Biden cites threats to democracy after roasting Trump at White House correspondents' dinner
- Biden called Trump's presidency a "plague" during the White House correspondents' dinner.
- He also referenced the Jan. 6 riots in a joke, to which the audience gasped.
President Joe Biden took aim at former President Donald Trump during the White House Correspondents' dinner Saturday, calling Trump's presidency a "horrible plague."
"It's the first time a president attended this dinner in six years," Biden said. "It's understandable. We had a horrible plague, followed by two years of COVID."
The annual dinner was postponed for the past two years due to the pandemic. Biden also remarked that Former President Donald Trump was not in attendance during his entire time in office.
He continued: "Imagine my predecessor came to this dinner this year. Now that would really have been a real coup if that occurred," to which the audience gasped.
"A little tough, huh?" Biden replied.
Biden also took time to be serious, mentioning the "gravest of threats" overseas to "the liberal world order" as well as the threat of disinformation in the US.
"And at home poison is running through our democracy — all this taking place with disinformation massively on the rise, but the truth is buried by lies and the lies live on as truth," Biden continued. "What's clear, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, that you, a free press, matter more than you ever did in the last century."
"A free press is not the enemy of the people. Far from it. At your best, you're guardians of the truth," Biden said.
Biden took digs at the journalists in attendance as well, saying that they were "the only group of Americans with a lower approval rating than I have."
Biden also referenced Sean Hannity's texts to Mark Meadows. Hannity asked the former Trump chief of staff what Fox News needed to cover to help Trump during the 2020 election.
"Fox News, I'm really sorry your preferred candidate lost the last election," Biden said. "To make it up to you, I'm happy to give my chief of staff to you all so we can tell Sean Hannity what to say every day."
"The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah, took to the stage after the president and made some digs at Biden, including a mention of his recent announcements surrounding student loan debt cancellation.
The comedian started by mentioning that First Lady Jill Biden was still working full-time, a first for a presidential spouse.
"Now, you might think it's because she loves teaching so much but it's actually because she's still paying off his student debts — I'm sorry about that, Joe," Noah said: "Yeah, I guess you should have voted for Bernie."