The organization drew intense criticism following last year’s dinner after comedian Michelle Wolf’s sharply anti-Trump performance
President Donald Trump suggested he might attend the White House Correspondents’ Association’s next dinner after the group announced it would have an eminent historian — and not a comedian — as principal speaker.
While comedians have long headlined the annual event, the WHCA said Monday that April’s speaker will be Ron Chernow, a biographer of presidents and other American leaders. The organization drew intense criticism following last year’s dinner after comedian Michelle Wolf’s sharply anti-Trump performance.
At a time of increasingly tense relations between Trump and the White House press corps, Chernow said the association asked him to “make the case for the First Amendment and I am happy to oblige.” He’ll also share his perspective on American politics and history at the April 27 event in Washington, said Olivier Knox, the association’s president.
“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,” said Knox, chief Washington correspondent for SiriusXM.
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Chernow said “freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to basics.”
“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,” he said. “While I have never been mistaken for a stand-up comedian, I promise that my history lesson won’t be dry.”
The shift away from a comic comes about six months after Wolf’s nationally televised performance at the last dinner attracted attention for the negative barbs she directed at Trump, his daughter Ivanka, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and counsellor Kellyanne Conway.
Reaction to the selection of Chernow, who in the past has criticized Trump, appeared largely positive on Twitter — but Wolf was an exception.
“The @ whca are cowards,” she tweeted. “The media is complicit. And I couldn’t be prouder.”
Presidents traditionally attend the dinner. But Trump, who has a contentious relationship with journalists, skipped this year’s event for the second straight year. The White House has not said whether Trump will attend next year.
Chernow’s biography of George Washington won the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the author of a widely acclaimed biography of Alexander Hamilton, which inspired the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association was founded in 1914 to represent the White House press corps. Dinner proceeds support scholarships for aspiring journalists, along with awards recognizing excellence in news coverage of the White House.
