The White House Correspondents’ Dinner has had multiple iterations since it began a few years after World War I. <\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s premier soiree on Saturday is most identified by its modern form: a red carpet for the capital\u2019s journalism elite, political staffers and an assortment of American business leaders and celebrities \u2014 with the leader of the free world and a comedian offering roasts.<\/p>\n
Some years are forgettable and relegated to C-SPAN archives. Others produce viral moments \u2014 funny, cringeworthy or undeniably tense \u2014 and endure across social media.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at some of that history as Donald Trump prepares for the first time to attend as president: <\/p>\n
Ronald Reagan once gave up the chance to rebut a comedian<\/p>\n
As a former Hollywood actor, the 40th president had a magnetic stage presence and easy manner with a joke, and it was during Reagan\u2019s presidency that comedians became an annual part of the dinner. <\/p>\n
In 1983, Mark Russell, whose satire was a PBS staple, offered relatively tame jabs at Reagan. \u201cThere is another speaker following me,\u201d he opened, \u201cand so it is quite an honor for me to be doing the warmup for my chief writer here.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it was the president’s turn, Reagan demurred. He reminded the audience that he\u2019d made \u201ca sad journey\u201d to Andrews Air Force Base earlier that day to receive the remains of the Americans killed in the April 18 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realize the original plan was that I would, in a sense, sing for my supper. In fact, I was prepared, not really to sing, but to do what you expected,\u201d Reagan said, before explaining that it would be inappropriate for him to deliver humorous remarks. \u201cIf you\u2019ll forgive us,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019ll keep my script, and I hope you\u2019ll give us a rain check, and it\u2019ll still be appropriate next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dana Carvey and George H.W. Bush: A rare friendship<\/p>\n
Presidents have been lampooned on NBC\u2019s \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d since Chevy Chase first depicted Gerald Ford in 1975. But Dana Carvey and President George H.W. Bush set the standard.<\/p>\n
Carvey, who also played the iconic Church Lady, embellished the 41st president\u2019s nasal tone and patrician air to caricature his signature phrases: \u201cNot gonna do it. Wouldn\u2019t be prudent.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bush became a fan. He and Carvey sat together at Bush’s last dinner as president, in 1992. After he lost to Bill Clinton that November, the president invited Carvey to the White House for a Christmas party. The two remained friends.<\/p>\n
George W. Bush jokes about weapons of mass destruction<\/p>\n
In 2004, American forces remained in Iraq after the 43rd president ordered an invasion based on assertions that Saddam Hussein had weapons that threatened U.S. security.<\/p>\n
By the time of the annual dinner, it was apparent those claims were overblown. Bush made light of the situation with pictures of him looking around the White House for Saddam\u2019s weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere,\u201d he said as one slide showed him looking under furniture in the Oval Office. <\/p>\n
The audience laughed and applauded. Some veterans, including then-Sen. John Kerry, a 2004 presidential nominee, were not amused. Bush defeated Kerry that November anyway. <\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe 2022 White House Correspondents Dinner returned for the first time in two years, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Colbert skewers Bush and the media<\/p>\n
Not long into his second term, Bush sat uncomfortably as Stephen Colbert, then a Comedy Central host, hammered him with an aggressiveness unusual for the dinner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe greatest thing about this man is he\u2019s steady,\u201d Colbert said in 2006. \u201cYou know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man\u2019s beliefs never will.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sarcastically urged Bush to ignore his approval ratings, then in the low 30s: \u201cWe know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality. And reality has a well-known liberal bias.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colbert lambasted the dinner hosts, too, suggesting Washington media protected the Bush administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last five years you people were so good \u2014 over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn\u2019t want to know,\u201d Colbert said, \u201cand you had the courtesy not to try to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Trumpian dinner without Trump<\/p>\n
During his first White House term, Trump broke the long streak of presidential attendance. Comedian Michelle Wolf targeted him anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 2018, and I\u2019m a woman, so you cannot shut me up \u2014 unless you have Michael Cohen wire me $130,000,\u201d she cracked, referencing payments made to keep an adult film star from disclosing her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump.<\/p>\n
When the audience groaned at her crassness, Wolf quipped, \u201cYeah, shoulda done more research before you got me to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Trump absent, his press secretary and now-Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sat at the head table and at the center of Wolf\u2019s routine. Wolf compared Sanders\u2019 role for Trump to being a character in \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale,\u201d a dystopian novel about an authoritarian, misogynistic society.<\/p>\n
Her harshest barb riffed on a famous Maybelline mascara ad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually really like Sarah. I think she\u2019s very resourceful,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cBut she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like maybe she\u2019s born with it; maybe it\u2019s lies. It\u2019s probably lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, who was in Michigan, called the routine \u201cdisgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within hours, the Correspondents\u2019 Association issued a statement saying the dinner is meant to celebrate \u201cour common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners\u201d and saying Wolf\u2019s monologue “was not in the spirit of that mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanders rekindled the moment earlier this year at Washington Gridiron, another annual politics-journalism event. \u201cI\u2019m proud to note that color has really taken off,\u201d she said. \u201cIn fact, it\u2019s the exact same thing worn by Vice President JD Vance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obama vs. pre-presidential Trump<\/p>\n
Despite not yet attending as president, Trump’s had his moment at the dinner. <\/p>\n
In 2011, he helped lead the birther movement against then-President Barack Obama. Trump used social media and frequent Fox News Channel appearances to push the false narrative that the first Black president was born in Kenya and not a natural-born U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n
But at the Washington Hilton, Obama had the lectern \u2014 and he used it with Trump sitting in front of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight, for the first time, I am releasing my official birth video,\u201d Obama deadpanned, before showing the opening scene of Disney\u2019s \u201cThe Lion King,\u201d when the royal cub Simba is presented on the savanna.<\/p>\n
Obama then turned his fire directly on the reality TV star.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald,\u201d Obama said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. For example, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?\u201d<\/p>\n
As cameras captured a dour Trump, Obama mocked Trump\u2019s role on \u201cCelebrity Apprentice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know about your credentials and breadth of experience,\u201d the president said, marveling that Trump had to decide who to blame when \u201cthe men\u2019s cooking team cooking did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night,\u201d Obama concluded. \u201cWell handled, sir. Well handled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump glared icily.<\/p>\n
By November 2012, as Obama prepared for his second term, Trump had filed a trademark application for the phrase he would emboss in the national culture four years later: \u201cMake America Great Again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White House Correspondents’ Dinner has had multiple iterations since it began a few years after World War…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,5561],"class_list":{"0":"post-208595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}