Highlights: President Obama’s speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Andrew Prokop is a senior politics correspondent at Vox, covering the White House, elections, and political scandals and investigations. He’s worked at Vox since the site’s launch in 2014, and before that, he worked as a research assistant at the New Yorker’s Washington, DC, bureau.
Clip: Obama and his anger translator, Luther. (Via the White House)
President Obama addressed this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night — and many of his jokes sounded a lot like what he really thinks.
At one point, Obama invited Keegan-Michael Key of Key & Peele onstage, to replicate a sketch from the show about "Luther," Obama's "anger translator." As Obama made even-tempered observations, Key stood behind him and translated the president's angry true thoughts.
But when the topic turned to climate change, Obama himself acted irate at the lack of US action, yelling, “It is crazy! What about our kids?! What kind of stupid, shortsighted, irresponsible...” Finally, Key cut him off, recommending that he get counseling.
Obama's full speech at the dinner. (Via the White House)
Several other zingers were aimed at the president’s political opponents. “A few weeks ago Dick Cheney said he thinks I’m the worst president of his lifetime. Which is interesting, because I think Dick Cheney is the worst president of my lifetime,” Obama said.
When he got to Ted Cruz, he couldn’t even keep a straight face when reading the setup for his joke. “Ted Cruz said that denying the existence of climate change...” Obama began. But then he broke up into disbelieving laughter when he saw what was next on the teleprompter. “Makes him like Galileo,” he finally said. “Now that’s not really an apt comparison. Galileo believed the earth revolved around the sun. Ted Cruz believes the earth revolves around Ted Cruz.”
“Rick Santorum announced he would not attend a same-sex wedding of a friend or loved one,” Obama went on. “To which gays and lesbians across the country responded, ‘That’s not gonna be a problem. Don’t sweat that one.’”
Cable news journalists didn’t go untouched either. “On Saturday Night Live, Cecily [Strong] impersonates CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin. Which is surprising, because usually the only people impersonating journalists on CNN are journalists on CNN,” Obama said, to “oohs” in the audience. He soon followed up by observing that “the polar vortex caused so many record lows, they renamed it MSNBC.”
Obama did also poke some fun at himself and his fellow Democrats. “I look so old, John Boehner’s already invited Benjamin Netanyahu to speak at my funeral,” he said. Under Obamacare, he said, “You no longer have to worry about losing your health insurance if you lose your job. You’re welcome, Senate Democrats!” And the president said that after Hillary Clinton went completely unrecognized at a Chipotle, Martin O’Malley went “completely unrecognized at a Martin O’Malley campaign event.”
Finally, the president closed on a serious note, praising the work of journalists and calling for the release of the Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian, imprisoned in Iran.
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