White House Correspondents’ Association Pulls Amber Ruffin From High-Profile Dinner

Journalists are supposed to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, as the adage goes, and the same is often said of comedians. Both groups do their worst work when kissing up to those in power, as opposed to hanging it out to dry. So what should we make of the news that the day after a White House staffer posted complaints about comedian Amber Ruffin on social media, her invitation to perform at the White House Correspondents’ dinner was revoked? Nothing good, I fear.

Ruffin, a late-night host and writer whose work has for years demonstrated a political bent, seemed well-suited as host for the event, a dinner held since 1921 by a consortium of journalists founded to support—in its words—“vigorous reporting on the presidency.” In recent decades, that means an affair that provides a showcase for longtime critics of President Donald Trump, with past emcees including Colin Jost and Michelle Wolf.

WHCA President Eugene Daniels seemed ready to continue that tradition of humorously pushing back against (among other things) the rising tide of fascism, saying in a February 4 statement announcing the choice of Ruffin that she was “the ideal fit for this current political and cultural climate.”

“Her perspective will fit right in with the dinner’s tradition of honoring the freedom of the press,” Daniels said. “This dinner is about centering the importance of a functioning democracy, and Amber is the type of entertainer who understands both the significance of that mission as well as the mechanics of power in this country.”

It’s possible that the mechanics of power in this country could do with a tune-up, if that brave stance can be derailed by a tweet. And yet, it seems like that might have happened! On Friday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich shared a clip of Ruffin discussing the dinner on a podcast, in which she describes the Trump administration as “kind of a bunch of murderers,” and says she was told to criticize “both sides,” an instruction that brings to mind this famous Trump quote.

“There’s no way I’m going to be freaking doing that, dude. Under no circumstances,” Ruffin says in the clip.

“This year’s @whca dinner will be hosted by a 2nd rate comedian who is previewing the event by calling this administration ‘murderers’ who want to ‘feel like human beings, but they shouldn’t get to feel that way, because you’re not’” Budowich complained on X (formerly Twitter).

“What kind of responsible, sensible journalist would attend something like this? More importantly, what kind of company would sponsor such as hate-filled and violence-inspiring event?” asked Budowich, who is arguably posing that question with a level of notable expertise: According to the House committee that investigated the January 6 Capitol riots, he “reportedly solicited a 501c(4) organization to conduct a social media and radio advertising campaign encouraging attendance at the January 6th Ellipse rally and advancing unsupported claims about the result of the election.”

The day after Budowich’s posts to X, Daniels’ tone regarding Ruffin abruptly changed. In a statement emailed to WHCA members on Saturday, Daniels—who joined MSNBC earlier this month as a full-time host— said the WHCA board decided they didn’t want any comedy at the April 26 dinner.

“At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure 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,” the statement read.

“For the past couple of weeks, I have been planning a re-envisioning of our dinner tradition for this year,” the statement claimed. “As the date nears, I will share more details of the plans in place to honor journalistic excellence and a robust, independent media covering the most powerful office in the world.”

Shockingly, Budowich remained unappeased. “No accountability at @WHCA, just a cop out statement—pathetic!” he tweeted in response to Daniels’ remarks.

“Many WHCA members are privately pointing the finger at Eugene for making the unilateral decision to recruit and sign this garbage, hate-filled comedian,” Budowich claimed, arguing that “they are all turning a blind eye to it publicly. It’s an indictment on how broken and useless this organization has become… so sad that such a storied and consequential group has been so quickly driven into irrelevancy. Oh well. Good riddance!”