Washington's Besieged Journalists Raise a Cocktail Glass, Darkly
Usually, the White House Correspondents' Association dinner features Hollywood stars, a zinger-filled comedy set and a public display of comity between the White House and the press corps that covers it.
On Saturday, the dinner had no comedian and no president. Among the smattering of celebrities on hand was Michael Chiklis, whose best-known television role, in 'The Shield,' concluded in 2008.
'It's just us,' Eugene Daniels, the association's president and an MSNBC host, told his fellow journalists at the start of the night.
The reporters who spoke from the dais emphasized the importance of the First Amendment, garnering repeated ovations from the black-tie crowd. Levity came in the form of clips from past years, when presidents still turned up and cracked wise about the press and themselves.
Hand-wringing about the dinner, once the apex of the capital's social calendar, is as much a Washington tradition as the corporate-sponsored parties that surround it. But as media institutions grapple with an onslaught from President Trump — who has sued and threatened television networks, barred The Associated Press from presidential events and upended the day-to-day workings of the White House press corps — the notion of a booze-soaked celebration felt particularly jarring.
'The mood and reality sucks,' said Jim VandeHei, the journalist and news executive who helped create Politico and then Axios, two stalwarts of the Beltway media.
'No president attending, no comedian to make fun of all of us, TV networks buckling under government pressure, a top producer quitting over corporate interference and the public sour on the media and government,' Mr. VandeHei said. 'Enjoy the weekend!'
It is true that, in the last several days alone, the head of '60 Minutes' resigned as CBS's owner considered a multimillion-dollar payment to settle a lawsuit brought by President Trump, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit that aids reporters living under autocrats, issued a safety advisory for journalists planning to visit the United States. And on Friday afternoon, hours before the first wave of weekend parties, the Justice Department announced that it would subpoena reporters' phone records and compel their testimony in leak investigations.
Maybe journalists could use a moment or two to relax.
'Our clients work so hard covering today's nonstop news cycle, and once a year we throw a big weekend of parties to honor them for their work,' said Rachel Adler, the head of news at Creative Artists Agency, who represents television journalists like Andrea Mitchell and Audie Cornish and was the co-host of a jampacked soiree on Friday at a private Georgetown club. 'Why would this year be any different?'
Tammy Haddad, a Washington impresario whose annual Saturday garden party went ahead unabated and well-attended, said that for all the tensions over press access and independence, the weekend was still a chance for community. 'Some chose to stay away, but there are opportunities to make new connections and find some common ground,' she said. (Her guests included the editor Tina Brown, the chef Bobby Flay and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor recently sworn in to lead Medicare and Medicaid.)
Still, the correspondents' dinner itself carried a more serious tenor than in years past. Some of the loudest applause came for journalists at The A.P., which has been embroiled in a legal fight with the administration after Mr. Trump sought to restrict access to its reporters for using the term 'Gulf of Mexico' in its coverage.
Mr. Daniels pledged support to The A.P. and also to Voice of America, another outlet that has been the target of Mr. Trump's scorn. With no entertainer for the evening, Mr. Daniels served as the keynote speaker, calling for journalistic solidarity.
'What we are not is the opposition,' he said. 'What we are not is the enemy of the people. And what we are not is the enemy of the state.' He called journalists 'competitive and pushy,' but also 'human,' noting the effort that reporters make to ensure accurate information reaches the public.
In interviews, top journalists at multiple news outlets said that it had been nearly impossible to convince celebrities and lawmakers to attend as guests. One reporter said that the list of people who had rejected invitations to join the publication's table was in the 'dozens.'
This is a dinner that once attracted the likes of George Clooney and Steven Spielberg. On Saturday, it seemed as if the most au courant actor in town was Jason Isaacs, the Englishman who played the dad on the latest edition of 'The White Lotus,' and whose character spent the season fantasizing about a murder-suicide.
Mark Leibovich, a correspondent for The Atlantic, said he found it refreshing to have an evening more focused on the act of reporting than a comedian's speech.
Still, he added, 'I wish we could have used the time we gained from that to all leave an hour earlier.'
The correspondents' association represents hundreds of journalists who regularly cover the workings of the White House. Its autonomy has been undermined repeatedly by the Trump administration, which broke precedent by handpicking which outlets are granted access to the 'pool' that covers smaller presidential events and has signaled plans to shake up the seating chart in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. (For decades, the correspondents' association has overseen the pool and the seating chart.)
In February, the group announced that a comedian, Amber Ruffin, the actress and talk-show host, would be the dinner's featured entertainer. Last month, Ms. Ruffin's appearance was canceled. She had appeared on a podcast where she referred to the Trump administration as 'kind of a bunch of murderers.'
Mr. Daniels said he wanted 'to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division.'
Ms. Ruffin has since mocked the group for canceling her set, quipping: 'We have a free press so that we can be nice to Republicans at fancy dinners — that's what it says in the First Amendment.'
In previous years — including in 2018, during Mr. Trump's first term — the White House press secretary attended the dinner and sat on the dais. Karoline Leavitt, Mr. Trump's current press secretary, said she had turned down an invitation.
On Friday, during an interview with the Axios reporter Mike Allen, Ms. Leavitt was asked to describe the news media in one word.
'Exhausted,' she said, with a smile.
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Miami Herald
32 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Florida Democrats look to stop the bleeding during annual political conference
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Newsweek
39 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Map Shows Where US Strikes Hit in Iran
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Live Updates: Trump Claims Success After U.S. Bombs Key Iran Nuclear Sites
Top Republicans in Congress swiftly rallied behind President Trump on Saturday after he ordered strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, even as senior Democrats and some G.O.P. lawmakers condemned it as an unconstitutional move that could drag the United States into a broader war in the Middle East. In separate statements, the leading Republicans in Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader, commended the military operation, calling it a necessary check on Iran's ambitions of developing a nuclear weapon. Both men had been briefed on the military action before the strike was carried out, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss it publicly. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Thune both argued that the airstrikes were necessary after Iran had rejected diplomatic overtures to curb its nuclear program. 'The regime in Iran, which has committed itself to bringing 'death to America' and wiping Israel off the map, has rejected all diplomatic pathways to peace,' Mr. Thune said. Image Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, said that Iran rejected pathways to peace. Credit... Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Mr. Johnson argued that the military action was consistent with Mr. Trump's muscular foreign policy. 'President Trump has been consistent and clear that a nuclear-armed Iran will not be tolerated,' he said. 'That posture has now been enforced with strength, precision and clarity.' But top Democrats, who were given only perfunctory notice of the strikes before they occurred, harshly criticized the move. 'President Trump misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East,' Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said in a statement. He said the president 'shoulders complete and total responsibility for any adverse consequences that flow from his unilateral military action.' Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, demanded 'clear answers' from Mr. Trump on the operation and called for an immediate vote on legislation that would require explicit authorization from Congress for the use of military force. 'The danger of wider, longer, and more devastating war has now dramatically increased,' he said. Representative Jim Himes, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, condemned the operation as unconstitutional and warned that it could drag the United States into a larger conflict. 'Donald Trump's decision to launch direct military action against Iran without congressional approval is a clear violation of the Constitution, which grants the power to declare war explicitly to Congress,' he said in a statement. 'It is impossible to know at this stage whether this operation accomplished its objectives. We also don't know if this will lead to further escalation in the region and attacks against our forces, events that could easily pull us even deeper into a war in the Middle East.' While Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, called Mr. Trump's move 'the right call,' the top Democrat on the panel, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, said he had taken steps that could drag the United States into a war 'without consulting Congress, without a clear strategy, without regard to the consistent conclusions of the intelligence community, and without explaining to the American people what's at stake.' Leading national security Democrats on Capitol Hill were not informed of the strikes until after Mr. Trump had posted about them on social media, according to three people familiar with the matter who would discuss it only on the condition of anonymity. And one high-profile Democrat, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, called the operation grounds for impeachment. 'He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,' Ms. Ocasio-Cortez of New York said in a post on social media. Democrats widely condemned the surprise attack as unconstitutional. But Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was the first on Saturday to say it was grounds for Trump's removal, breaking with party leaders who have avoided talk of impeachment since the president returned to the White House, after two failed attempts to remove him during his first term. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, but in modern times, presidents of both parties have unilaterally carried out attacks on other countries without congressional authorization. It has been decades since Congress voted on whether to authorize military force, and efforts to claw back the legislative branch's war powers have repeatedly stalled. Most of the praise immediately following the operation in Iran came from Republicans, many of whom argued that the bombings would not lead to a ground deployment of American forces in the region. 'To those concerned about U.S. involvement — this isn't a 'forever war' in fact, it's ending one,' Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, said on social media. Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, called Mr. Trump's decision to strike in Iran 'deliberate' and 'correct.' 'We now have very serious choices ahead to provide security for our citizens and our allies and stability for the Middle East,' Mr. Wicker said in a statement. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, whose unqualified support for Israel has put him at odds with other members of his party, was one of the few Democrats to offer an immediate statement of support. He wrote on social media that the military action 'was the correct move.' 'Iran is the world's leading sponsor of terrorism and cannot have nuclear capabilities,' Mr. Fetterman added. 'I'm grateful for and salute the finest military in the world.' Other lawmakers, many of them Democrats who had already expressed concerns that the Trump administration was considering sidestepping Congress's constitutional power to declare war, immediately criticized the strikes on the nuclear sites. Image Representative Thomas Massie, center, said the strikes were not constitutional. Credit... Eric Lee/The New York Times Mr. Trump, 'did not come to Congress to explain his reasons for bombing a sovereign nation and to seek authorization for these strikes,' Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, said in a statement. 'These reckless actions are going to put the lives of American service members and American citizens at risk.' Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, who earlier this week introduced a bipartisan resolution that would require congressional approval before U.S. troops could engage in offensive attacks against Iran, wrote on social media that the attack was 'not Constitutional.' Carl Hulse and Megan Mineiro contributed reporting.
