“Election campaign against six-year-olds”
Biden takes aim at himself and Trump
April 28, 2024, 8:36 a.m
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Once a year there is a comedy performance by the US President for the capital’s press in Washington. In the election year, Joe Biden jokes about his own age, but also that of Donald Trump. But he doesn’t just have jokes in his luggage.
US President Joe Biden cracked jokes about former President Donald Trump at the Washington press corps’ traditional gala dinner and urged the media to play their role in democracy. “I’m certainly not asking you to choose a side,” he told the Correspondents’ Dinner audience in Washington on Saturday evening (local time). “I ask you to recognize the gravity of the moment.” Everyone must contribute “to ensuring that American democracy endures.”
The 81-year-old Biden had previously begun his speech self-deprecatingly in view of his advanced age, but also used it to take a number of swipes at his likely opponent in the presidential election campaign. “I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old,” joked the cheerful Biden about Trump’s cognitive abilities.
Biden joked about himself: “I have campaign appearances in Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina. I have had excellent election results in the first 13 US colonies since they were founded.” The first U.S. colonies were founded more than four hundred years ago.
“Sleepy Joe” is still awake
The Journalists Association of Correspondents Accredited to the White House has been organizing the gala evening for more than 100 years. The president is usually a star guest – only Trump never attended during his term in office. In addition to journalists and high-ranking members of the government, some Hollywood big names are always present. This year, actress Scarlett Johansson, among others, was in the audience. She is married to comedian Colin Jost, who took over the traditional entertainment part of the evening. He distributed it towards Trump, but in different directions.
“I would like to point out that Sleepy Joe is still awake after 10 p.m.,” the comedian joked about Biden, who was given the nickname in Trump’s previous presidential campaign in 2020. Addressing the press, Jost said: “Like many people here, I pretend to be making news.” Jost hosts a satirical news program on the US comedy show “Saturday Night Live”.
Pro-Palestinian protesters
As with almost every appearance by President Biden, several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered at the venue on Saturday. They loudly confronted the arriving journalists with criticism of their Middle East reporting. Accompanied by drums, they chanted: “Shame on you” and “Do your job.”
Some protesters wore blue helmets and T-shirts with the words “Press” on them, reminiscent of the protective vests worn by war reporters. One demonstrator explained that this was intended to draw attention to the situation of Palestinian journalists. According to the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders in early March, more than 100 journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7th. A criticism from the Foreign Press Association (FPA) is that Israel only allows independent reporters very limited access to the war zone. The responsible authorities justify this with security and logistical problems.
While pro-Palestinian demonstrations have recently expanded and sometimes intensified, particularly at US universities, police officers on site believe that Saturday was a relatively small protest. According to a US reporter present, there was a similar scale climate protest outside the venue’s doors last year.