An election-year roast of President Biden in front of reporters, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday clashed with growing public discord over the war between Israel and Hamas, with protests outside the event that condemned the management of the conflict by Mr. Biden. and media coverage of Western news.
Mr. Biden, like most of his predecessors, used the annual White House Correspondents' Association banquet to attack his rival, former President Donald Trump. He followed the banter with solemn warnings about what he said would happen if Trump won the presidency again.
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With hundreds of protesters demonstrating against the war in Gaza outside the event and concerns over the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the dangers to journalists covering the conflict, war hung over this year's event . But the loudspeakers inside made only mention of the conflict even though some had to run a gauntlet of protesters. Mr. Biden's speech, which lasted about 10 minutes, made no mention of the ongoing war or the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“What a shame!” shouted protesters dressed in the traditional Palestinian kefiyeh cloth, running after men in tuxedos and suits and women in long dresses carrying clutch bags as guests hurried in for dinner.
Chants accused American journalists of covering up the war and misrepresenting it. “We Western media see you, and all the horrors you hide,” the crowds chanted at one point.
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Other protesters lay motionless on the sidewalk, next to mock-ups of flak jackets with “press” insignia.
Ralliers shouted “Free Palestine, free”. They cheered when at one point someone inside the Washington Hilton, where the dinner has been held for decades, unfurled a Palestinian flag from a top-floor hotel window.
Criticism of the Biden administration's support for Israel's six-month military offensive in Gaza has spread across American college campuses, with students setting up camps in an effort to force their universities to leave Israel. Counter-protests support Israel's offensive and complain of anti-Semitism.
Mr. Biden's motorcade took an alternate route from the White House to the Washington Hilton on Saturday than in previous years, largely avoiding the crowds of protesters.
Mr. Biden's speech to nearly 3,000 people was followed by “Saturday Night Live” host Colin Jost. Academy Award winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Scarlett Johansson, Jon Hamm and Chris Pines were among the other stars.
Kelly O'Donnell, president of the Correspondents' Association, opened the event by reminding the audience of the important work journalists do but noting that the dinner is taking place at “a complex time for our nation,” and in a decisive election year.
O'Donnell went on to list the dozens of journalists who have been jailed around the world, including Americans Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice. The families of those journalists attended as they have in previous dinners. He briefly mentioned the journalists killed in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Mr. Biden began his roast by taking direct aim at Mr. Trump, calling him “Sleeping Don,” referring to a nickname Mr. Trump had previously given the president. He went on to point out that despite being of a similar age, the two presidential hopefuls have little else in common.
“My vice president really endorses me,” Biden said. Former Vice President Mike Pence has refused to support Trump's re-election bid.
The president gave a somber speech about what he believes is at stake this election, saying another Trump administration would be even more damaging to America than his first term. “We have to take this seriously — eight years ago we could have written it off as 'Trump talk,' but not after January 6,” Biden told the audience, referring to Trump supporters who storm the Capitol after Mr. Biden. defeated Trump in the 2020 election.
Law enforcement, including the Secret Service, instituted additional street closures and other measures to ensure what Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said would be “the highest levels of safety and security for assistants”.
The agency was working with Washington police to protect protesters' right to assembly, Guglielmi said. However, “we will continue to be intolerant of any violent or destructive behavior.”
Organizers of the protest said they wanted to draw attention to the large number of Palestinian and other Arab journalists killed by the Israeli army since the war began in October.
More than two dozen journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week asking their colleagues in Washington to boycott the dinner entirely.
“The toll exacted on us just to fulfill our journalistic duties is staggering,” the letter states. “We are subjected to detention, interrogation and torture by the Israeli military, all for the 'crime' of journalistic integrity.”
One organizer complained that the White House Correspondents' Association, which represents the hundreds of journalists who cover the president, has been largely silent since the first weeks of the war on the killings of Palestinian journalists. WHCA did not respond to a request for comment.
According to a preliminary investigation released Friday by the Committee to Protect Journalists, nearly 100 journalists have died covering the war in Gaza. Israel has defended its actions, saying it has been attacking militants.
“Since the war between Israel and Gaza began, journalists have been paying the highest price, their lives, to defend our right to the truth. Every time a journalist is killed or injured, we lose a piece of this truth,” CPJ program director Carlos. MartÃnez de la Serna said in a statement.
Sandra Tamari, executive director of the Adalah Justice Project, a U.S.-based Palestinian advocacy group that helped organize the journalists' letter to Gaza, said “it's shameful that the media is dining and laughing with the president Biden while enabling Israeli devastation and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.”
In addition, the Adalah Justice Project began an email campaign targeting 12 media executives from various media outlets, including The Associated Press, who were expected to attend the dinner who previously signed a letter calling for the protection of journalists in Gaza.
“How can you still go when your comrades in Gaza have asked you not to?” a protester asked the guests where they were headed. “You are accomplices.”
