Celebrities, journalists, and politicians arrive for White House Correspondents Dinner
Celebrities, journalists, and Washington politicians mingled at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday night.
Actors such as Liev Schrieber and John Leguizamo rubbed shoulders with political heavyweights like US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and TV hosts like Wolf Blitzer and Gayle King.
US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are attending this year’s dinner, which is being hosted by comedian Roy Wood Jr., who has appeared on The Daily Show.
The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has been attended by presidents most years since the organization was founded in 1914. The group raises money for scholarships and honours the US Constitution’s “freedom of the press” First Amendment.
However, former President Donald Trump, who had a strained relationship with the press, boycotted the event during his tenure.
In recent decades, the group has had a comedian as entertainment. But comedian Michelle Wolf’s lampooning of then-White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders in 2018 drew so much criticism that the association brought in a historian to speak in 2019.
The event was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
WNBA star Brittney Griner also attended the event with her wife Cherelle.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist was released from one of Russia's most notorious penal colonies in a high-profile prisoner exchange with the United States late last year after she was arrested in February 2022.
Reuters
