Michelle Wolfe’s performance during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner made waves as her monologue against Trump prompted several attendees to walk out.
Wolfe ripped into the Trump administration with unabashed vulgarity and drew the ire of many as a result. Numerous news organizations spoke out after the event, claiming that Wolfe had crossed the line and gone too far.
Wolfe personally attacked Huckabee Sanders, stating, “She’s very resourceful. She burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Maybe she’s born with it; maybe it’s lies.”
She also lashed out at Trump’s wife, saying she was “about as helpful as a box of empty tampons.”
Those lines were a few of the many verbal quips that sent the dinner into a frenzy.
The outrage prompted Trump to declare the dinner “DEAD as we know it,” and even prompted the Washington Journalists’ Association to issue a statement from the group’s president, Margaret Talev. “Last night’s program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people. Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of that mission.”
While Wolfe’s set was undoubtedly scathing, it was not undeserved. While harsh, her jokes were on the mark. She spoke out against the problems she sees in the administration. Not everyone agrees with her assessment, but not everyone has to. The job of a comedian is not to please everyone, but to defend their own position through their humor and wit.
Wolfe unflinchingly spoke the truth. It wasn’t pretty and it certainly wasn’t polite, but comedy doesn’t have to be. Comedians have always been able to speak out about issues with an upfrontness not seen in other media. Wolfe did just that. If the dinner wanted a PC routine, they should have done as Wolfe said: “You should have done more research before you got me to do this.”
The overall purpose of the Correspondents’ Dinner and of the press corps in general is to speak the truth. Wolfe did just that; she spoke the truth, a fact highlighted by her ending of her tirade on a somber truth: “Flint still doesn’t have clean water.”
