Glamorous parties and protests in Gaza collide at the White House correspondents’ dinner
Chef and restaurant owner José Andrés was in the house, as it were Bill Nye, sipping a martini near the back of the room. I asked him what he had planned this weekend. “Network for the betterment of humanity,” he told me. “We’re talking about how we’re going to use our media platform to engage people with the challenge of climate change.” Fair enough. So what was the coolest thing he saw all night? “My wife,” he said.
L-R: Dr. Anthony Fauci; Kellyanne Conway; Desi Lydic, Jordan Klepper and Tammy Haddad; and Senators Amy Klobuchar and John Bessler.
While some events come and go, veteran television producer Tammy HaddadThe annual garden brunch seems like forever. The event started in Haddad’s backyard 31 years ago and is now held at a Georgetown home owned by the venture capitalist. Mark Ein, co-owner of the Washington Commanders — which would explain why someone dressed as the team’s mascot, a 6-foot-tall pig named Major Tuddy, greets people as they go into the main tent, which was especially crowded. year due to continuous rain. Amidst a sea of journalists, political figures, and media directors—time CEO Meredith Kopit LevienCEO of Vox Media Jim BankoffChairman of NBCUniversal Cesar CondeAxios’s VandeHei—are a handful of Baltimore police officers who Haddad is honoring for their work on the collapsed bridge.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci mingling in black turtlenecks, Andrew Ross Sorkin chat with Melber and Ben Smith catch up with Klobuchar and Substack’s Hamish McKenzie. “I’ve always been impressed with Amy Klobuchar’s tolerance for this stuff,” Smith told me later. On my way to get a Bloody Mary, I came across this View mode co-host and former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin. “I had to come because this could be the White House Correspondent’s Last Weekend before Trump returns,” she told me. “I’ve heard people say, look, if he gets reelected, that could save cable news for another decade, and my thought is, okay, but what about democracy ?”
You may recognize the Senator John Fetterman from a mile away inside the Politico-CBS reception tent on Saturday night, not just because he was 6’8”, but because he was the only one sweating. Not one to be formal, Fetterman showed off his signature style in a tuxedo shirt and black shorts. He’s chatting with CBS’s chief election correspondent Robert Costa, who brought in his dad as a plus this year. “This is a very brief respite for me,” said Costa, who is covering Trump’s criminal trial in New York. “Basically, I live in lower Manhattan now,” the DC-based journalist joked. “This weekend is great to celebrate journalism and gather and socialize for a few hours, but we all need to buckle down,” Costa added. “This will be a rare party this year, a rare moment of rest for this industry. Because we are recounting a moment of chaos in America.”
I’ve found Andrea Mitchell nearby, in a sparkling silver dress. NBC News’ veteran chief foreign affairs correspondent spent the morning in Chevy Chase, playing tennis, working out with a trainer and packing for an upcoming trip to the Middle East. “I’m with the Secretary of State,” she told me.
During dinner, Kelly O’Donnella senior White House correspondent for NBC News and president of the reporters association, spoke about the journalists who have been arrested, including Austin Ticewho was kidnapped in Syria nearly 10 years ago, and Evan Gershkovicthe Wall Street Journal The reporter has been detained in Russia on bogus espionage charges since March last year. Gershkovich’s parents were both present. O’Donnell also noted the more than 100 journalists who have died in the Israel-Hamas war over the past six months.
Clockwise from top L: Colin Jost and US President Joe Biden; First Lady Jill Biden; Eugene Daniels and US Vice President Kamala Harris.All from Getty Images.
Biden did not mention the war in his speech, although he called out Russia Vladimir Putin Release Gershkovich. “We are doing everything we can,” he said.
“There are some who call you an enemy of the people. It is wrong and dangerous,” Biden told the crowd, adding that “the defeated former president has made no secret of his attacks on our democracy.”
Jost teased the president and the press, as expected, at one point saying he was honored to be a part of what might happen, “judging by the polls in the swing states, the White House Correspondents’ Last Night.” He also struck a serious tone: “When you look at the level of freedom throughout history and even around the world today, this is an exception,” he said, adding: “This freedom extremely rare and the journalists in this room have helped protect that freedom and we can never take it for granted.”
This year’s hot ticket was the NBCUniversal afterparty, held at the French Ambassador’s Residence — whose exterior was rainbow-lit with NBC’s peacock logo — a few blocks from the Hilton. “For a party that’s impossible to get into, there’s a hell of a lot of people here,” one journalist grumbled.
People let loose, dancing alongside portraits of French historical figures hanging on wood-paneled walls, sipping glasses of French 75 wine and eating appetizers (lots of salmon). Based on SNL topic, there was one Weekend update The photobooth was well received by the guests as they became increasingly drunk. Everyone was fawning around the celebrities gathered on the tent patio—ScarJo and Jost, Pine, and Jon Hammwho I spotted chatting with MSNBC Lawrence O’Donnell. Standing a few meters away was Trump’s senior campaign advisor. Chris LaCivita, holding an unlit cigar and saying “Gimme! Give me! Give me! (A Man After Midnight)” rang throughout the party. And there was Crazy money‘S Jim Cramer, drink a glass of Belvedere and cran. “I had an eventful weekend,” he told me.
“Colin Jost made a good joke tonight when he said this might be the last White House correspondents dinner,” CNN Jim Acosta speak to me. “I think people have to think seriously about what’s going on right now.”
Maybe tomorrow.
