US President Donald Trump has escalated his long-running war with the mainstream media by assailing the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA).
A day after former "Daily Show" comedian Michelle Wolf targeted Trump and his aides on national television, Trump on Sunday night slammed the annual correspondents' dinner as "an embarrassment."
The president went on to describe Wolf's stand-up act as "filthy."
“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it,” Trump tweeted.
“The filthy ‘comedian’ totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance). Put Dinner to rest, or start over!” he added.
Trump was referencing Meyers' 2011 performance in which he ripped into Trump. At that event, even then-President Barack Obama mocked Trump, who at the time was leading the so-called "birther" movement against him.
Some observers say Obama's roasting of Trump that night forced the New York billionaire to run for president in 2016.
For the second consecutive year on Saturday night, Trump failed to attend the annual correspondents' dinner. He was holding a campaign rally outside Washington, DC, that night.
In Trump’s absence, Wolf delivered a 20-minute monologue that roasted the president, Vice President Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and others.
Some journalists said the comedian went over the line with her jokes, particularly the ones aimed at Sanders.
New White House National Security Adviser John Bolton also criticized the event, saying he was happy not to attend.
"Just reprehensible behavior by someone addressing the gathering, and sadly it's par for the course in Washington today," Bolton told Fox News on Sunday.
The Trump administration demanded an apology from the White House Correspondents’ Association, which was refused. However, the association did issue a statement on Sunday night expressing regret about Wolf's performance.
"Last night's program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people," said Margaret Talev, president of the association. "Unfortunately, the entertainer's monologue was not in the spirit of that mission."
She told Politico that some of Wolf's jokes made her "uncomfortable."
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