It’s dinner and demonstrating at election-year roast of Biden
WASHINGTON — An electionyear roast of President Joe Biden before journalists, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner Saturday butted up against growing public discord over the IsraelHamas war, with protests outside the event condemning both Biden’s handling of the conflict and the Western news’ media coverage of it.
Biden, like most of his predecessors, used the glitzy annual White House Correspondents’ Association banquet to jab at his rival, Donald Trump. He followed the jokes with solemn warnings about what he said would happen if Trump won the presidency again.
With hundreds of protesters rallying against the war in Gaza outside the event and concerns over the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the perils for journalists covering the conflict, the war hung over this year’s event. But speakers inside made only passing mention of the conflict despite some having to run a gauntlet of demonstrators. Biden’s speech, which lasted around 10 minutes, made no mention of the ongoing war or the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“Shame on you!” protesters draped in the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh cloth shouted, running after men in tuxedos and suits and women in long dresses who were holding clutch purses as guests hurried inside for the dinner.
Demonstrators cheered when at one point someone inside the Washington Hilton — where the dinner has been held for decades — unfurled a Palestinian flag from a topfloor hotel window.
Biden’s motorcade Saturday took an alternate route from the White House to the Washington Hilton than in previous years, largely avoiding the crowds of demonstrators.
Biden’s speech before nearly 3,000 people was being followed by entertainer Colin Jost from “Saturday Night Live.” Academy Award winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Scarlett Johansson, Jon Hamm and Chris Pines were among other stars.
Kelly O’Donnell, president of the correspondents’ association, opened the event by reminding the audience of the important work that journalists do but noting that the dinner is happening at “a complex moment for our nation,” and in a decisive election year.
O’Donnell went on to list the scores of journalists who have been imprisoned across the world, including Americans Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice. The families of those journalists were in attendance as they have been at previous dinners. She briefly mentioned journalists killed in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Biden began his roast with a direct focus on Trump, calling him “sleepy Don,” in reference to a nickname Trump had given the president previously. He went on to note that despite being similar in age, the two presidential hopefuls have little else in common.
“My vice president actually endorses me,” Biden said. Former Vice President Mike Pence has refused to endorse Trump’s reelection bid.
The president made a grim speech about what he believes is at stake this election, saying that another Trump administration would be even more harmful to America than his first term. “We have to take this serious — eight years ago we could have written it off as ‘Trump talk’ but not after January 6,” Biden told the audience.