Many of us resolved not to attend this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner after WHCA president and Politico correspondent Eugene Daniels went out and found a vehemently anti-Trump comedian to serve as the featured speaker. It was a continuation of the pronounced bias shown by the WHCA, but Daniels somehow succeeded in amplifying that message this year with the selection of Amber Ruffin. The WHCA stood with Ruffin despite her apparently doubling down on her views. It was not until shortly before the dinner that the WHCA threw in the towel. After that history, it was bizarre to read that Daniels offered a defiant speech, claiming that “what we are not is the opposition.” That was not intended as one of the comedic lines of the evening.
The WHCA has long shown a political bias in such comedians, but nothing quite as brazen as Ruffin. Even for the WHCA, it was beyond the pale and many of us had resolved not to attend this year.
Notably, the prior year, the dinner (which I attended) featured Colin Jost. The comedian (before the election) made a tearful comparison of Biden to his late Irish firefighting grandfather. It was nothing short of a public campaign endorsement.
They then selected someone who reportedly views the Trump administration as a gang of “murderers” who “feel like [they are] human beings, but … shouldn’t get to feel that way, because [they are] not.” Ruffin declared that no one wanted Trump to attend.
It was another blue plate special to be served up at the WHCA dinner.
However, this was about as inviting for Trump and Republicans as a meal with the Donner party.
While some of us were appalled by his choice, Daniels gave a full-throated endorsement of Ruffin and insisted that “Amber’s unique talents are the ideal fit for this current political and cultural climate.”
It was only after Ruffin continued to double down that the WHCA felt compelled to cancel her appearance.
In an appearance on the Daily Beast podcast this week, Ruffin said she was told by the WHCA that “you need to be equal, and make sure that you give it to both sides and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be freaking doing that, dude, under no circumstances.’”
Daniels insisted last night that
“We are not the enemy of the state…Our responsibility is not to align with any one party or any one of gender, but to serve the people of this country with integrity and dedication. We care deeply about accuracy and take seriously the heavy responsibility of being stewards of the public’s trust. What we are not is the opposition,” Daniels said to applause, before appearing to push back on remarks made in the past by President Trump.”
I credit Axios’ Alex Thompson for calling out the press for failing to properly report on former President Joe Biden’s declining mental capacity: “Being truth tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story.”
However, I am not sure it was a case of “missing” the story. Many outside of the mainstream media were writing about it. Fox News was reporting on it. The White House correspondents simply refused to pursue the story as they reported denials from Democratic leaders and White House staff.
The statement also ignores the host of other stories ignored by the media and the pronounced bias shown in stories like the Biden influence peddling scandal and other controversies. Biden’s incapacity was only acknowledged when it could no longer be denied.