“I believe in the First Amendment to the Constitution. And it’s not just because my good friend James Madison wrote it.” Joe Biden jokes about agehis biggest problem with the electorate, defining himself as a contemporary of one of the Founding Fathers, at the “White House Correspondents’ Dinner”, the night of the year in which the President of the United States must reveal his qualities as a comedian.
Two thousand and six hundred people locked up for four hours in the underground room without windows of the Washington Hilton (the hotel where Reagan was shot): it is the most desired ticket of the year in the capital, a great dance of the «nerds» and the return in full form to a tradition born in 1921 that Trump had boycotted and Covid weakened: last year everyone took it at dinner; Biden sensed that it was best to skip it and only show up for the speech. This year, however, we are asked to send the photo of a DIY negative test but nobody checks that it is really from the same day.
There are some White House correspondents, but above all they are a assortment of politicians and celebrities (Secretary of State Blinken, Senate dem leader Schumer, Senator Fetterman, Fauci, Trump’s former manager Kellyanne Conway, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Oscar Ke Huy Quan), of most famous TV journalists of celebrities and of publishers who invite advertiser friends and lenders: the only Italians we have met are the president of Lapresse Marco Durante, with his wife Theresa, and Max Herber of Swiss Radio and Television.
Like an Indian wedding, dinner is surrounded by festivities for days. With the shocking dismissal of the two TV stars Tucker Carlson (Fox) e Don Lemon (Cnn) and the $800 million settlement of Fox with Dominion, Biden did not lack material, as well as the professional comedian who speaks after the president. Climbing the podium, Roy Wood jr. he held up some papers: «President, he left his classified documents here».
Wood noted that “in France there are those who are protesting the raising of the retirement age to 64, while we have an octogenarian begging us to let him work for another four”. He defended Kamala Harris: «What does Kamala do? No one ever asked what a vice president does before she was a woman». It’s still: “Fox accused Dominion of conspiring with Democrats to win the election. Democrats should be flattered that anyone thinks they’re smart enough to do fraud.” Biden has been targeting Republicans as a possible rival in 2024 Ron DeSantis and the congresswoman who booed him at the State of the Union: «If you’re disoriented or confused, maybe you’re drunk. Or are you Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
We come across Julie Rodriguez Chavez, the new Biden campaign manager who reveals to us that when it’s over, she will retire with her partner in Salvador de Bahia. The most coveted selfie is with Gerry of Succession, Logan Roy’s sixty-year-old adviser in the series “based” on the Murdoch empire: she is a symbol for Washington girls who must circumnavigate monstrous male egos to achieve success. The $375 tickets (gross: nearly a million) go to scholarships in journalism (awarded many women).
It is a period of uncertainty for the media: many have lost their jobs a Buzzfeed, Npr, Washington Post, Cbs, Cnn, Vice. Maureen Dowd sul New York Times writes a “requiem for the editorial staff”, a place of gossip and unlikely characters replaced by the solitude of remote work. And there is also a certain frustration because Biden is a president reluctant to press conferences and interviews (he jokes about it: “I’ll talk for 10 minutes, no questions”).
Unlike other years, the tone is sometimes serious: they remember the reporter of Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich in prison in Russia and Austin Tice, hostage in Syria, and the basketball player is present Brittney Griner, released after 10 months in prison. When Biden said it’s been 11 years for Tice, Gershkovich’s parents cringed.