Joe Biden threw a few zingers at his rival Donald Trumpbut he devoted a large part of his speech to the serious threat to democracy.
“Donald has had a few rough days lately. You could call it stormy weather,” Biden joked, referring to Trump’s current secret trial.
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The president also criticized reports that Trump had dozed off during his trial, calling him a “sleeping Don.”
“Trump’s speech was so embarrassing that the Robert E. Lee statue surrendered again,” he said.
The president, however, devoted much of his speech to warning of the threat to democracy and the role of the press in a free society.
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“The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Biden said. “Each of us has a role to play, a serious role to play, to guarantee the sustainability of democracy. American democracy,” Biden said. “…In the age of misinformation, it is more important than ever to have credible information that people can trust. It makes you, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, it makes you more important than ever.
With a much slicker production than WHCD has seen in several years, tonight’s gathering moved quickly for laughs. Drawing on Jost’s day job, a sizzling SNL reel of POTUS through the decades drew huge laughs from the well-heeled crowd.
A by-the-numbers video tour from Steve Kornaki explained how many people were in the ballroom, how many potatoes were eaten and how many scholarships were handed out by the WHCA this year. It was an even bigger hit in the room than the SNL collection.
Impersonator Matt Friend received a more mixed reception with his references to the man who set himself on fire outside the former president’s secret trial in New York earlier this month. If that joke blew up, a follow-up to South Dakota governor and potential vice president Kristi Noem’s recent revelation about the killing of her dog and other animals crashed with groans from the audience.
Taking on his rival Trump and his age head-on from the start, Biden received a rousing round of applause for emphasizing that “age is the only thing we have in common.” My vice president actually supports me. But in remarks that were shorter than usual, the president’s praise of Jost’s Weekend Update co-host Michael Che drew one of the biggest laughs of the evening.
Biden also referred to the many SNL artists who embodied it. “Lorne is a great friend who has eight actors who play me. Who the hell says I’m not a great job creator? »
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