Amber Ruffin calls out Trump and the WHCA after canceling her performance at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner.
Comedian Amber Ruffin is taking a sharp, satirical approach to address the White House Correspondents’ Association and the Trump administration’s decision to cancel her appearance at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. During an appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Ruffin didn’t hold back, mocking the organization’s request for her to craft jokes that were “fair to both sides.”
“Amber, when people are objectively terrible, we should be able to point it out on television,” Meyers said during their segment. To which Ruffin replied, “I thought that too, on Friday. But today is Monday. And Monday’s Amber Ruffin knows that when bad people do bad things, you have to treat them fairly and respectfully.”
When the host discussed the free press’ responsibility to report stories truthfully, Ruffin doubled down, throwing even more shade with a biting, sarcastic correction.
“No, we have a free press so that we can be nice to Republicans at fancy dinners. That’s what it says in the First Amendment,” she quipped. “I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history, and deport your friends, you’re supposed to call it out. But I was wrong. Glad to find that out now because if they had let me give that speech…Ooh, baby! I would have been so terrifically mean.”
Last week, WHCA president Eugene Daniels announced the decision to cancel Ruffin’s appearance, stating that in “this consequential moment for journalism,” the organization aims to ensure that “the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.”
But during an appearance on “The Daily Beast” podcast, Ruffin revealed that the event’s organizers had told her she needed to be “equal” and make jokes targeting “both sides.”
“I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be freaking doing that dude under no circumstances,’” she said. “I think they get their feelings hurt…They want that false equivalency that the media does.”
The WHCA’s decision comes amid an already tense relationship between the Trump administration and the press. As of now, there has been no announcement on who will replace Ruffin at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 26.
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