Bin Laden Celebration At The White House Gate: ‘Surreal’ And ‘Sad’

At one point late last night, CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry described getting emotional as a crowd gathered at the gates to the White House, waving flags and–at one point–singing the National Anthem. But some journalists who were in that crowd say the experience of being there gave them more mixed feelings. Alexis Madrigal, senior editor at The Atlantic was there, and he said at times the energy of the crowd was more like a rowdy bunch of sports fans who were “loud and boorish and silly. We treated the killing of a man who promoted the killing of thousands of Americans like a game with no consideration of the past or future costs.”

In an interview with Mediaite, Madrigal said the spontaneous display of patriotism that was so powerful to watch on television was, in person, “sad.” And as Madrigal explained, the presence of cameras gave the demonstration its only true focus (as he writes, there were no speakers, no stage, nothing to direct cheering and flag waving at, other than TV), and that drove some people into a sort of perform-for-the-cameras mode.

Watch our interview–and see photos Madrigal took at the White House Sunday night, right here:

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