Here Are The Best & Worst Moments From The White House Correspondents' Dinner

Kevin Tober
April 30th, 2023 1:47 AM

Text to Speech

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The annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner is traditionally filled with out-of-touch liberal elites in the media, Hollywood & politics rubbing elbows in fancy ball gowns and tuxedos, while they thumb their nose at middle America. While that was true this year, there were some moments that enraged liberals and delighted conservatives, with emphasis on the word some. It was overall a conservative bashing session filled with sanctimonious lectures from liberal reporters about how important their jobs are. 

Saturday night’s dinner was hosted by government-funded National Public Radio’s Tamara Keith who started off the night by unintentionally telling jokes. In her opening introduction, Keith praised the annual dinner and lauded how the gathering is something special: 

There is something uniquely American about the fact that we can all be here together. And then these reporters can go out on Monday and do stories about these very same politicians that pull no punches. When we're asking questions in the Oval Office, or under the wing of Air Force One, or in the briefing room we are stand-ins for the American people. Our responsibility to the country is woven into the fabric of the nation. Enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution, and we take that responsibility seriously. 

Of course, that’s laughable, since the vast majority of reporters in the ballroom simply serve as stenographers for the Biden administration and the Democrat Party. Even Keith herself isn’t one to pull no punches, all the evidence you need is how she sucked up to then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

 

 

Later on, Keith began huffing about how “this is a challenging time for the news industry,” because NPR and a long list of liberal media outlets have suffered layoffs recently. “We aren't alone. ABC, BuzzFeed, CBS, CNN, Gannett, Insider, Vice News Tonight, The Washington Post. I had to alphabetize the list, it is so long,” Keith whined. 

She then hypocritically complained that it’s a “challenging time for our country” because “people are choosing their news in part based on what they want to hear.” The irony is even richer when you remember that she works for NPR whose audience consists of rich white liberals, most of whom live alone with their cats. The NPR listenership listens solely to have their opinions regurgitated back to them.  

Then came the moment in the dinner when the President gets up and speaks. While most of the speech was typical for a dinner like this, one moment came when Biden openly taunted reporters over his ongoing refusal to regularly take questions from reporters. Watch below: 

 

 

Once Biden was done speaking, comedian and Comedy Central's The Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr. walked up to the podium and got in his first jab at the President. “Real quick, Mr. President, I think you left some of your classified documents up here,” Wood joked referring to Biden’s reckless handling of classified documents. “Don't give it to him. I'll put them in a safe place. He don't know where to keep them,” Wood added. 

He couldn’t simply stick with jokes about Biden since that’s not tolerated by the liberal elites in the room. Instead, Wood smeared former Fox News host Tucker Carlson: “We've got to get Tucker back on the air, Mr. President, because right now there's millions of Americans that don't even know why they hate you.” 

The premise of that “joke” is that Tucker’s audience needs to be told to hate Joe Biden and doesn’t know why unless he provides a reason. 

Wood eventually returned to telling funny jokes. This time it was at the expense of the liberal media and their lack of interest in holding Biden accountable for his mishandling of classified documents: 

I don't know about y'all but for me the easiest scandal to follow was the Trump document scandal. That was the one easy to follow. It was simple. There's some stuff that supposed to be in the White House that ain't. And the media, y'all did y'all's job. Y'all jumped on that story. As soon as the Trump documents story broke everybody was down to Mar-a-Lago, we're reporting live from the documents—we're going to find them. And then we found out Joe Biden had documents, too, and it was like, oh, it's not a big deal. It’s not a big deal! Everybody got documents. Everybody got documents! Mike Pence has some documents. We can't care about—ooh, look, a Chinese spy balloon. Would you look at that? Ooh. Well-done, media!

Sadly, Wood ended on an ugly note when he lied about the racially divisive Critical Race Theory and went on to smear Clarence Thomas. 

“Anti-CRT policies are an attack on black history and an attempt to erase the contributions of black people from the history books. That's what it is,” Woods falsely claimed. 

“You are trying to erase black people and a lot of black people wouldn't mind some of that erasure, as long as that black person is Clarence Thomas,” Woods sneered. 

During CNN’s live post-dinner coverage, senior political commentator and GOP strategist Scott Jennings tore into Biden for taunting the media and sticking his rhetorical finger in their eyes over his refusal to take their questions on a regular basis: 

 

 

"For the journalists in the room, he wasn't laughing with you, he was laughing at you. I mean, the reality is, I think he's mocking the press. The guy does not take questions, & he's up there joking about it,” Jennings said. 

The relevant transcript is below:

White House Correspondents’ Dinner [via CNN]
4/29/2023
9:34:09 p.m. Eastern 

TAMARA KEITH: There is something uniquely American about the fact that we can all be here together. And then these reporters can go out on Monday and do stories about these very same politicians that pull no punches. When we're asking questions in the Oval Office, or under the wing of Air Force One, or in the briefing room we are stand-ins for the American people. Our responsibility to the country is woven into the fabric of the nation. Enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution, and we take that responsibility seriously. 

[...]

10:07:07 p.m. Eastern

KEITH: This is a challenging time for the news industry. My employer NPR just went through a painful round of layoffs and we aren't alone. ABC, BuzzFeed, CBS, CNN, Gannett, Insider, Vice News Tonight, The Washington Post. I had to alphabetize the list, it is so long. And it is hitting local newsrooms, too. WHCA member Jonathan Salant was the last newspaper reporter based in Washington dedicated to covering the New Jersey congressional delegation. And then the Star-Ledger of Newark laid him off. You might imagine that the politicians from that state would be breathing easier. Instead, many of them protested because they know that the citizens of New Jersey need that journalistic spotlight on their elected leaders. But I'm here to report some good news. Jonathan was recently scooped up by a newspaper in Pittsburgh. So Pennsylvania lawmakers, watch out. 

[...]

10:11:08 p.m. Eastern 

KEITH: This is also a challenging time for our country. People are choosing their news in part based on what they want to hear. And this makes us all vulnerable to conspiracy theories, to seeing the worst in our fellow citizens, to losing sight of our shared humanity. Despite the fact that you see us all sitting here together on this stage, the relationship between presidents and the press who cover them is never easy, ever. Every president privately and sometimes publicly bridles at his news coverage, and yet they invite us in and take our questions. Though, sir, maybe not as many as we would like.

[...]

10:37:37 p.m. Eastern 

ROY WOOD JR: I'm happy to be here. Real quick, Mr. President, I think you left some of your classified documents up here. Don't give it to him. I'll put them in a safe place. He don't know where to keep them. Happy to be here, though. Happy to be here.

[...]

10:43:12 p.m. Eastern 

WOOD: We've got to get Tucker back on the air, Mr. President, because right now there's millions of Americans that don't even know why they hate you.

[...]

10:48:35 p.m. Eastern

WOOD: I don't know about y'all but for me the easiest scandal to follow was the Trump document scandal. That was the one easy to follow. It was simple. There's some stuff that supposed to be in the White House that ain't. And the media, y'all did y'all's job. Y'all jumped on that story. As soon as the Trump documents story broke everybody was down to Mar-a-Lago, we're reporting live from the documents—we're going to find them. And then we found out Joe Biden had documents, too, and it was like, oh, it's not a big deal. It’s not a big deal! Everybody got documents. Everybody got documents! Mike Pence has some documents. We can't care about—ooh, look, a Chinese spy balloon. Would you look at that? Ooh. Well-done, media!

[...]

10:50:59 p.m. Eastern

WOOD: Call it what it is. Anti-CRT policies are an attack on black history and an attempt to erase the contributions of black people from the history books. That's what it is. You are trying to erase black people and a lot of black people wouldn't mind some of that erasure, as long as that black person is Clarence Thomas.

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