White House Correspondents' Association President Says Press Is Not 'The Enemy' While Taking Aim At Trump
The annual event was snubbed by President Trump yet again this year.
'We journalists are a lot of things. We are competitive and pushy. We are impatient and sometimes we think we know everything, but we're also human,' WHCA President Eugene Daniels said on stage at the event at the Washington Hilton hotel. 'We miss our families and significant life moments in service to this job.'
He went on to tell the crowd that 'we care deeply about accuracy and take seriously the heavy responsibility of being stewards of the public's trust.'
'What we are not is the opposition, what we are not is the enemy of the people and what we are not is the enemy of the state,' Daniels added as the crowd erupted in applause.
His comments were apparently aimed at Trump, who has repeatedly voiced dangerous accusations against the press, calling them the 'enemy of the people' multiple times since taking office for his first term in January 2017.
Trump's second administration has been riddled with a ramped-up surge of anti-media rhetoric and incessant attacks on 'fake news.' In February, the Associated Press was banned from the presidential pool for not referring to the 'Gulf of Mexico' by Trump's preferred name for the geographic landmark — 'Gulf of America' — following his executive order.
Trump is the only president, aside from Ronald Reagan, who hasn't attended the annual Correspondents' Dinner while in office since its first event in 1921, which was started by journalists who cover the White House. Notably, Reagan's absence in 1981 was reportedly due to his recovery after he was shot in an assassination attempt.
'I want to be clear about something: We don't invite presidents of the United States to this because it's for them,' Daniels continued in his speech. 'We don't invite them because we want to cozy up to them or curry favor. We don't only extend invites to the presidents who say they love journalists or who say they are defenders of the First Amendment and a free press.'
The head of WHCA added: 'We invite them to remind them that they should be. We invite them to demonstrate that those of us who have chosen the public service of journalism aren't doing it because we love flights on Air Force One or walking into the Oval Office. It's to remind them why a strong Fourth Estate is essential for democracy.'
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