He famous no president had attended the occasion since Barack Obama did in 2016. The occasion was cancelled for 2 years due to COVID, and Trump boycotted all through his presidency owing to his longstanding beef with the press.
“We had a horrible plague… adopted by two years of COVID,” Biden cracked.
The joke was maybe probably the most biting from Biden over the course of his speech, however removed from the one one. He additionally took intention at Republicans, members of the press — and even himself.
He mentioned he was excited to be on the dinner with the “solely group of People with a decrease approval ranking than I’ve.”
Biden additionally referenced Fox Information’ aggressive anti-vaccine posturing, noting that each one of many community’s journalists who attended the dinner have been “vaccinated and boosted,” as required.
Afterward, Biden insisted that he wasn’t there to assault the GOP.
“That’s not my type. There’s nothing I can say in regards to the GOP that [House Minority leader] Kevin McCarthy hasn’t already placed on tape,” he quipped — a reference to a sequence of damning recordings of McCarthy within the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot.
The president additionally acquired critical as he confused the very important significance of the press at a time when the “reality is buried by lies, and the lies reside on as reality.”
He urged journalists: “Search the reality as greatest you possibly can … to light up and educate.”
