 "Comedian dropped from headlining White House correspondents' dinner after complaints from Trump govt")
As the Trump administration continues to get hit by one scandal after another, the association hosting the White House correspondents’ dinner has cancelled its headline comedian Amber Ruffin’s performance at this year’s event. Ruffin was scheduled to perform at the annual dinner next month, but the White House Correspondents’ Association announced on Saturday that it has scrapped her appearance.
According to BBC, the association sent out a memo to its member and said that the event’s “focus is not on the politics of division,” rather it is to honour the work of White House journalists. Interestingly, the move came shortly after the White House attacked the association of choosing Ruffin to perform at the event as a headliner.
Why was Ruffin dropped?
The comedian is known to be a critic of US President Donald Trump. Shortly after the news broke out, Taylor Budowich, the White House deputy chief of staff, reacted to the association’s decision to scrap Ruffin’s performance, calling it a “cop-out”. “No accountability at the WHCA, just a cop-out statement – pathetic!” wrote Budowich on Saturday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He went on to slam Ruffin, calling the Emmy and Tony-nominated comedian and writer “hate-filled comedian”. Last month, WHCA President Eugene Daniels announced Ruffin as the headliner, saying she was chosen because her “unique talents are the ideal fit for this current political and cultural climate”.
Ruffin is currently working as a writer for NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and has mocked the Trump administration in recent weeks during her segments on the show. She often made jokes about Trump’s order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. There have been brewing animosities between the Trump administration and WHCA.
Another issue both sides were having was the decision to bar the Associated Press from covering certain events, and the White House’s decision to directly control the press pool, which is the group of journalists who cover the White House event and travel with the American leader.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIt is still unclear whether Trump will be attending this year’s correspondents’ dinner. Some of the Guest entertainers who have headlined the event in the past include Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno and others.
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