White House Correspondents’ Association cancels plans to have a comedian headline annual dinner

Guests mingle during the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington on April 30, 2022. Al Drago/Reuters via CNN Newsource

The White House Correspondents’ Association is reversing course and canceling its plans to have comedian Amber Ruffin headline this year’s annual fundraising dinner in Washington, DC.

Instead, the association says it will celebrate the First Amendment and the free press.

“At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists,” the association’s president, Eugene Daniels, wrote in a memo Saturday.

He said the association’s board voted unanimously to make the change, and did not immediately announce any new speakers.

The change is a tacit acknowledgment of the growing tensions between the association — which represents White House correspondents from dozens of news outlets — and President Donald Trump.

The event typically features comedians, who often use the forum to roast the guests, particularly those holding office. Presidents have traditionally given light-hearted remarks at the dinner. Last year’s dinner featured remarks by “Saturday Night Live” comedian Colin Jost and then-President Joe Biden, who took jabs at Trump and poked fun at his own age.

Trump skipped the annual dinner during his first four years in office and was expected to snub it again this April.

Some members of the association were privately concerned about the optics of a comedian who is harshly critical of Trump serving as the evening’s entertainment, televised and streamed live in prime time.

It was easy to predict the aftermath — denunciations from the right, free-speech defenses from the left — which is what happened when Trump was roasted by comedian Michelle Wolf in 2018.

The association has been under severe pressure this year as the Trump White House has banned The Associated Press from some events and taken control of press pool assignments, all part of a broader effort to assert power and clamp down on independent news coverage. White House correspondents aren’t exactly in a celebratory mood.

Meanwhile, conservative media outlets aligned with Trump have been planning their own alternative events around the April 26 dinner. Scores of media companies buy tables at the annual dinner, and many hold their own receptions surrounding the event.

Daniels said Saturday that “as the date nears, I will share more details of the plans in place to honor journalistic excellence and a robust, independent media covering the most powerful office in the world.”

Ruffin, who previously hosted a late-night talk show on Peacock, is featured on the Saturday night CNN program “Have I Got News for You,” which is in its second season.

She was announced as this year’s dinner entertainer in February. At the time, she told CNN’s Jake Tapper that she planned to channel anti-Trump sentiments during her dinner performance. She also said, of Trump’s likely absence, “I don’t know that anyone’s looking forward to being in the same room as him.”

White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich on Friday publicly called out Ruffin for her anti-Trump comments, writing on X, “What kind of responsible, sensible journalist would attend something like this? More importantly, what kind of company would sponsor such as hate-filled and violence-inspiring event?”

Eschewing a comedian is in line with the association’s approach to the dinner in 2019, Trump’s third year in office, when acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow delivered a speech instead.

This time around, however, Ruffin had already been booked and promoted as the evening’s headliner.

Ruffin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.