By Will Weisert and Farnoch Amiri, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (Associated Press) – In a return to some normalcy, journalists, government officials and celebrities walked the red carpet Saturday night at the annual White House Press Service gala even as the COVID-19 threat appeared above the massive hotel auditorium.
The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, neglected by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, is back with Joe Biden as the first president to accept an invitation in six years. Donald Trump avoided the event while in office.
The comedy is also back with The Daily Show host Trevor Noah as the main title. Celebrities were making a comeback, too: Kim Kardashian and Bette Davidson walked the carpet as did Brooke Shields and Caitlyn Jenner. The event attracted a large group of government officials and other dignitaries.
Biden will face more than 2,600 participants as he tries to strike a delicate balance at a pivotal moment for the country. His administration is looking to turn the page on the pandemic even as the virus remains a national and near-home threat. Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive this week and Dr. Anthony Fauci skipped dinner due to health precautions.
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After the recent Gridiron Club press dinner in Washington, dozens of attendees, including members of Congress, Biden’s Cabinet and journalists, have tested positive for COVID-19.
That raised questions about whether the 79-year-old Biden should attend Saturday’s dinner. The chief plans to redeem the meal but later attends to the program. He also plans to be masked when he does not speak.
The White House stressed the abundance of the antiviral pill Paxlovid, which has been shown to reduce up to 90% of severe outcomes of the virus among those at high risk of infection.
However, press secretary Jen Psaki said of Biden, “We want to be very clear that it’s possible for him to test positive for COVID, just like any American.”
The White House Correspondents Association said it was ordering a same-day antigen test for dinner attendees even before the Gridiron outbreak. Then he added the vaccination requirement.
The United States is seeing a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases of the highly contagious subtype of omicron, with confirmed infections rising to about 44,000 per day, compared to 26,000 a month ago.
Despite the recent wave of COVID-19 cases, deaths from the virus and hospitalizations are near or near the lowest levels of the epidemic, with the BA.2 variant proving to be less severe than previous virus strains. Just over 300 people in the US die every day from the virus, down from more than 2,600 a day earlier this year — with about 1,600 hospitalizations a day, down from a peak of more than 21,000 a day in January.
Psaki said Biden’s decision to attend “is in stark contrast to his predecessor, who not only questioned the legitimacy of the press on an almost daily basis, but also never attended dinner.” Trump, who has sometimes called the media “the enemy of the people,” gleefully boycotted the event as president.
In addition to the imminent threat of the virus, Biden planned to take the microphone as the massive and deadly invasion of Ukraine at the hands of Russian forces continued.
Biden recalled dinner during a speech last week about Russia’s war on Ukraine, saying, “I’ve always had respect for the press, but I can’t tell you how much respect I have in these areas where they’re under pressure in an awkward position.”
“Imagine if we didn’t get this information,” the president added. “It would be a different world.”
The Correspondents’ Dinner first began in 1921. Three years later, Calvin Coolidge became the first president to attend since then, with the exception of Trump. Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon chose not to attend their presidency every year, but Ronald Reagan, then recovering from an assassination attempt, missed the 1981 class – but was recalled from Camp David.
“The thing I think this shows is restoring the health of the relationship,” said Holzer, director of the Roosevelt House Institute for Public Policy at Hunter College in New York. “There are still tense moments. But that’s okay.”
After comedian Michael Wolff’s satire sparked controversy in 2018, it was featured the following year by historian Ron Chernow. The celebrity comeback this time is reminiscent of President Barack Obama’s administration, when the likes of George Clooney, Charlize Theron, and Viola Davis attended.
As Vice President in 2014, Biden appeared in a comedy video with HBO’s “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who laughed so hard at the Correspondents’ Dinner. The White House said the White House’s director of speech writing, Vinay Reddy, and veteran Biden adviser Mike Donilon, worked on Biden’s remarks this year, drawing on material from a variety of people inside and outside the government.
Psaki has already admitted to trying to lower expectations, saying that the speech “wasn’t funny at all. I’m just kidding.” However, presidential attempts at humor can be challenging.
At the 2011 dinner, Obama mistook him — in his presence — an unabashed Trump over Trump’s bogus allegations about the then-president’s birth certificate. Obama concluded his speech by reflecting on Trump taking office one day, saying, “There is sure to be some change in the White House” as banquet hall screens flash a parody of the facade of 1600 Greater Pennsylvania Avenue fitted with the Trump logo, gold bars, digital clock and signage written on it. Hotel, casino, golf course, presidential suite.
This turned out to be prophetic, since Trump succeeded Obama of course — although the reforms he eventually brought to the presidency fell short of putting his name on the White House.
Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
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