Around midnight Saturday, new MSNBC host Eugene Daniels strolled into the French Ambassador’s residence. Daniels, the outgoing White House Correspondents Association president, had just presided over the organization’s annual dinner, which was taking place at an ominous time for the press under President Donald Trump. “It felt fulfilling,” said Daniels, who was decked in all white with sparkling brooch details, hand-in-hand with his husband.
“At the end of the day,” he told me, “what we wanted to do we did, which was to put journalism front and center, to put the First Amendment front and center, to put a spotlight on the students who are only in that room because of the tickets from that dinner, and to allow our award winners to speak about their stories, talk about the importance of freedom of the press.”
I was curious how this Washington tradition would play given understandable ambivalence about celebrating the First Amendment on the heels of the Trump White House taking over the press pool, one of the Correspondents Association’s key roles, and battling the Associated Press over access. The WHCD dinner weekend, which kicks off Thursday night with a slew of events and wraps with Sunday’s boozy brunches, was already under way when Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that the Justice Department was rescinding Biden-era policies over subpoenaing journalists’ records in leak investigations.
While some revelers I encountered questioned whether this is really the best time for journalists to party—and yes, while hanging out at parties themselves!—the sprawling weekend, in other ways, was as frenzied as ever, complete with newer entrants, like Substack and Status, joining the four-day-party circuit among more established media brands, like NBC News and Telemundo, which sponsored the big Saturday night afterparty.
Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, appeared in good spirits while making his rounds to guests at the French Ambassador’s residence, which included Axios’s Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Barak Ravid, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Brian Stelter, and Scott Jennings, and MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, Symone Sanders Townsend and Alicia Menendez.
At the corner of the bar, I spotted MSNBC host Ari Melber in a brief huddle with former Republican congressman Paul Ryan, who I later saw posing for photos with Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Ryan, a Green Bay Packers fan, joked with Klobuchar about her Minnesota Vikings not winning a Super Bowl.
I asked Daniels about the more subdued nature of this year’s dinner, which notably didn’t include the president—Trump declined the invite–or a comedian, as the WHCA dropped headliner Amber Ruffin. “This year, this was the right move,” he said, adding that “the folks in the room, everything I’ve heard, is that people feel like they got what they paid for and what we promised.”
There would be a flurry of events before Daniels and company descended on the Washington Hilton. On Thursday night, I found myself at another celebration: the 12th Annual Washington Women in Journalism Awards, hosted by Story Partners and Washingtonian, and held in the opulent garden of the Larz Anderson House. Most of the furniture and art in the house was marked “Do Not Touch Antiques,” and Ancient Greek styled sculptures surrounded the packed garden. The scent of jalapeños wafted from the crowd of attendees sipping spicy margaritas and applauding the New York Times’s Elisabeth Bumiller, CBS News’s Margaret Brennan, the Wall Street Journal’s Vivian Salama, and USA Today’s Francesca Chambers as they received awards for their work this year. Former honoree Andrea Mitchell was also present, to celebrate this year’s class. Punchbowl News CEO Anna Palmer was also in attendance, as was CNN’s Alayna Treene and the Wall Street Journal’s Josh Dawsey.
I then rushed over to the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where Semafor was putting on a black-tie optional gala to close out its World Economy Summit. As most guests came dressed to the nines, CEO Justin Smith didn’t think the dress code of his own event required a tuxedo, donning a simple black suit and butter yellow tie.
While Smith told me the timing of kicking off WHCD weekend was purely coincidental, it certainly worked in their favor as the lavish fete was attended by those across the media and political worlds. As attendees sipped on top-shelf specialty drinks including a Zacapa old fashioned, Don Julio margarita, Tanqueray Vesper Martini and a Bulleit Manhattan, and listened to a live DJ play a sampling of global music, “The Semafor Gala” was projected on multiple walls of the museum. In the massive venue, which must have held nearly a thousand attendees at one point, I spotted MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle and Melber, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash. Former New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio was also in attendance as well as Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank fame.
“This is just the punctuation, the social life of the [World Economy] Summit but it just coincided with the White House Correspondents dinner this year,” Smith tells me. “It wasn’t such a bad thing because it’s nice to preempt the competition. Not just preempt them timing wise but preempt maybe more elegance wise.” The Semafor CEO added that with the event, “It’s like a little bit of New York in DC,” saying that “we’ve always seen a big opportunity to bring that type of style to DC.”
Next, I jetted over to Oliver Darcy’s inaugural Status party for WHCD weekend, which was held in the soon to open Fish Shop restaurant in DC’s Wharf neighborhood. I quickly spotted CNN’s Collins and Elie Honig, Axios’s Alex Thompson, Politico’s Dasha Burns, and C-SPAN’s Sam Feist. Some independent media was also in attendance, par for the course for a party thrown by a brand new and thriving independent media newsletter. I briefly chatted with former CNN anchor Jim Acosta who recently defected to Substack, as well as Ryan Lizza—who made waves after launching a Substack newsletter Telos, which targeted his former employer Politico in his first editions. Taylor Lorenz, another mainstream media alum now now on Substack, was also in attendance.
When I asked Darcy about entering the WHCD party circuit during a challenging year for journalism, he told me it was a “good opportunity to bring people together to celebrate the First Amendment, which we take very seriously at Status.” Darcy continued that the invite list specifically included those who are “champions of the First Amendment,” pointing out that members of the Trump administration are “assaulting the free press.” He added, “This is a party meant to really uphold journalists and reporters on what they do for society.”
On Friday morning, I headed over to the Spy Museum, where Axios was hosting an event called “The New Media Landscape,” on the beautifully landscaped roof. As attendees sipped coffee and artisanal juices and enjoyed some light breakfast bites, Allen interviewed White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Notably, it was the sole event that I saw an official from the Trump Administration the entire weekend and the line for the rare WHCD daytime event stretched a block long. (The MAGA crowd did their own partying over the weekend at hotspot Butterworth’s and the Willard.)
During the interview, Leavitt pushed back against the notion that the White House has been limiting press access for specific outlets, saying “no one has been restricted, we’ve just given more outlets and more voices.” Leavitt was also asked about a recent interview between The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg and Trump, which she said went, “very well.” (Trump posted ahead of the interview with Goldberg, Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker that he was doing it “out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it’s possible for The Atlantic to be ‘truthful.’”)
Around 6:30 pm, I headed over to City Tavern for a party hosted by CAA and Condé Nast, parent company of Vanity Fair. Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch was on hand, along with guests such as Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman, Vanity Fair‘s Molly Jong-Fast, the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer and Susan Glasser, the Times’s Peter Baker, NBC News’s Yamiche Alcindor and Melanie Zanona, reporter and host Tara Palmeri, Puck’s Leigh Ann Caldwell, MSNBC’s Michael Steele, and Bill Nye. Scherer and Parker, fresh off the aforementioned Trump interview, were in attendance, as well as a gaggle of fellow media reporters: the Times’ Michael Grynbaum, Semafor’s Max Tani, New York’s Charlotte Klein, and Mediaite’s Aidan McLaughlin. The party stretched across multiple levels of Georgetown space, with guests nibbling on Impossible burgers and fries.
Perhaps the most sought-after attendee of the night was newly minted MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler, who walked in and a line immediately formed to chat about the cable network spinning off from NBCUniversal. Later in the evening, one political reporter asked me specifically what I knew about the endeavor and how many correspondents MSNBC planned to bring on as they expand their newsgathering division.
I also ran into Fox News’s Trey Yingst at City Tavern, who flew in from Israel, where he has been covering the Israel-Hamas war for the network. Yingst handed me a mini press pin, a “smaller version of the PRESS stripe that reporters in the Middle East wear on their flak jackets,” telling me he made it to “stand in solidarity with the journalists of Gaza.” Yingst added that “we must continue to speak out in support of our Palestinian colleagues, and all journalists who are risking their lives to practice our craft.” The Fox News reporter also showed his appreciation for the weekend’s festivities, telling me that the “celebration of journalism” should “always be the focus.”
I then headed a few blocks over to Osteria Mozza, the splashy LA import that was the venue of the much-anticipated UTA bash, where charcuterie, including endless burrata, was flowing, as were the negronis. UTA Vice Chairman Jay Sures was there, along with an interesting mix of media types, like CNN’s Jake Tapper and Joanna Coles, politicians, such as Rep. Joaquin Castro, and entertainment world figures: Bobby Flay, Kevin O’Leary, Jason Isaacs, and Alex Borstein, and Dean Norris. I spotted technology reporter and podcast host Kara Swisher, casually dressed in a sweater and jeans, holding court in a booth in an outside area.
As I ventured back in, Klobuchar was laughing along with Jon Favreau, one member of the Pod Save America crew. When I had caught up with Favreau, a cofounder of Crooked Media, which had hosted a cocktail reception earlier that evening at Cafe Riggs, his outlook on the proceedings was fairly grim. “The idea of the relevance of the Correspondents’ weekend, it went away a long time ago, but especially with Trump’s second term,” he told me. “I don’t think there’s much to celebrate because I think that the attack on press freedom is worse than it’s ever been in the history of our country.” Favreau admitted that while it was nice to catch up with old friends, but “I don’t think we should fool ourselves into thinking this is some celebration of press freedom.”
I also spotted numerous independent content creators at the UTA event, including the entire Pod Save team, Jordy Meiselas from MeidasTouch, and TikTok’s Suzanne Lambert. I also ran into Lorenz again and asked her about the influx of independent creator representation across the weekend. “The White House Correspondents Dinner used to be this time when old media would hobnob with the political elite. Now that entire system is dead and nobody cares about those people,” she said. Lorenz added that “The entire weekend has been dominated by independent creators, from Substackers to YouTubers. Johnny Harris is here, MeidasTouch people. It’s all about YouTube talent, podcasters, newsletter writers, TikTokers.”
At Saturday night’s dinner, Daniels acknowledged that it had been “an extremely difficult year for all of us” and “difficult for this association,” adding: “We’ve been tested, attacked, but every single day our members get up, they run to the White House, plane, train, automobile, with one mission, holding the powerful accountable.”
One award winner, Thompson, of Axios, spoke of the importance of holding the White House accountable—as well as the press. “To my bones, I believe that reporting, and the White House Correspondents Association, is as necessary as ever. President Biden’s decline, and its coverup by the people around him, is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception,” he said, adding: “We, myself included, missed a lot of this story and some people trust us less because of it.”
While the Hilton ballroom was packed with journalists, many hailing from long-established outlets, Substack, an emerging force in the news media, was doing some counterprogramming with a party at The Line. Throughout the past few days, amid talk of whether the White House Correspondents Dinner weekend is a relic of the past, it was notable how many media upstarts were making the rounds. At Substack’s party, I chatted with Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan, the Young Turks’s Cenk Uygur, Brian Tyler Cohen, and Darcy among others about their growing audiences in independent media. Also in the crowd was Meghan McCain, S.E Cupp and Jessica Reed Kraus.
When Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie took the mic and headed to the bannister to address those in attendance, it took a while to quiet the rowdy crowd. “I love journalists,” McKenzie said, adding “I love the rat-bags from the right, and I love the pugilists on the left. I love the centrists, and the nutjobs, and the fringe views and the radical voices, those from outside the establishment, the pro-establishment, the anti-establishment. And I really love that they’re all on Substack.”
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