The White House Correspondents’ Dinner took place on Saturday, April 28, with comedian Michelle Wolf as the featured speaker. Though it is typical for the comedian to do a “roast” at the dinner, Wolf’s performance raised controversy due to some, such as members of the news media, liberal and conservative politicians, commentators and members of the public, perceiving her comments towards the White House staff, media and various other political figures to be too harsh. Even though Wolf’s performance was seemingly in line with past comedians’, like Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert, she was criticized more by both conservative and liberal journalists and politicians for making comments that were no worse than the current president’s.
The comments that many took issue with the most had to do with Wolf’s jokes about White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was present at the dinner. A few notable ones were,“I love you as Aunt Lydia in The Handmaid’s Tale” and “[Sarah Sanders] burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye.” Some critics, such as MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski and White House Correspondent for The New York Times Maggie Haberman, were upset with the fact that Wolf seemingly took a dig at Sanders’s appearance with the latter comment. However, the joke itself was not directed negatively towards Sanders’s appearance, but towards her pervasive lying and twisting of facts either defending Trump’s statements or claiming he never said them during her press briefings and other media appearances.
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) released a statement on Twitter disavowing Wolf and her performance on Sunday, April 29. To invite a comedian to perform and then criticize her for doing her job is ridiculous, especially when the WHCA had ample opportunity to do research into Wolf and her usual brand of comedy. If they did not like what she had to say, then they shouldn’t have invited her in the first place. She was simply doing the job that she was hired to do, and the WHCA should have known what they were getting into when they invited her.
Wolf’s jokes are nothing new when compared to other comedians who performed at the dinner, such as Elayne Boosler, who penned an op-ed in TIME commending Wolf for her performance and stating that it was no different than Boosler’s own, and it seems ridiculous that she is receiving so much scrutiny for merely pointing out the truth in a biting way. Some people like MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski who claimed that “all women have a duty to unite when these attacks happen,” but the argument that Wolf was contributing to the culture of women trying to bring other women down is not a valid one. That argument only applies if a woman is being cruel to another woman without warrant. It doesn’t mean that women can’t and shouldn’t hold other women accountable for their actions. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has consistently lied to the public and defended some of President Trump’s more egregious statements or claimed he never said them, so it isn’t wrong to call her out for that.
The truth is that we have a president who has said far worse things about women, their appearances, the press, people of color and even members of his own cabinet, yet there are still some, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who argue that he was just kidding and that everyone should learn to take a joke. It’s extremely hypocritical to turn around and vilify Michelle Wolf for much less, especially when her comments were not just mean-spirited and unjustified digs at women who did nothing wrong. She called out women who have been complicit in President Trump’s lies and manipulation of the American public, and she is justified in doing so. It is understandable to be angry if a comment or joke is unwarranted and simply cruel, but that was not the case here. Michelle Wolf was hired to do a roast, and she did just that. She shouldn’t be held to different standards than so many comedians before her, let alone the president of the U.S.
