In-town pool report #14 - POTUS shaking hands with reporters who won awards, including WSJ

Pool reentered the ballroom at 8:20 p.m.

Pool caught a glimpse of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich among the special guests in the room, seated at CSPAN's table.

The program restarted with remarks from Jiang, though the pool missed most of her speech, followed by a video featuring the likes of Ken Burns and AI actors portraying past presidents, looking back on the First Amendment on the 250th birthday of the country.

New WHCA president Jacqui Heinrich thanked Jiang for her leadership, with the room giving her a standing ovation.

Heinrich:

"I am so deeply grateful, not just for your example, but also more so for your friendship."

"To our members, I am humbled that you put your trust in me to lead the White House Correspondents' Association for the next year."

She awarded new WHCA awards for service to the staff of the Washington Hilton, accepted by the general manager Ken Jarka and catering manager Karen K. Feketis. The pair shook POTUS' hand before taking photos with Heinrich.

Jiang then returned to the podium to award a second award to Secret Service officer Victor Gonzales who was injured through his protective vest at the WCHD in April. Gonzales also received a standing ovation.

WHCA board member Brian Bennett then honored this year's crop of scholarship recipients and the late Mark Knoller, who will now have a scholarship named in his honor.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer awarded the Aldo Beckman Award to the Wall Street Journal's Josh Dawsey and the award for excellence in presidential news coverage under deadline pressure to the AP's Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller and CNN's Kaitlan Collins, in addition to visual journalist counterpart to Andrew Harnik.

Blitzer also awarded the Katharine Graham Award to the Wall Street Journal for its reporting on POTUS' relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

POTUS shook all of their hands, including those of the Wall Street Journal reporters -- with the Wall Street Journal, he threw up his hands in a joking gesture and appeared to say, "I don't know" with a smile.

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Naomi Lim

White House Reporter

Washington Examiner