The White House Correspondents' Association has decided there'll be nothing funny about its showcase event next month. After pressure from the Trump administration, the organization dropped the dinner's scheduled headliner, Amber Ruffin, Politico reports. "We are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year," President Eugene Daniels emailed members Saturday. He said the April 26 event will focus on honoring the work of journalists rather than "on the politics of division." A White House aide had attacked comments Ruffin made about Trump in the past, and the comedian had rejected the association's request that she mock all political sides in her act.
Taylor Budowich, a White House deputy chief of staff, ripped the correspondents' association announcement. "No accountability at WHCA, just a cop out statement—pathetic!" he posted on X. Ruffin, an author and writer for NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers, has been nominated for Emmy and Tony awards. Among her recent bits has been one about the White House barring AP reporters from the Oval Office for not adhering to the president's name change for the Gulf of Mexico, per Politico. There was no comedian at the 2019 dinner, per NPR, when historian Ron Chernow was the keynote speaker.
Ruffin said on a podcast that she would not spread her jabs around the political spectrum at the dinner, per Variety. Referring to members of the Trump administration as "kind of a bunch of murderers," she said the issue is that "makes them feel like human beings, cause they're not." Presidents usually attend the dinner, though Trump sat it out during his first term. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not rule out Trump going this year, though she said she won't be there. (More White House Correspondents' Association dinner stories.)
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