On April 29, President Biden attended the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C.

In addition to the press and politicians in attendance, there were so-called celebrities at the dinner, including actor Bradley Whitford, singer John Legend and his former model wife Chrissy Teigen, reality TV cast members, actresses, and other personages. One actress, Julia Fox, inexplicitly wore stark white makeup on her face like a Kabuki character.

National Public Radio’s Tamara Keith first spoke at the dinner, and in a humorless and pretentious manner, she proclaimed that the dinner was a special affair. 

“There is something uniquely American about the fact that we can all be here together. And then these reporters can go out on Monday and do stories about these very same politicians that pull no punches. When we’re asking questions in the Oval Office, or under the wing of Air Force One, or in the briefing room, we are stand-ins for the American people. Our responsibility to the country is woven into the fabric of the nation. Enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution, and we take that responsibility seriously.”

One might note that Biden rarely answers questions from the press in the Oval Office, under the wing of Air Force One, in the briefing room, or anywhere else.

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President Biden, who often appears clueless and stumbles about like the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, addressed the gathering at the dinner. Although the dinner is traditionally a roast and light-hearted affair, Biden, tone-deaf as usual, spent far more time speaking about serious issues and self-serving reelection politics than he did delivering his staff-written lame jokes.

(Poorly delivered jokes, I might add. Don’t quit your day job, Mr. President.)

And he sucked up to the journalists in attendance by stating, “Let me start on a serious note. Jill, Kamala, Doug, and I, and members of our administration, are here to send a message to the country and, quite frankly, to the world: The free press is a pillar — maybe the pillar — of a free society, not the enemy.

“Thomas Jefferson wrote — you all know this quote — Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter.” 

The mainstream journalists, largely Democrats and Biden supporters, applauded, even though Biden is one of the least accessible presidents to the press. Biden even made a joke of dodging the press by stating, “In a lot of ways, this dinner sums up my first two years in office: I’ll talk for ten minutes, take zero questions, and cheerfully walk away.”

And the mainstream media laughed about being made impotent by the president.

Say what you will about President Trump, but he always faced the press and fielded their mostly hostile questions with gusto.

“As I said last year at this dinner, a poison is running through our democracy and parts of the extreme press,” Biden stated. “The truth buried by lies and lies living on as truth. Lies told for profit and power. Lies of conspiracy and malice repeated over and over again, designed to generate a cycle of anger, hate, and even violence.” 

And this is from a career-long serial liar, exaggerator and plagiarist.

One joke that made me chuckle was when Daily Show comic correspondent Roy Wood Jr. took to the podium after Biden and said, “Real quick, Mr. President, I think you left some of your classified documents up here.” 

President Biden, who was caught illegally storing classified documents in his Delaware home after criticizing former President Trump for having classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Resort, yukked it up.

One might note that Biden rarely answers questions from the press in the Oval Office, under the wing of Air Force One, in the briefing room, or anywhere else.

But not everyone found the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner to be a notable event. 

Greg Gutfeld, speaking on his late-night Fox Cable News show, Gutfeld!, noted, “The mainstream media sucks, and it’s worse in a tux because the coverage reminds us of exactly what it really is about — something I call ego-affirming care.

“It’s where members of the so-called free press can inflate their self-esteem. And, like every award show, it’s artificially created as a reminder that they matter.”

Former Fox News and NBC News broadcaster Megyn Kelly also took issue with the dinner. On her SiriusXM program, The Megyn Kelly Show, she criticized the dinner and the attendees.

“You know who they think is relevant? Chrissy Teigen. That’s who they invited as their big star,” Kelly said. “We’ve gone from George Clooney to Chrissy Teigen, who showed up there like she was literally going to the coronation.”

Kelly spoke of a video that showed Teigen arriving at the dinner with her husband John Legend and three women who held the back of her dress.

“She has, by my count, three minions following her — that’s minions in her view — following her, holding the dress or the train of her existent dress,” Kelly said. “I can see underwear, ok? I can see London, I see France, I see Chrissy’s underpants.

“Nobody shows underpants at the White House Correspondents Dinner, okay, Chrissy? They just don’t do it. And nobody shows up with serfs to carry their train, which there shouldn’t be on your White House Correspondents Dinner dress anyway because it’s barely a formal event.”

Kelly noted that Teigen’s flashy entrance was a picture of “everything wrong with the elitism, the self-importance, the aggrandizement of this fake, stupid event.”

Paul Davis, a Philadelphia writer, also writes the On Crime column in the Washington Times. He is also a contributor to Counterterrorism magazine.