Comedian Larry Wilmore may have gone too far Saturday when he hosted President Barack Obama’s Annual Correspondent Dinner.
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He shouted out some of the celebrities in the room, like Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo from Spotlight, and Kendall Jenner, who he admitted he doesn’t really know what she does.
He’d opened his address telling the largely white crowd, “Welcome to Negro Night”, and joking that Fox News would likely describe the clambake, in which both speakers were black men, as “two thugs” interrupting an elegant event in Washington.
“Chris Christie was supposed to be here tonight”.
“And let me just say, Mr. President, the office has taken its toll on you”.
“I shouldn’t make fun – Chris lost a lot of weight recently, didn’t he? He felt humiliated. I didn’t feel humiliated, I had a great time”, Trump said. The Boehner stuff was amusing, and it ended with him trying to peer-pressure Obama into smoking a cigarette again.
Turning to Donald Trump, Obama had less favorable jokes about the GOP frontrunner’s presidential prospects.
The speech, heavily laced with jokes and satire, lasted for more than 30 minutes and he acknowledged that the institutions of media and governance are at times at variance. What could he possibly be doing instead?
“Is he at home eating a Trump steak, tweeting out insults to Angela Merkel? Bernie, you look like a million bucks. Or to put it in terms you’ll understand, you look like 37,000 donations of $27 each”. And Obama didn’t pull any punches, zinging Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and himself in a set that would pass muster at the Comedy Cellar. I’m not sure I’m using this right.
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Obama commended Trump’s foreign policy experience, noting that the businessman previously owned the Miss Universe pageant and “has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world – Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina, Miss Azerbaijan”. “You look like a million bucks”, he told Bernie Sanders, the only candidate in attendance at the dinner.
