The Saturday Night Live comedian Colin Jost delivered a mix of Trump zingers, media jokes, and Biden age wisecracks at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He charmed the audience by telling President Joe Biden about his 95-year-old grandfather, a longtime fireman in Staten Island, New York, who voted Democrat in the 2020 presidential election, despite the borough’s Republican-friendly stance. Jost’s remarks were met with mixed reactions from journalists and politicos.
Colin Jost roasts Joe Biden and Donald Trump at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner
Colin Jost, the featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, discussed Donald Trump’s legal troubles, Joe Biden’s age, and the president’s decent character. While some jokes didn’t land in the room, Jost did well when he framed the 2024 election race. “I was excited to be up here on stage with President Biden, mostly to see if I could figure where Obama was pulling the strings from,” he started.
“Let me see if I can summarize where this race stands at this moment,” Jost said, adding, “The Republican candidate for president owe s half a billion in fines for bank fraud and is currently spending his days farting himself awake during a porn star hush money trial and the race is tied?!”
Colin continued, “The race is tied. Nothing makes sense anymore. The candidate who is a New York City playboy took abortion rights away, and the guy who is trying to give your abortion rights back is an 80-year-old Catholic. How does that make sense?”
Jost went on, “By the way, President Biden — isn’t it crazy that he’s only our second Catholic president? And what’s even crazier is that in just a few short months, we will have our third in RFK Jr.”
Biden smiled and clapped and also laughed when Jost made a reference to an embarrassing incident at the White House last year. “The last time I was in DC I left my cocaine at the White House. Luckily, the president was able to put it to good use for his State of the Union,” the comedian said further.
Jost finished his remarks on a serious tone, talking about decency and how Biden reflected that. “My grandpa voted for decency, and decency is why we’re all here tonight,” he said.
The comedian added, “Decency is how we’re able to be here tonight. Decency is how we’re able to make jokes about each other and one of us doesn’t go to prison afterwards. We go to the Newsmax after party.”
Jost also used his moment at the WHCD to dish out insults across the political spectrum. He cautioned President Biden to step more carefully as he walked up the stairs to Air Force One and poked fun at Rupert Murdoch, the force behind Fox Corp. and Fox News Channel.
“It’s the end of an era. Rupert Murdoch stepped down at Fox News. Which is strange – I didn’t think there was a step down from Fox News,” Jost said.
Still, the comedian seemed to be in Biden’s corner. He said, “It’s after 10pm. ‘Sleepy Joe’ is still awake while Donald Trump has spent the past week falling asleep in court every morning –- though Fox News said he was just being anti-woke.”
Jost also had a few sharp remarks for the news organizations in the room. “Like many of you here tonight, I pretend to do news on TV,” he said.
President Biden emphasized the importance of journalists in preserving democracy, urging them to avoid horse-race campaign stories and “gotcha” moments. He pledged to continue working to free journalists like Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice, who have been unjustly imprisoned abroad.
President Biden criticized Trump, calling him “Sleepy Don” due to his sleepiness during his trial in New York. He criticized Trump’s physical and mental condition, stating that the 2024 election is in full swing and age is an issue. Biden emphasized that he is a grown man running against a six-year-old.
A brief about the White House Correspondent’s Association Dinner
The WHCA’s annual dinner, begun in 1921, has become a Washington, D.C. tradition, and is traditionally attended by the President and Vice President. Except for Donald Trump, every president has attended at least one WHCA dinner, beginning with Calvin Coolidge in 1924. The dinner is traditionally held on the evening of the last Saturday in April at the Washington Hilton.
Until 1962, the dinner was open only to men, even though WHCA’s membership included women. At the urging of Helen Thomas, President John F. Kennedy refused to attend the dinner unless the ban on women was dropped.
Prior to World War II, the annual dinner featured singing between courses, a homemade movie, and an hour-long, post-dinner show with big-name performers. Since 1983, the featured speaker has usually been a comedian, with the dinner taking on the form of a comedy roast of the President and his administration. The dinner also funds scholarships for gifted students in college journalism programs.
During his presidency, Donald Trump did not attend the dinners in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Trump indicated that he might attend in 2019 since this dinner did not feature a comedian as the featured speaker. However, on April 5, 2019, he announced that he again would not attend, calling the dinner “so boring, and so negative,” instead hosting a political rally that evening in Wisconsin.
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