Comedian Amber Ruffin disinvited to White House dinner due to remarks on Donald Trump’s administration
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which is made up of journalists who cover the White House and the United States president, has cancelled its invitation to comedian Amber Ruffin to host their annual dinner.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner usually features a prominent comedian as host. In past years, Peter Sellers, Richard Pryor, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, and Trevor Noah have all served in the role, and every president, aside from Donald Trump, has been in attendance since 1924.
This year, the WHCA announced its plans for Ruffin to host. The comedian rose to prominence for her work as a writer and contributor on Seth Meyers’s Late Night and is currently one of the main cast members in the new American version of Have I Got News For You.
However, the organisation received pushback about Ruffin from White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, who cited negative comments that the comedian made about the administration, including that it was made up of “kind of a bunch of murderers” (via Variety).
In a statement sent to the organisation’s members on March 29th, WHCA president Eugene Daniels announced that they were rescinding their invitation, saying, “The WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year. 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.”
It is not uncommon for the hosts of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to be critical of the presiding administration. In fact, skewering the current political climate and the president specifically is part of the gig. However, the move is just another example of the news media bending to Trump’s increasing pressure since he took office for his second term.
Earlier this year, the administration banned the Associated Press from its press pool after the outlet refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America.’ The administration, not the WHCA, would now be in charge of dictating which journalists were in the press pool.
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