President Joe Biden showed off his comedic streak on Saturday, April 29, making jabs at Fox News, Republicans, and even himself at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.
And The Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr., who hosted Saturday’s event at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., took aim at the same targets.
“I believe in the First Amendment, and not just because my good friend Jimmy Madison wrote it,” Biden told the crowd in one of many jokes about his age.
“Call me old, I call it being seasoned,” the 80-year-old said. “You say I’m ancient, I say I’m wise. You say I’m over the hill, Don Lemon would say, ‘That’s a man in his prime.’”
And Biden referenced the speculation that he doesn’t like media magnate Rupert Murdoch, 92. “That’s simply not true,” the president said. “How could I dislike a guy who makes me look like Harry Styles?”
Biden also made fun of his Republican critics. “I want everyone to have fun tonight, but please be safe,” he said. “If you find yourself disoriented or confused, it’s either you’re drunk or Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Later in his speech, he said, “You all keep reporting that my approval rating is at 42 percent. I think you don’t know this: Kevin McCarthy called me and asked me, ‘Joe, what the hell is your secret?’”
And Biden welcomed journalists from “MSNBC, owned by NBCUniversal” and “Fox News, owned by Dominion Voting Systems,” in reference to Fox News’ $787 million payment to Dominion to settle a defamation suit. “Last year, your favorite Fox News reporters are able to attend because they were fully vaccinated and boosted. This year, with that $787 million settlement, they’re here because they couldn’t say no to a free meal. And hell, I’d call Fox honest, fair, and truthful, but then I could be sued for defamation.”
In his turn at the mic, Wood teased Biden — quipping, for example, that Biden left classified documents at the podium.
He also said that half the dinner guests on Saturday night thought he was Kenan Thompson, the other half thought he was Louis Armstrong, and Biden thought he was “the dad on Family Matters.”
And while the French took to the streets over their retirement age going from 62 to 64, Americans “have an 80-year-old man begging us for four more years of work,” Wood said.
Meanwhile, both Biden and Wood mocked Tucker Carlson, who was abruptly axed from Fox News a week prior.
“The job isn’t finished!” Biden said, citing his reelection campaign slogan. “I mean, it is finished for Tucker Carlson.”
But Wood said he could commiserate with Carlson: “I work at The Daily Show, so I, too, have been blindsided by the sudden departure of the host of a fake news program.”