EXCLUSIVE: Trump Cabinet commemorates "Hell" of October 7th at the Kennedy Center alongside former hostages
The Washington Reporter was the only outlet in the room with Trump's Cabinet members as they commemorated the horrors of October 7th, alongside the people who live them every day.
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has been to Hell — multiple times. Enough times, in fact, that he can recognize its scent. He first encountered its smell after losing both his parents in under two years. Decades later, Islamic terrorists struck the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001 — instantly killing hundreds of Lutnick’s friends and colleagues, including his brother and over 600 people from his firm, Cantor Fitzgerald.
“When you lose one parent, it’s one thing,” Lutnick said at the Kennedy Center’s event commemorating the horrors that Palestinians visited on Israel when they invaded on October 7th, 2023 — raping, murdering, and kidnapping Jews and non-Jews alike, often on videos and selfies they took of themselves.
“When you lose the second parent, it’s quite another,” Lutnick said at a gathering that featured the majority of President Donald Trump’s cabinet; the Washington Reporter was the only news outlet present. “That was the first time that I visited Hell.”
“On September 11th, 2001,” Lutnick continued, “my firm was located on the top five floors of the World Trade Center. On that fateful day, I lost 658 of my friends and colleagues. [Afterwards] I sat with my sister, and I said ‘can you smell it? Can you feel it?’” The Lutnick siblings lost their brother and were in Hell again.
But the events of October 7th, 2023 were different, Lutnick explained. “It’s a different kind of Hell…The horror ended [with the other two visits to Hell]...this is different. This is a nightmare that continues. It is living in Hell — not visiting Hell. One cannot heal while one is being stabbed. One cannot heal while one is bleeding. It must end before the remotest healing can begin. We need to have the hostages released so we can move forward.”
Lutnick and his wife Allison Lutnick sponsored programming at the Kennedy Center to commemorate the horrors of October 7th. They were joined by Secretaries Marco Rubio, Doug Burgum, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Scott Bessent, Doug Collins, Chris Wright, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, NEC Director Kevin Hassett, ODNI Director Tulsi Gabbard, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, CMS Director Dr. Mehmet Oz, Sens. Katie Britt (R., Ala.), Dave McCormick (R., Pa.,), and Susan Collins (R., Maine), among others.
Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell welcomed guests and made it clear that “in this room there are Christians, Muslims, Jews, non-believers, everyone, who stands recognizing that this is unacceptable. There are no words to be able to say why 732 days have gone by, but we want you to know that it is unacceptable for us.”
The event, Grenell noted, would have been impossible without the generosity of the Lutnicks. “Howard, you’re a very important guy, but when you’re at the Kennedy Center, the most important Lutnick is Allison,” he said. Allison Lutnick is a member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees. Following the closed-to-the-press breakfast, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum hosted a vigil at the Sukkah of Hope, which the Lutnicks’ foundation sponsored.
Prior to the public event, members of Trump’s Cabinet spoke to and with the families. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered one of the most remarked-upon points: the media coverage obsesses over the above-ground destruction of Gaza, all while living hostages languish in tunnels where there is no media coverage.
“One of the frustrations we’ve all heard over time is the media coverage of the events,” Rubio, who was joined by his wife Jeanette, said. “The one thing I always have to remind myself and that we have to remind everybody of is that there are no cameras in those tunnels, except for those rare glimpses that Hamas uses for propaganda purposes. There is no CNN bureau in a tunnel in Gaza…even as we speak, not only are 28 deceased hostages still being held, cruelly, for no reason other than torture, but 20 are alive, living in horrific conditions, which the world doesn’t see.”
“The only way the world sees, the only way the world hears, about the conditions of those 20 living hostages, is you,” Rubio said to the former hostages. “You have inspired us.”
The former hostages, for their part, inspired those in attendance.
Nadav Rudaeff, whose father Lior was killed by Palestinians on October 7th and whose body was kidnapped into Gaza, implored those present: “In honor of my dad…take a moment every day and appreciate what you do have. Say ‘I love you’ to your loved ones.”
But the former hostages, and the families of those in Gaza, also painted pictures that several said can’t be accurately described in any language.
Keith Siegel, an American who was held hostage for almost 500 days, detailed how terrorists beat him and tried to force him to convert to Islam. “I am eternally thankful to President Trump and to the U.S. administration for prioritizing the hostage crisis,” he said. The appreciation for Trump was universal. Several of the hostages who spoke were released hours before he was sworn in a second time, and they credited his historic 2024 victory with their very survival.
Liran Berman, whose twin brothers Gali and Ziv were taken hostage, told the audience that “two years is an eternity to live in uncertainty…every morning we wake up, not knowing if they made it through the night. Every phone vibration makes your heart stop, wondering if it will finally bring news, good or bad. You keep replaying the last call, the last message, the sound of their voices, you hold on to hope, because without it, there is nothing left.”
Other hostages detailed the dehumanizing violence that Palestinians perpetrated on them. Hostages saw their friends executed in front of them in tunnels, took care of their fellow hostages with no medical equipment, and were subjected to mind games by Palestinians that were right out of a Saw movie.
The lawmakers and Cabinet members who attended told the Reporter that doing so was essential.
Chavez-DeRemer told the Reporter that “President Trump, members of his Cabinet, and members of Congress stood united today with the families shedding light on the 48 hostages still held in Gaza.”
“Their pain and healing cannot truly begin until every one of them is home,” she continued. We will continue to stand with Israel and against Hamas. We must never forget the horror inflicted on the Jewish people two years ago, and we must keep telling their stories so it never happens again.”
Burgum, her fellow Cabinet Secretary, added that “we will never forget the atrocities committed by Hamas against innocent civilians.”
Britt spoke for many of her fellow lawmakers, telling the Reporter that she “was honored to attend Secretary Lutnick’s breakfast to commemorate the two year anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.”
“Hearing from former hostages and their families today was a stark reminder that all hostages must be returned,” she said. “I am proud to stand with Israel and the Jewish people.”