What's ahead for the White House Correspondents' Association dinner? Greg Gutfeld?
Among those responding to this year's White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner Saturday evening, featuring comedian Michelle Wolf, was President Donald Trump. In the two days after Saturday night's large, annual, invitation-only elite event at the Washington Hilton, Trump tweeted three times about the dinner – the second one in a row that he declined to attend, in favor this year of a speech to a large crowd in Washington County, Michigan.
While Washington, Michigan, was a big success, Washington, D.C., just didn’t work. Everyone is talking about the fact that the White House Correspondents Dinner was a very big, boring bust...the so-called comedian really “bombed.” @greggutfeld should host next year! @PeteHegseth
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 29, 2018
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it. The filthy “comedian” totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance). Put Dinner to rest, or start over!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 30, 2018
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is DEAD as we know it. This was a total disaster and an embarrassment to our great Country and all that it stands for. FAKE NEWS is alive and well and beautifully represented on Saturday night!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 30, 2018
Greg Gutfeld.
In response to the president's tweet on Sunday suggesting that Fox News personality Greg Gutfeld host the association's dinner next year, Gutfeld weighed in on The Five on Monday afternoon, where he is one of the highly rated program's five co-hosts. As Mediaite reported, "Gutfeld is on board [with Trump's suggestion]. Well, sort of."
Gutfeld is up for hosting an event the night of the dinner next year, but "not there."
"We have to do a counter-dinner," he proposed. "Maybe do it for police widows. The money goes there and then Trump has to go to that instead of that."
Margaret Talev, the president of the WHCA, said her "only regret is that, to some extent, those 15 minutes are now defining four hours of what was a really wonderful, unifying night." Speaking to CNN's Brian Stelter (who defended Wolf's performance) on Reliable Sources Sunday morning, Talev said:
"Comedy is meant to be provocative" but "my interest overwhelmingly was in unifying the country, and I understand that we may have fallen a little bit short on that goal."
Michelle Wolf, meanwhile, who hosted this year's dinner and immediately trended to the top of social media for her controversial comic routine that included several obscenities and unprecedented attacks on two high-ranking women in the Trump administration, told NPR's Fresh Air on Monday:
I wouldn't change a single word that I said. I'm very happy with what I said. And I'm glad I stuck to my gun.
Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran reporter and analyst of news on national politics, media, and popular culture. He is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. Follow Peter on Twitter at @pchowka.