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Biden, Trevor Noah headline White House correspondents' dinner
President Joe Biden poked fun at his slumping poll ratings, took several sly digs at his predecessor Donald Trump and accepted a roasting from Daily Show host Trevor Noah at the glitzy party mixing Washington politics, media and Hollywood.
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US President Joe Biden (left) shakes hands with South African comedian Trevor Noah during the White House Correspondents’ Association gala at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2022. (AFP/Nicholas Kamm)
T
he president and the jokes were back, as the gloves -- and COVID masks -- came off for the return of the White House correspondents' dinner in Washington on Saturday.
President Joe Biden poked fun at his slumping poll ratings, took several sly digs at his predecessor Donald Trump and accepted a roasting from Daily Show host Trevor Noah at the glitzy party mixing Washington politics, media and Hollywood.
And there were serious references as well -- to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and challenges to democracy and media freedoms at home and abroad.
"I'm really excited to be here tonight with the only group of Americans with a lower approval rating than I have," Biden said in his opening comments.
The White House press corps association, the WHCA, has hosted presidents for an annual black tie dinner starting with Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
But the televised Washington social juggernaut -- beloved by some, maligned as cringe-worthy by others -- shuddered to a halt under the twin impacts of Trump's media-bashing presidency, then COVID-19.
So to gather 2,600 invitees at the Washington Hilton offered a restorative return to the familiar.
