The White House Correspondents’ Association announced that next year’s annual correspondents’ dinner will not feature a traditional stand-up comedy act.
The group announced that Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Ron Chernow will speak at the event, set for next April, meaning that the dinner will not feature a comedy act for the first time in recent history. Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton served as the inspiration for the Broadway hit musical “Hamilton,” on which he served as a historical consultant.
“As we celebrate the importance of a free and independent news media to the health of the republic, I look forward to hearing Ron place this unusual moment in the context of American history,” WHCA President Olivier Knox said in a statement.
“My major worry these days is that we Americans will forget who we are as a people and historians should serve as our chief custodians in preserving that rich storehouse of memory,” Chernow added. “While I have never been mistaken for a stand-up comedian, I promise that my history lesson won’t be dry.”
Move comes after Michelle Wolf outrage: The Daily Show comedienne poked fun at White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was in attendance because President Trump skipped the event for the second straight year, and was accused of mocking her looks.
“I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful. Like she burns facts, and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies,” Wolf joked at the event.
“Why are you guys making this about Sarah’s looks?” she later wrote on Twitter. “I said she burns facts and uses the ash to create a *perfect* smoky eye. I complimented her eye makeup and her ingenuity of materials.”
Trump not a fan of WHCD: Trump has not attended any dinner since 2011 and has no plans to attend next year. In 2011, he was at the receiving end of a brutal roast by then-President Obama.
“Donald Trump is here tonight! Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter –- like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?” Obama quipped.
Chernow not a fan of Trump: “I have been deeply disturbed by the Trump campaign — more deeply disturbed than by any other presidential campaign in our history. We’ve all been horrified by the many shocking statements this man has made, but no less frightening have been the omissions,” he said in 2016. “I’m disturbed by the words missing from the Trump campaign: liberty and justice, freedom and tolerance. Please, please, please folks don’t let it happen here.”
