While Los Angeles hosts the Oscars and New York hosts the Met Gala, Washington DC hosts the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Dinner. The event, which dates back to 1921, is traditionally held on the last Saturday in April and raises money for the WHCA, an organization of journalists that covers the White House and rewards reporters and photographers each year for their fearless work, and providing scholarships to students of university journalism programs. And just like the Oscars or the Met Gala, star power helps light up the night.
Saturday evening saw Saturday evening liveColin Jost serves as co-host alongside President Joe Biden. Jost’s wife Scarlett Johansson, meanwhile, brought the fashion forward in a columnar Giorgio Armani dress in white, while Rachel Brosnahan wore a sleek black satin dress by Jonathan Cohen and Sophia Bush (who made a glamorous red carpet debut with her friend, former soccer pro Ashlyn Harris) carried Harbison. Elsewhere on the red carpet, Chris Pine, Keri Russell, Fran Drescher, Molly Ringwald, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Rosario Dawson mingled with renowned journalists and television journalists such as Wolf Blitzer, Gayle King and Dana Bash.
Around 6:30 PM, as demonstrators of the war between Israel and Hamas demonstrated outside, dinner guests began to crowd the expansive ballroom of the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Avenue. Inside, about 2,600 people were seated at tables, with all eyes on the bride and groom’s table where Biden, Jost, Kamala Harris and more VIPs sat — especially since the event was streamed live by several news networks. Access to YouTube was really all you needed to feel like you were in the room too.
The fuss in Washington was on full display: Al Roker talking about it with Senator Chuck Schumer; Harris catches up with Eugene Daniels (Politicos White House correspondent and self-described “walking Beyoncé encyclopedia” – until it was time for the highlight of the evening: Jost’s monologue. Every year a comedian is invited to (lightly) roast the president, make fun of Congress, and joke about current affairs, all in a fun way; After all, it is no news that politicians have long provided the best material for comedians, something Jost and his colleagues at SNL knows it all too well. But President Biden also made some jokes: He addressed Lorne Michaels (who was also in attendance) about all the comedians who have portrayed him on television over the years, saying, “Who said I don’t create jobs!”
Some of these moments, and more, are below in our roundup of the best photos from the 2024 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
