walking away without stopping.
The video was posted with a strong comment, the Times said. “So, there you have press members STEALING wine bottles. This is who the press is! Repugnant!”
“U.S. reporters steal booze as Trump attacked by gunman,” headlined another International outlet posting the incident on YouTube.
“A viral video shows journalists allegedly taking wine and champagne bottles during the evacuation of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner after gunshots caused panic,” Love Connection on Instagram posted. “Guests were seen casually picking up multiple bottles while leaving the venue. Meanwhile, Donald Trump was safely evacuated by security.”
Not surprisingly, the liberal Public Broadcasting System made absolutely no mention of the wine and champagne kleptos in its account of the shooting aftermath.
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” – Democrat White House chief of staff
The quote originated in a 2008 Wall Street Journal interview, where Emanuel argued that serious crises permit for changes that were not possible before.
When I go to a party and a twerp breaks it up with gun fire, I grab a few buds out of the cooler on the way back to my Alfa Romeo. Sue-me.