President Donald Trump skipped the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD) for the second time on Saturday where comedian Michelle Wolf’s stand up performance stirred a national controversy for comments many saw as offensive.
The customary stand up comedy at the dinner is meant to be political humor, but Ms. Wolf’s performance this year may have crossed the line, according to several attendees and observers who took to social media to express their views.
As he did last year, Mr. Trump attended a political rally, and denounced the media event. “While Washington, Michigan, was a big success, Washington, D.C., just didn’t work. Everyone is talking about the fact that the White House Correspondents Dinner was a very big, boring bust...the so-called comedian really “bombed.”” he posted on Twitter on Sunday.
Ms. Wolf’s jokes targeted Mr. Trump and his family, Vice President Mike Pence and other Republican leaders, but the harshest and most personal ones were at White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. Laced with profanities and personal comments, the performance may have played into Mr. Trump’s hands, who has called the media “the enemy of the people,” according to several comments that have since surfaced.
“If the #WHCD dinner did anything tonight, it made the chasm between journalists and those who don't trust us, even wider. And those of us based in the red states who work hard every day to prove our objectivity will have to deal with it,” Meg Kinnard of the Associated Press said on Twitter. “I sat there, not laughing and aghast at many of the jokes that took mean spirited personal shots, and knew the routine was a political gift to the Trump administration,” John Ward of Yahoo News said. “Unfortunately, I don't think we advanced the cause of journalism tonight,” Peter Baker of New York Times wrote.
At his rally in Michigan, Mr. Trump trained his guns on the media again, calling journalists “very dishonest people” who make only “fake news.” Calling the dinner in D.C “phony,” he he said did not want to be there to smile through attacks on him.
Former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said on Twitter it was “an R/X rated spectacle that started poorly and ended up in the bottom of the canyon.” “Another victory for @realDonaldTrump for not attending and proving his point once again. The room was uncomfortable. Trump lovers and even a large number of Trump haters were pretty miserable,” he said.
American mainstream media is in a crisis of credibility, most surveys show, particularly among the conservative sections of the population that that form the core of the support for Mr. Trump. The jokes at the dinner were at the cost of this segment. Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and his wife, Mercedes, who is part of the White House's communications team, walked out of the event. “Enough of elites mocking all of us,” he posted on Twitter. “It's why America hates the out of touch leftist media elite,” Ms. Schlapp said.
