FROM OUR REPORTER
WASHINGTON – In front of the Hilton hotel, a man with the word “press” written on his chest (but he is not a reporter) spreads his arms trying to prevent journalists and politicians in tuxedos and evening gowns from accessing the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. From the small crowd there are those who shout: “Shame!”, «Western media, you cannot hide, you are guilty of genocide!». Some Palestinian journalists they had asked in a letter to boycott the event, but the controls are too strict for the demonstrators to be able to sneak into the gigantic underground hall and disturb the annual “nerd prom”. The so-called nerd dancea celebration of the mutual dependence between journalists and politicians in Washington, was crowded with 2,600 people at the price of $410 per ticket: the Secretary of State Blinken at the table with Wolf Blitzer from CNN; the secretary of the Treasury Yellenthat of Commerce Raimondo with his son, the head of the CIA Bill Burns and the National Security Advisor Sullivan (perhaps second only to Scarlett Johansson for the number of selfies journalists asked him to take); Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman in shorts and a sweatshirt (but the latter had a tuxedo drawn on it); Lara Trumpco-president of the National Republican Committee and Donald’s daughter-in-law at the table of the «Politico» website and Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita guest on CNN.
Age jokes
From the stage they are remembered journalists killed in Gaza, arrested in Russia and kidnapped in Syria, prizes and scholarships awarded, but at the center of the evening there were, as always, the jokes. The comedian Colin Jost Of «Saturday Night Live», Scarlett’s husband, as per tradition mainly targeted the incumbent president (but also his predecessor): “Let’s face it, it’s not always easy to follow Biden, that is, it’s not easy to follow what he says”; «I don’t want to say that both candidates are old but Jimmy Carter is thinking: I could win. He is only 99 years old”; «My co-host Michael Che was supposed to accompany me, but out of solidarity with Biden I decided to lose the support of blacks»; «Last time I forgot the cocaine in the White House. I’m glad the president made good use of it in his State of the Union address”; «The economy is a bit like the president on the ladder to Air Force One: He seems to be stumbling, but there is some progress forward»; “What a relief to have a president of the United States at an event where there is not a bailiff ordering: stand.”
Biden’s words
Jost joked that this could be the last Dinner if Trump (who as president never wanted to attend the event) wins. But it was above all Biden to use the stage to campaign against his rival: Said that “Sleepy Don” who sleeps in the courthouse faces a storm (“Stormy weather”, a play on the name of the porn star Stormy Daniels). “Yes, age is an issue: I’m an adult racing against a six-year-old.” But Biden closed with absolute seriousness, with an appeal to the media: «It is no mystery that the defeated former president attacks our democracy, he says that he wants to be a dictator from day one. I am not asking you to take sides, but to live up to the gravity of the moment, go beyond the numbers and distractions that sensationalize politics. Focus on what’s really at stake.”
Trump’s comment on social media
At 1 am Trump commented on Truth Social: «Dinner was truly terrible. Colin Jost flopped, Corrupt Joe was a total disaster.” And the media returns to the numbers after the big ball: a new survey by CNN sees Trump ahead with 49% versus 42% nationally; 61% of Americans say the Biden presidency has been a failure (they criticize the economy and inflation but also the Israel-Hamas war); for 55% Trump’s was a success. Another survey, by CBS, shows a head-to-head in the three perhaps most important states: Biden up by 2 points in Michigan; Trump by one point in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
There was no shortage of Jost’s jokes about the newspaper crisis: “Your words speak the truth about power, bring light into the darkness, and, most importantly, train the Artificial Intelligence programs that will soon replace you.”
