When comic Amber Ruffin was announced as the featured entertainer at this year's White House Correspondents Association dinner, the group's president said she'd be “roasting the most powerful people on all sides of the aisle and the journalists who cover them.”
But after Ruffin referred to the Trump administration as “kind of a bunch of murderers” on a podcast last week, and made clear her focus would largely be on the president, she was out.
Over the weekend, WHCA president Eugene Daniels said his group wanted to refocus the ritzy annual event on journalistic excellence and wouldn't have a comedian. Daniels, host of an upcoming MSNBC weekend show, made no mention of Ruffin's comments in a statement and didn't return a request for comment on Monday.
The president isn't expected to attend the dinner, scheduled for April 26.
An annual event where journalists often invite entertainers as guests, the dinner has featured comics such as Stephen Colbert, Colin Jost and Trevor Noah. Memorably, in 2011, it had as a guest a stone-faced Donald Trump, former star of “The Apprentice,” listening to jokes told by President Barack Obama at his expense.
The last time a comedian did not perform at the dinner was during the first Trump administration in 2019, when historian Ron Chernow spoke.
Ruffin, a writer for NBC's Seth Meyers and featured on CNN's “Have I Got News For You,” told The Daily Beast podcast last week that she was told “you need to be equal and be sure that you give it to both sides and I was like, there's no way" that's going to happen.
Ruffin suggested the Trump team lacked a sense of humor. “I think they get their feelings hurt,” she said. “They want that false equivalency that the media does.”
It was also unclear on Monday when, or if, she made her feelings known to the correspondents' group that she wasn't going to spread her humor around. A spokeswoman for NBC did not return a message about Ruffin.
Fellow comic Samantha Bee, a co-host of the The Daily Beast podcast, agreed during the interview with Ruffin that “it can't be evenhanded.”
Taylor Budowich, a deputy chief of staff at the White House, called Ruffin a “second-rate comedian” and posted her podcast comments on X. “What kind of a sensible, responsible journalist would attend something like this?” Budowich asked on the social media site.
Daniels, in his statement on Saturday, said that he'd been planning for a couple of weeks to reimagine the dinner tradition for a couple of weeks. “I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.”
Budowich subsequently criticized the correspondents group for “turning a blind eye” to Ruffin's comments.
“It's an indictment on how broken and useless this organization has become, so sad that such a storied and consequential group has been so quickly driven into irrelevancy,” he wrote.
Budowich and his colleagues have lately sought to have the administration take over duties the correspondents group has handled for decades, such as which reporters participate in press pools to cover the president and even the seating chart for journalists at the White House press room.
The Associated Press is currently in court after the administration blocked the outlet from access to certain presidential events in retaliation for not following Trump's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico in its influential AP Stylebook, which provides guidance for journalists on word usage. The AP does note that the president calls it the Gulf of America.
Ruffin's exit quickly became a hot topic online, with some critics accusing the correspondents association of “capitulating” to Trump while fans of the president aren't sorry to see her go.
“I would prefer it to be funny,” co-host Sara Haines said on ABC's “The View” on Monday, “and it sounds like this was going to be a tinderbox.”
David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social
FILE - Amber Ruffin arrives at the 16th Annual AAFCA Film Awards on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, file)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia lawmakers addressed scores of legislative vetoes and amendments from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Wednesday, including the governor's 205 revisions to the state's budget bill that were decisively nixed by the Democratic-led General Assembly.
The one-day session in Richmond comes after Youngkin vetoed 158 bills that blocked Democrats’ attempts to reintroduce legislation nearly identical to what they proposed unsuccessfully last year. He also amended about 160 others.
Many of the governor's 205 amendments to the Virginia House budget bill would have trimmed the proposed state spending provisions approved in February in favor of adding $300 million in additional funds to Virginia’s coffers on top of nearly $295 million already slated to be set aside over the biennium.
Youngkin's edits, however, were largely rejected by Democrats wielding power in both chambers, who accepted just 33 of Youngkin's proposed budget revisions and scrapped the remaining amendments.
Youngkin also submitted eight line-item budget vetoes, six of which were sustained by lawmakers. Democratic House Speaker Don Scott ruled out of order Youngkin’s other two vetos, which would have upended funding for a manufactured home acquisition program and a mortgage assistance program.
In ignoring most of Youngkin's budget amendments, Democrats cemented their budget plans to lift a spending cap for public schools’ support services. They also staved off Youngkin's attempts to eliminate a $15 million amendment establishing a first-time homebuyer program.
Youngkin added a budget amendment authorizing the consideration of establishing Oak Hill, the home of former President James Monroe, as a state park. A House bill to that effect failed in the Session during the session. But the House of Delegates nixed the governor's revision, effectively killing the project this budget cycle.
“We’re not going to allow the governor to basically shift money away from the priorities that Democrats had demonstrated when we passed the budget back in February,” Democratic Sen. Mamie Locke said late Wednesday to a group of reporters about the bill at large.
Senate Democrat Adam Ebbin added: “He may say it with a smile, but he’s got the same spirit as President Trump. Those were needless amendments.”
Lawmakers also addressed the governor's other legislative actions, though they did not override any of Youngkin's vetoes. Democrats, who have a thin majority in both chambers, needed a two-thirds supermajority to override Youngkin’s vetoes.
Lawmakers instead mainly spent Wednesday addressing the budget bill and amendments to other legislation, which they only needed a simple majority to act on. Now, Youngkin has about a month to review all remaining bills.
“Over the next 30 days I will review and take final action on the bills and budget amendments that have been sent back to my desk,” Youngkin said in a statement Wednesday. “Thank you again to the General Assembly members for their work throughout this legislative session.”
Lawmakers rejected Youngkin's amendment to a bill requiring the state to increase oversight on pharmacy benefits managers, which set the costs for prescription drugs. Youngkin proposed the issue be studied.
They also rejected his suggestion that a bill banning personal property taxes for the United Daughters of the Confederacy be taken up next year following a tax review.
Still, the governor gets the final say on any legislation that arrives at his desk for a signature after Wednesday.
Except in one instance: lawmakers can preemptively block Youngkin's say if they pass the bill in its original form with two-thirds support after rejecting the governor's amendments.
After rejecting Youngkin's amendments, House lawmakers took up this rare move for bills creating a women's menstrual health program, implementing a study on whether infertility treatments should be supported by health insurance and seeking equal pay for midwives' services. But the Senate did not seek such action, making the House's passage moot.
Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, talks on the phone while the house is at ease Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (Margo Wagner /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, talks to Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (Margo Wagner /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, talks to Del. Rae Cousins, D-Richmond, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (Margo Wagner /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
Sen. Christie New Craig, R-Chesapeake, looks towards a screen displaying vote results on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (Margo Wagner /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, sits at his desk on the senate floor on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (Margo Wagner /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, looks towards a screen displaying vote results on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (Margo Wagner /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, listens to announcements on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (Margo Wagner /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Orange, talks to Del. Phillip Scott, R-Spotsylvania, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (Margo Wagner /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
Speaker of the House Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth talks to Gianni Snidle and Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (Margo Wagner /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
