Chief of the White House ‘Chief: Journalists are’ tested, attacked ‘
The dinner of the Correspondents of the White House “will feel a bit different this year”, the president of the organization acknowledged Saturday at the start of the annual meeting of the White House Press Corps.
Eugene Daniels, Correspondents of the White House Assn. President who will soon be an anchor for MSNBC, opened the event in the Washington Hilton Hotel with a recognition that the WHCA had a bumpy ride to this year’s event.
“There is no president, there is no comedian, it’s just an intense focus on our fantastic stock market students,” he said. “Just a celebration of all of you – thousands of people with a shared dedication to the first amendment.”
The WHCA usually has a prominent comedian roasted comments about the president. This year the WHCA Amber Ruffin tapped for the performance in February, but then did not drop out after complaints of conservatives about her sharp criticism of Trump and the Maga movement.
Daniels has been under fire for that decision and for the WHCA’s response to the power of Trump administration is moving against the media, including taking control of organization and assignments for the White House Press Pool. Daniels, a veteran of Poloo who will soon be one of the three anchors of MSNBC’s Saturday and Sunday morning broadcast ‘The Weekend’, said the crowd that the larger mission of WHCA members – to report on the activity of the president and the White House for the American public – has not changed.
“I know this has been an extremely difficult year for everyone. It has been difficult for this association. We have been tested, attacked,” Daniels said.
Every morning, WHCA members “run to the White House – plane, train, car – with one mission – who make the powerful accountability, tell the stories of those who can’t tell them themselves. That never stopped, and that will never do it,” he said.
Daniels did not specifically mention the Ruffin situation, but he nodded to thank his colleague WHCA board members: “We have experienced the ringtone,” he said.
At the end of his short opening comments, Daniels jokes about the famous competitive character of the Press Corps of the White House.
“If news happens, I will pop up here again, let it all be on it so that you can show yourself freely. Unless it’s too good. Then I will just whisper against my new bosses here,” Daniels said.
The WHCA has around 900 members. The WHCA has held an annual dinner since 1921. In his first term, President Donald Trump became the only president in a century not to attend the event at least once in his term, a sign of Trump’s controversial relationship with the news media.
Dinner collects money for the WHCA to finance trade fairs and other outreach activities for journalism. In March, when the WHCA ruffin dropped, Daniels members said that it was important to keep the focus on journalism this year, given the threats of Trump’s extreme antagonism.
“The WHCA board has unanimously decided that we will no longer have a comic version this year.
