As guests dove for cover and Secret Service agents spirited high-level federal officials out of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, one man could be seen casually finishing his salad.
Michael Glantz, a senior agent with Creative Artists Agency, appeared unperturbed amid the chaos as Secret Service agents swirled around him and freaked-out fellow diners huddled under their tables.
Elsewhere in the room, one journalist could be seen pouring himself another glass of wine — perhaps understandable under the circumstances — and other guests apparently grabbed bottles on their way out.
But Glantz was the only one to go viral.
The approximately 2,000 attendees of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner had barely dug into their spring pea and burrata salad when a series of apparent gunshots rang out on the other side of the doors to the ballroom at the Washington Hilton. Heavily armed Secret Service agents burst in, charging through the dining area to fetch federal officials, including President Trump, and hustle them offstage. They also yelled at everyone to get down, and scores of journalists, celebrities and other public officials huddled under their tables.
Glantz remained upright at his otherwise empty table, and his nonchalant noshing was caught on a CNN livestream of the room.
Social media went wild, dubbing him “the salad man,” according to The New York Times. CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter identified him as Glantz, who represents the network’s Wolf Blitzer.
“CAA super-agent Michael Glantz is the man eating his salad in this viral video,” Stelter wrote on X above a clip of the incident.
Glantz pleaded curiosity. He didn’t want to miss a second of the action, he told TMZ.
“Not every day you see something like that go down,” Glantz said.
Besides, he told The New York Times, he has a bad back and couldn’t actually get onto the floor or get up off it. That combined with his “hygiene freak” streak made him choose salad over sullying his new tux on the ballroom floor.
“I’m a New Yorker,” he told The New York Times, explaining his aplomb. “We live with sirens and activity happening all the time. I wasn’t scared. There are hundreds of Secret Service agents hurtling themselves over tables and chairs, and I wanted to watch.”
Glantz was also glad to supply some levity in the wake of the “horrific moment,” he told TMZ.
An instant fan club of sorts coalesced around Glantz.
“A very chill man, I didn’t see him flinch for a sec, didn’t duck, didn’t even put his fork down, and while the Secret Service scrambled and everyone else hit the floor, he just kept eating like the moment was someone else’s problem and he was vindicated in the end,” wrote one admirer on X. “Absolute legend.”
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