Here is another thing cut in Washington: comedy.
The White House correspondent Association said on Saturday that it had canceled a scheduled performance by Amber Ruffin, the actress and the host of speech, at the Annual Black-Tie dinner on April 26.
A monologue from a characterized comic is usually the focus of journalists’ soiree. Unforgettable performances by Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers, among other things, have become a axis of political satire.
However, in the midst of rocky relations between President Trump and the White House Press Corps – and numerous efforts by the administration to undermine the media – the correspondent team has decided to go a different direction.
“The Whca Board of Directors unanimously decided that we are no longer presenting a comic performance this year,” writes Union President Eugene Daniels on Saturday. “In this subsequent moment for journalism, I would like to ensure that focusing is not on the policy of division, but entirely in the awarding of our colleagues for their excellent work and to provide scholarship and guidance to the next generation of journalists.”
Ms Ruffin’s representatives did not respond immediately to comments.
The announcement was a sharp break from the group’s position in early February, when it put Ms Ruffin’s comic style as “ideal for today’s political and cultural climate”.
“She is able to walk the line between inflatable comments and humor, while at the same time causing her audience to think about important issues of the day,” Mr Daniels said in a press release. “I’m excited and honored that he said yes.”
In the weeks since then, Mr Daniels and the members of his Board of Directors at the correspondent Association have been involved in various missions with the administration. The White House prevented the journalists of the Associated Press from attending some official events and began choosing and choosing which news stores were able to participate in the presidential group, breaking decades.
On Thursday, Mrs Ruffin made critical comments about Trump’s White House during an appearance on a daily Beast podcast, at a point referring to the administration as a “kind of killers”. She also said that the correspondent Union encouraged her to be uniform in her satire. “It was like,” You have to be equal and make sure you give it to both sides, “Ms Ruffin said,” and I was like, “There is no way to make that, dude.
Her comments began an angry response by a White House Deputy Chief, Taylor Budowich, who wrote on X: “What kind of responsible, reasonable journalist would watch this?” On Saturday, after the fall of Ms Ruffin, Mr Budowich referred to the Union’s statement as “miserable”.
In 2017, Mr Trump became the first president to skip dinner since 1981, when Ronald Reagan was incompetent after an assassination attempt (though Mr Reagan called the event from his hospital room). Mr Trump never attended dinner during his first term.
In 2019, the Association of Correspondents first chose the comic in 15 years and instead recorded Ron Chernow, a historian and biographer, who spoke about the first amendment.
On Saturday, Mr Daniels, who recently joined the MSNBC as a correspondent, said he had spent the last two weeks “planning a review of our dinner delivery for this year”. He did not announce an alternative speaker, but promised an evening focused on the price of “journalistic excellence and powerful, independent media that cover the most powerful office in the world”.
Julia Jacobes They contributed reports.
