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?????????????????????????????????????????????????Monday, April 30, 2018
At the White House correspondents’ dinner, the buzz was reduced to a snore — until Michelle Wolf showed up
By Paul Farhi April 29 at 12:05 AM
There were no sitcom actors. No Olympians or supermodels or Real Housewives, either. Even some of the usual high-profile media names were missing, too. And for the second consecutive year, so was the president.
There were no sitcom actors. No Olympians or supermodels or Real Housewives, either. Even some of the usual high-profile media names were missing, too. And for the second consecutive year, so was the president.
The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday attracted
about 3,000 journalists, random plus-ones and curious hangers on, but
the usual buzz around the event was reduced to something more like a
snore.
The annual social rite of spring in Washington was less the
government-meets-Hollywood-meets-the-press glitzfest of yore and more
like a dressed-up Kiwanis Club dinner, albeit one televised live by
CNN, MSNBC and C-SPAN.
This may have been President Trump’s intent when he turned down an invitation to
the dinner, making him 0 for 2 since his inauguration last year. Trump —
who distilled his signature hostility toward the news media by branding
them “the enemy of the people” — arranged to be out of town while the
journalists and their guests partied.
As he did last year, Trump staged a campaign-style rally, this year in
Michigan, timing it to begin just as the salad was being served in the
Washington Hilton ballroom. Many of the people at the Hilton read that
as more than a coincidence. At one point in the speech, Trump
eviscerated the media for being “very, very dishonest people.”
Fifteen presidents have attended the correspondents’ dinner since it
began in 1921, which has made the event a hot ticket long before the
likes of Bradley Cooper and Scarlett Johansson began showing up. The
presidents-in-the-house streak ran to 36 consecutive years until Trump
pooped out on the party last year. The last time Trump attended, in
2011, he sat stoically as the evening’s entertainer, Seth Meyers,
dropped comic bombs on him. The prospect of it happening again seems to
have deterred him from returning.
Trump did make one gesture toward press-administration glasnost,
encouraging current and former members of his administration to attend
(the White House announced last year that no staff employees would
attend in “solidarity” with the president’s snub). And so Kellyanne
Conway, Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus showed up. Omarosa
Manigault-Newman came, too (accompanied by a fellow who tended to the
train of her gown). Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders occupied a
seat at the head table at the invitation of the White House
Correspondents’ Association.
The celebrity cadre was small and not quite A-list: comic and Trump
controversialist Kathy Griffin, Comedy Central host Jordan Klepper,
Baltimore Orioles legend Brooks Robinson, Stormy Daniels attorney and
ubiquitous TV presence Michael Avenatti.
The political contingent was modest as well. Among the pols in
attendance were former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe (D), former New
Jersey governor Chris Christie (R), Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and Rep.
Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.).
Tech luminaries? Titans of business? TV network chiefs? Not so many.
It was possible, one guest quipped, that Trump had done something he doesn’t usually do: He made an event more normal.
The sedate and earnest nature of the event was disrupted by comedian
Michelle Wolf, the evening’s entertainer, who predictably went after
Trump in a routine that swerved from raunchy to downright nasty. She
began by saying, “Like a porn star says when she’s about to have sex
with a Trump, let’s get this over with.”
Wolf vowed to get under Trump’s skin by questioning his wealth, issuing a
call and response with the audience (“How broke is he?”). Her punchline
included such quips as, “He’s so broke . . . he has to fly failed
business class” and “he looked for foreign oil in Don Jr.’s hair.”
She was particularly harsh on the women associated with Trump. At one
point, she compared Ivanka Trump to a diaper pail, and said Kellyanne
Conway has “the perfect last name” because “all she does is lie.”
Several cracks about Sarah Huckabee Sanders landed poorly, such as her
alleged confusion over how to refer to Sanders’s full name: “Is it Sarah
Sanders? Is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders? . . . What’s ‘Uncle Tom’ but for
white women who disappoint other white women? Oh, I know: ‘Aunt
Coulter.’ ”
Groans and cold silence followed.
In place of celebrity glitz, the correspondents’ group has tried to
rebrand its party as a celebration of the First Amendment, a fundraiser
for journalism scholarships and an awards ceremony. Winners of White
House reporting awards this year included: the New York Times’ Maggie
Haberman, whom Trump disparaged in a tweet last week; a CNN team
consisting of Jake Tapper, Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto and Carl Bernstein;
Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey, recognized for his work at
Politico; and a team from Reuters.
And maybe that’s how it should be, Tapper indicated during a pre-dinner cocktail party.
“This might be a precedent that the president is setting that is good,”
he said. “We in the media have constantly for years been accused of
being too cozy with power — during the Bush years, during the Obama
years. Maybe no U.S. president should ever feel comfortable in a room
full of White House reporters. I know that’s not why he’s taking a
stand, but maybe it’s a good thing.”
The WHCA’s current president, Bloomberg News’ White House reporter Margaret Talev, called the president’s absence “unfortunate.”
But she added, “Our tradition of inviting U.S. presidents, vice
presidents and their staffs exists not because of the individual
president but because of the office. Those who accept the invitation are
signaling that they support the constitutional principles at stake and
the role of the press and free speech in our republic.”
News organizations seemed to get that, quickly snapping up all of the available tables within the first week they were on sale.
That meant that more than the usual number of actual journalists got to
attend, lending the affair a kind of industry reunion vibe.
“Maybe ultimately this should be more about the First Amendment, and
about recognizing good journalism and about recognizing student
journalists,” Tapper said. “Maybe this is not as glamorous and fun, but
ultimately maybe this is what this event should be more like.”