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THE PRESIDENT AND the jokes were back, as the gloves – and Covid masks – came off for the return of the White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington on Saturday.
President Joe Biden poked fun at his slumping poll ratings, took several sly digs at his predecessor Donald Trump and accepted a roasting from Daily Show host Trevor Noah at the glitzy party mixing Washington politics, media and Hollywood.
And there were serious references as well – to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and challenges to democracy and media freedoms at home and abroad.
“I’m really excited to be here tonight with the only group of Americans with a lower approval rating than I have,” Biden said in his opening comments.
The White House press corps association, the WHCA, has hosted presidents for an annual black tie dinner starting with Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
But the televised Washington social juggernaut – beloved by some, maligned as cringe-worthy by others – shuddered to a halt under the twin impacts of Trump’s media-bashing presidency, then Covid-19.
So to gather 2,600 invitees at the Washington Hilton offered a restorative return to the familiar.
Biden acknowledged the past years had been hard. “We had a horrible plague followed by two years of Covid,” he quipped.
His remarks then took a more serious turn, acknowledging journalists covering the war in Ukraine and warning of “a poison running through our democracy… with disinformation massively on the rise.”
“You, the free press, matter more than you ever did in the last century,” Biden said.
The dinner also paid tribute to sacrifices made by journalists in war zones.
Covid, Ukraine cast shadows
Covid-19 vaccination was mandatory for the gala, but many questioned the wisdom of 79-year-old Biden joining. His vice president, Kamala Harris, tested positive for the virus last week and the country’s senior infectious diseases specialist Anthony Fauci did not attend.
Biden skipped the meal itself as a precaution, though he did not don a mask.
“Trevor, the really good news is, now you get to roast the president of the United States,” Biden said while introducing the comedian. “And unlike in Moscow, you won’t go to jail.”
Noah opened his speech saying he was honored to host “the nation’s most distinguished superspreader event.”
Journalists “have been so hard on you, which I don’t get,” he joked to Biden.
“Ever since you’ve come into office, things are really looking up – you know, gas is up, rent is up, food is up. Everything.”
Biden, who laughed throughout Noah’s set, appears to want to draw a line under Trump, who not only never attended the dinner, but branded journalists “the enemy of the people.”
The last WHCA gala before Covid-19 broke out was in 2019. It featured neither the president nor even a comedian – fallout from the previous year’s event when featured comedian Michelle Wolf’s jokes upset Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
WHCA president Steven Portnoy, from CBS radio, said earlier it was time to return to tradition, with an evening honoring pioneering reporters of the past, prize winners from today and paying respect to journalists who died covering the war in Ukraine.
Noah echoed the sentiment, when his speech took a serious turn as he called the right to a free press a “blessing.”
“Ask yourself this question: if Russian journalists who are losing… their freedom for daring to report on what their own government is doing,” Noah said, “if they had what you have, would they be using it in the same way that you do?”
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Al least he has a sense of humour and showed up…take note (umpa lumpa)..
also got a nice dig into Kevin McCarthy
It’s a funny event comedians point out in jest the truths that otherwise are unpalatable. The Biden presidency has been a disaster (if you feel like arguing do it without an appeal to “muh Trump”). His press apparatus try to gaslight the public about Putin’s gas hike when the price has been rising for months before.
And he has dementia. Anyone looking at a video if this man in 2008, or 2012 vs now can verify this. He has had significant decline.
@v39e84kK: he doesn’t have dementia.
@albhbc: he does though.
@v39e84kK: He may be a lot older but how you can justify your comments without a medical degree or medical exam reflects badly on you. Would you not comment on his courage at standing up to dictators or his attempts to fix the US economy in the midst of everything COVID brought and the lack of attempts of his predecessor to fix it. Not to mention his attempts to deal with Climate change. His popularity has suffered greatly because people don’t realise that there is a price to pay to live in a livable world with accountable democracy thrown in for good measure. Unlike his opposition he is prepared to do what is right, regardless of the damage to his popularity. Maybe we could all learn a lesson from him.
@v39e84kK:
Have you any idea about commodities or economics? If think Russia invading Ukraine was not going to increase energy prices, regardless of who in office ( anywhere),
Or that after oil prices rose after a massive slump during c19, when economies re-opened?
@Barrycelona: If he was effective at standing up to dictators there would be no invasion of Ukraine. That’s a failure. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a failure. He is deeply unpopular, only his VP is less popular than he is in the US. His destruction of US energy independence was a dismal failure. So many failures, hard to list them.
@Ixtrix Net: Probably destroying US energy independence was the actual cause. Then begging OPEC to drill more, and OPEC said “nope”.
@v39e84kK:
Biden took full blame for Afgan failure on exit, that that was codified by his predecessor did not matter to him,,, that the entire military intelligence apparatus got it wrong, did not matter to him. He took the hit, ‘ The Buck Stops with Me’
Please answer if think your one would take that ownership?
@v39e84kK:
Regarding ‘ energy independence’ maybe want to check what it means, with a net import versus net export, and only really being achieved because someone presided over a huge reduction in domestic requirement, due to abysmal dealing with a pandemic?
@v39e84kK: Ah another Dr on The Journal. We are luck to have so many experts here.
@v39e84kK: just another clueless trump supporter
@Ixtrix Net: my god, it’s always the same. “Your one” as if it’s a football team rivalry. I don’t care if Biden took the blame or not he made massive errors that killed people. And yes Afghanistan has been a mistake of Trump, Obama and bush..
@alan scott: just another eejit that thinks every criticism of Biden is pro Trump.
@v39e84kK:
That’s something at least, my point was Biden owned the blame for the debacle, regardless of the preconditions, and the MI errors, because that’s what a Leader does.
@Ixtrix Net: I’m sure the people living under the Taliban are delighted that he said the right words. That is what matters….
@Barrycelona: we justify this conclusion that he has dimentia through basic use of the eyes and ears
@v39e84kK: just another troll getting brave with a troll account.
Clxxn
@v39e84kK: Try asking yourself WHY? Why are we so dependant on fossil fuels. Why do people like you think that saving the planet by ridding ourselves of fossil fuels does not come at a price.Trump announced a d didn’t bother putting plans in place to withdraw from Afghan, months before Biden did. It was handled badly but Biden was not fully at fault. It is easy to say “so many failures’ educate yourself and find out how the beginning of those failures started eg Blaming Biden for Putin invading Ukraine. You want the free dinner but don’t realise the food has to be grown first. Climate change didn’t start with Biden.
@Thomas Byrne: might want to learn how to spell dementia before insulting someone abt their literacy and mental capability
@Barrycelona: he’s country and the last 4 presidents has bombed the shxt out if the middle east for the last forty years…
@v39e84kK: yeah what’s that about,it doesn’t sound like a rebuttal .. when someone says trump bot …
@v39e84kK:
Maybe controversial, but after training and arming the Afghans, and they basically laid down their weapons to the Taliban when needed to take their country back, who exactly is at fault? After how many more years would it have taken for them to step up?
That Biden takes ownership of the blame, was my point.
Obama’s burn of an embarrassed Trump will always be in the highlights reel of these gatherings.
@Peter McGlynn: It’s thought that “burn” was what inspired Trump to go for the office. Thanks Barack.
@JedBartlett: Obama spending that long roasting Trump in that manner didn’t reflect that well on Obama either. All Obama had to do was look Trump in the eye and state that Trump repeatedly lied (‘Birtherism’). Going on so long and so far was beneath the dignity of the Office Of The President. Btw, Trump used the same technique of first implying Obama wasn’t eligible, then switched to “Now, I don’t know if that’s true or not”, before switching back to claiming ineligibility, as Trump did during the second debate with Biden (re ‘claims’ about Biden and China, etc.).
How is it actually a disaster?
That should be a laugh
have your say