‘I’m very grateful for God for allowing me to still survive to this day,’ said White House correspondent Iris Tao.
At a White House Cabinet meeting, a reporter with The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet recounted getting robbed at gunpoint in the District of Columbia.
Iris Tao, NTD’s White House correspondent, was asked to share her story by President Donald Trump, who was highlighting concerns about crime in Washington.
“I heard you were very savagely mugged in the city, and we are not going to let that happen under this administration,” Trump said on Aug. 26 as he introduced Tao.
Tao then recalled how, on a Saturday morning in broad daylight, two years ago, a man wearing a black ski mask pointed a gun at her face and demanded her wallet, laptop, and phone password.
The man pistol-whipped Tao in the face when she refused, leaving her cheek red and numb.
Tao previously described her experience in an op-ed in The Epoch Times. In it, she wrote that as a reporter she wanted protect the sensitive information she carried.
“I felt an overwhelming duty to safeguard my sources, colleagues, and loved ones,” she wrote.
Tao told Trump the incident deeply traumatized her and her family.
“I’ve never dared to walk in the streets of D.C. at night ever,” Tao said.
“Such incidents involved not just me, but also my family. If he had shot me, I could have died right there in the middle of nowhere without my family or my friends, at the age of 23, just starting my career here in D.C.”
Trump on Aug. 11 declared a crime emergency and activated and deployed hundreds of National Guard troops to the nation’s capital. The FBI has since made over 1,000 arrests in an initiative to “clean up Washington D.C.,” according to the agency’s director, Kash Patel. National Guardsmen from other states have also joined in the effort.
At the meeting, Trump said the 12-day effort has made “a big difference in the streets right now.”
“I have a lot of friends that are going out to dinner all the time now in D.C.,” he said. In the past, he said, “nobody wanted to get to a restaurant or even sit in the restaurant.”
Trump thanked Tao for being willing to share her experience.
“It’s really amazing that you weren’t shot,” he said. “You had a gun pointed at your head, and you probably figured that he’s going to pull the trigger, because these are animals that don’t know what the hell. They couldn’t care less they’re pulling the trigger.”
Tao, in response, said that she considered herself blessed.
“I’m very grateful for God for allowing me to still survive to this day,” she said.
By Eva Fu
