Journalists gathered in Washington, D.C., over the weekend to accept awards for their coverage of the White House, culminating in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.
While the event typically hosts the sitting president, President Donald Trump was not in attendance as he was returning from the Vatican for Pope Francis’s funeral Saturday. However, he was largely not expected to attend as he didn’t during his first term. Another noticeable absence was the lack of a comedian acting as the Master of Ceremonies at the event.
Axios reporter Alex Thompson won the Aldo Beckman Award for his coverage of former President Joe Biden‘s mental decline during his time in office, which was the topic of his book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Thompson originally had a contract with Simon and Schuster to release the book last year, but the publisher withdrew. Following Thompson’s public plea to find a new publisher and release the book in 2025, Penguin Press took on the project.
The Award for Excellence in Presidential Coverage Under Deadline Pressure went to Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller of the Associated Press for their coverage of Biden’s “garbage” comment. The comment came after Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden. There, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a joke at the expense of the country of Puerto Rico that crowds poorly received, referring to it as a “floating island of garbage.” The president appeared in a virtual rally on Vice President Kamala Harris’s behalf to respond, “The only garbage I see floating out there is [Trump’s] supporters.” Madhani and Miller reported on the White House’s attempt to scrub the comment from its transcripts.
BYRON DONALDS BUCKS NRCC LEADERSHIP BY HOSTING TOWN HALLS: ‘EVERY MEMBER SHOULD’
Writer Amber Ruffin was initially slated to host the dinner. However, Ruffin came under fire for suggesting “there was no way” she would be “equal” to both sides as she was asked to do. Ruffin made the comment during a Daily Beast podcast episode released before the White House Correspondents’ Association announced its decision.
Ruffin’s absence was the second time in the dinner’s history that there wouldn’t be a comedic performance, excluding the coronavirus pandemic years. Others who have hosted the dinner in the past include Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert.