The White House Correspondent’s Association (WHCA) held its annual dinner at the Washington Hilton on April 28, 2018 with unknown 32-year-old comedian Michelle Wolf as emcee. The WHCA is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the President of the United States. The dinner is an annual event where guests comprised of celebrities, journalists and the who’s who of Washington are invited to this exclusive event. Reviewing which celebrities were “asked to attend” is quite revealing. Firstly, the disgraced Kathy Griffin was on the red carpet-the woman who shamefully joked about beheading our President while carrying his bloody head in her hand. Omarosa Manigault, a former member of the Administration and reality star who has disparaged the President on numerous occasions was also in attendance. Finally, Stormy Daniels was pursued by multiple media outlets to join the festivities but declined-imagine if the press corps had reached out to Gennifer Flowers during the Clinton years.
I was wondering where James Comey and Michael Wolff were-did they lose their invite in the mail? Speaking of “Wolves” emcee Michelle Wolf who was a former correspondent at “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” and is scheduled to star in a new Netflix series “The Break With Michelle Wolf” this May, was an absolute disaster. Whereas, in the old days you had to be a bona fide and established celebrity like Imus or Stephen Colbert the only current qualification appears to be you must be a Trump hater and be willing to say anything and everything to disparage him and the office he holds. Donald Trump is the first President since Reagan, who was recovering from an assassination attempt in 1981, who chose not to attend for the past two years. Instead Trump was at a rally with his base in Michigan talking about the economy, North Korea, and Iran-real and exigent issues.
Remember when our Commander-in-Chief was treated with respect as the representative of our country around the world at this dinner? When there were repercussions for comparing our leader to the Nazis, making scatological jokes at his expense and joking that he was destitute. Imagine if any of these things were said about Obama or Clinton or if their children Malia, Sasha or Chelsea were pilloried the way Ivanka was. One of the “highlights” of Wolf’s roast was her remark that Ivanka was about as helpful to women “as an empty tampon box” and was like a diaper genie “sleek on the outside and full of shit on the inside.” She then said Ivanka “has done nothing to satisfy woman: like father like daughter”-making sexual references concerning the President’s daughter was heretofore unchartered territory.
The list of disgraceful, tasteless and humorless barbs aimed at the President’s children went further with her joking that Trump was so broke he looked for foreign oil in Don Jr.’s hair; and the President attempted to sell Eric for monetary gain. In case you thought a plane tragedy was off limits she joked the President was so broke Southwest Airlines had to use him as an engine. She then compared the President to a vagina remarking he was the only pussy you were not allowed to grab-this X-rated, despicable routine was shocking. What about the children watching C-SPAN waiting to hear some political humor-what planet are we living on? I hope this puts an end to Wolf’s career and to the dinner which has lost nearly all its’ credibility. The 2,600 attendees looked miserable and uncomfortable. Wolf’s comedy was exclusively aimed at the Republican party and its constituents. Her critique of Rachel Maddow was that “she never gets to the point”-mild in comparison to her other remarks. She ripped into Pence calling him worse then Trump and had the audacity to mock abortion saying “don’t knock it until you try it.” It was hard to differentiate between this dinner, filled with scholarly members of the press, and an Andrew Dice Clay or Chris Rock concert. She just handed Trump a major gift-lending credence to his claim that the press is on a one-sided witch hunt.
Now it was time for her to go after the physical appearance of Republicans something the media has consistently criticized Trump for doing-joking that recently retired Mitch McConnell was getting his neck circumcised; Paul Ryan was already circumcised but they took away his balls; and a finale one-two punch making fun of Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The only comment some in the media took offense with was her remarks against Sanders whom she compared to Aunt Lydia from “Handsmaids Tale”- the paradigm of evil and ugliness. Vulture, The Washington Post, CNN and Wolf herself defended the remarks saying she was criticizing Huckabee’s policies not her appearance- a blatant lie when it was obvious she was comparing the dour and dowdy Aunt Lydia to Huckabee whom the media often ridicules. Wolf remarked that Sanders burns facts and then creates the perfect smokey eye with the residue-again disparaging her appearance.
This was so mean-spirited and lacking in humor it was embarrassing. Wolf claimed to be part of the “Me Too” movement and commented that unless you were Michael Cohen offering her $130,000 you couldn’t shut her up. Is this what the “me too” movement looks like-degrading other women who are trying to do their jobs in the most belittling fashion. Isn’t the movement about showing support and raising each other up regardless of politics? Now it was time to go after Kellyanne Conway whom she said was a complete liar and “hoped got stuck under a tree”-at this point nobody was laughing including Conway.
The last two minutes were spent ridiculing the conservative media by warning “ladies to cover their drinks” since Fox News was at the dinner and saying she wanted to make fun of Sean Hannity but was unable to since this was a dinner for journalists. She then remarked that she would be more “proud of women” if there was no Megyn Kelly comparing Kelly to the Olympics by joking she was “white, cold and expensive”-a new low. She concluded her roast by criticizing the media for helping “to create this monster (Trump) they were profiting from” who is so broke “he grabs pussies because he thinks there might be change in them”-the ultimate finale to a disgraceful 20-minute diatribe. In the aftermath of this catastrophic performance, CNN has called Wolf “the winner of the evening”, Kathy Griffin has jumped to her defense, and the President of The White House Correspondent’s Association, Margaret Talev, said it was all within Wolf’s First Amendment Rights. While this dinner has lost its luster in the past couple of years, with few celebrities attending, and most after-parties canceled, this year’s display will go down as one of the most unfortunate manifestations of vitriol towards a sitting President in the history of the media.
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