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♪ ♪ good evening from our nbc news studios in washington, d.c. i am jacob soboroff. you are watching live coverage on msnbc of the 2018 white house correspondents dinner. members of the washington press corps and president trump's administration have taken their seats inside the washington hilton for the event affection negotiate known as nerd prom. the annual din area nearly 100-year-old celebration of the first amendment. and an ever so brief and well-deserved break from the nonstop work that is covering the white house and all that entails. our regular bureaus will probably know this is not my normal stomping grounds. i'm often talking with the voters who give politicians in this town their job.

tonight is a little different, most of my d.c. colleagues are inside that stuffy ballroom you're looking at while we have all the real fun out here. we cannot go any further without pointing out the man who is normally roasted and toasted at this event will not be present tonight. president trump given his contentious relationship with the press, as well as though shortage of scandals from the russia investigation to his payments to the porn staff stormy daniels, which i have a feeling we'll hear about tonight, yet given a no-show to the annual dinner and event which raises money for journalism scholarships. he has for the second year in a row skipped town to head to a campaign-style rally this year in michigan. here is what the president of the united states said just moments ago. >> these are very dishonest people. many of them. they are very, very dishonest people. fake news. very dishonest. >> very dishonest. a reminder, the last president

of the united states to skip the correspondents' dinner was this man, ronald reagan, as he was recovering from a gunshot wound suffered in an assassination attempt, and even then he still called in. we know this event hasn't stopped the business of the white house from taking place in the past. it's only been canceled three times since it started in 1921. in fact, in 2011, president obama attended this dinner after giving the order to carry out a military raid in pakistan that ultimately led to the death of osama bin laden. how calm was president obama, given the circumstances? watch his reaction to this joke from seth meyers. >> people think bin laden is hiding in the hindu kush. did you know every day from 4:00 to 5:00 he hosts a show on c-span? >> that was 2011. and it was an important year for another reason. it is the last white house

correspondents' dinner that donald trump attended. in a little bit we are going to show you why that was. he was a citizen then but president trump, like all of you, is likely watching on television tonight. probably from air force one. what he will see this year is headliner wa she will wolf, comedienne best known for her work on "the daily show." a full-throated defense of the press from the association's president as well, and we're also likely to see awards from some of the best journalism of the year, including several stories the president is probably not that big of a fan of. tonight is going to be a lot of fun, glad you're with us. joining me for the evening, kimberly atkins, msnbc contributor and chief washington correspondent for the bo"boston herald." david litt, former speech written for president obama. comedian, author, and activist berenson. savannahellers patrolled the red carpet for us tonight. >> jacob, i'm here on the red carpet at the white house correspondents dinner where the dipper is going on inside the ballroom without president trump

for the second year in a row. he did encourage his administration to come this year, which is different from last year. i got to talk with some former and current administration officials about what this night's like. do you think that the president should have been in the room to kind of take the joan joke? >> look, i think the president did that just a month or so ago at the gridiron, it was a great night. he encouraged his staff and team to be here. and now we get double the coverage where half of us here and the president's in michigan talking about some of the great successes that we've had over the last year and a half. and we think it's going to be a good night. >> i think he made the right decision. you know, this is -- i think the president's had an opportunity to make sure that he celebrates the first amendment and the freedom of the press in his own way. coming to a party is not the be all and end all of that. >> what about being able to sort of have this interface with the press, be able to have the american public be able to see that? >> the american public sees the president constantly, and the american press had him -- many

had him to themselves many times this week. >> jacob, i also spoke with ohio governor john kasich about what he thinks about president trump not being here. while he did say he believes we are in a post-truth world, he said without president trump here, it just means there's less traffic for him to get here so he was happy about that. obviously there's less traffic on the red carpet since the event's actually going on inside. back to you, jacob. >> they're having a good time already. more reporting from the red carpet throughout our coverage tonight. kimberly atkins, washington bureau chief for the "boston herald," david litt, "funny or die," behrend thurston here as well. the president in michigan, he asked, one of the last things he asked, is this better than that phony white house correspondents dinner? i could have been up there tonight with people who hate your guts. >> yeah, i mean, he said repeatedly that he doesn't have a thin skin about this party and that he can take a joke and that he actually enjoyed, for

example, 2011 when president obama really ribbed him. but ever since he's been in office, he's chosen instead to do a rally where he's surrounded by people who are going to chant for him. it seems like he's picking a much more friendly audience on purpose rather than going and being in front of all the press who he rails against every single day, calls them the enemy, not just of him but of the united states. and he's clearly making a choice of what audience he prefers. >> david, straight up, is the president a little chicken about showing up in this room? >> i think donald trump does not like to be laughed at. and he's also not very good at telling jokes to people who don't already love him. he's got a sense of humor but in the same way a bully giving someone a wedgie in a playground is a sense of humor. unless you're already into it, he's not for you. and so at the al smith dinner, 2016, this was the last time he told jokes in public. he got booed by a crowd of people, they weren't just in black tie, a crowd of people in

white tie. it is hard to get booed by people wearing white tie, you really have to work at that, he pulled it off. >> i think we have sound from that evening. take a look at that if we can. >> we've learned so much from wikileaks. for example, hillary believes that it's vital to deceive the people by having one public policy -- [ booing ] and a totally different policy in private. that's okay, i don't know who they're angry at, hillary, you or i. for example, here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate catholics. >> what is his problem? why can't he do this in front of the white house press corps? >> he lacks discipline, he can't do -- i tried to watch his speech earlier, it was so incomprehensible, so angry, i couldn't finish tying his bow tie. that's literally why i showed up. my screaming inside. i just gave up.

so that's why i look like this. >> all of you look lovely tonight, i respect you for not finishing tieing that bow tie. i wore this tie because i have no clue how to tie a bow tie. hasan minhaj last year did an extraordinary job. the president wasn't there last year either. take a look at hasan on the president's absence at the event. >> we got to address the elephant that's not in the room. [ scattered laughter ] the leader of our country is not here. and that's because he lives in moscow. it is a very long flight, it would be hard for vlad to make it. vlad can't make on it a saturday, it's a saturday. as for the other guy, i think he's in pennsylvania because he can't take a joke. >> if you're the white house correspondents dinner association, how do you balance the fact, like hasan tried to do, that the president is not there, without just making it all about that? >> it's hard. it does create a bigger presence, almost. his absence.

that the everyone there, including the comedian, needs to fill. i mean, in some sense it makes his absence even louder than his presence would be there. if we think about the last couple of administrations, each president sat through eight of these. and it's a couple of things that stand out. you really don't remember that much about them, but you remember the fact that donald trump was not there, and there was a comedian standing up there for however long just making fun of him the whole time. >> they're trying to turn this into a positive for president trump and his administration, in particular the campaign. he's not just skipping this, he's fund-raising over not going to this. i want to read from a fund raising e-mail the president sent out. this is the president talking. my staff asked quote mr. president the white house correspondents dinner is coming up, will you go? i said, why would i want to be stuck in a room with a bunch of fake news liberals who hate me? i came up with something much better, i'm going to hold a rally in michigan to spend the evening with my favorite deplorables who love our movement and love america. i mean, in all seriousness, does

the president have something to gain from this messaging? he's talking to the same people who love him already. >> yes, he does. he's very good at creating an alternative reality and filling it with even more b.s. that is a supreme talent. he's got this core group of fanatical followers who have this extremist lens on what is true and what is false and what is valuable and what isn't, on who's an american on who's worth defending, on who's worth standing up for. he's made it very clear he actually doesn't stand with most people in the country. so he's fine to hole up with his self described deplorables, embracing that label, because he doesn't have to pretend anymore to govern everyone, he's happy to govern just those people who are willing to deny reality with him. >> this is a sore subject for president obama, because as i was mentioning -- president trump, i should say. last time he was there, the president of the united states was president obama. both president obama beating up on then civilian donald trump,

and seth meyers, the host of the white house correspondents dinner, extraordinary to watch. i want to watch more of that right now, take a look. >> donald trump has been saying that he will run for president as a republican, which is surprising, since i just assumed he was running as a joke. gary busey said donald trump would make a great president. of course, he said the same thing about an old just reserve bird cable he found. donald trump often appears on fox, which is ironic, because a fox often appears on donald trump's head. donald trump said recently he has a great relationship with the blacks. though unless the blacks are a family of white people, i bet he's mistaken. >> it's like you kind of feel bad for him, but i don't really feel that bad for him. is this -- i mean, is he still hurt? i mean, is he still crying inside from the event of 2011? >> i think if donald trump had a sense of shame and a sense of embarrassment, american history would be very different right now. i do think that in that moment,

what i remember, i had just started at the white house then. i was sitting in the cheap seats watching the back of everyone's head. what was amazing -- >> you were in the room? >> i was in the room. not in a good spot in the room but in the room. what i remember was, it wasn't just democrats that were loving watching president obama tear into donald trump. it was republicans. i'm pretty sure reince priebus was in that room. at the time, he was a national joke. then you saw the same people who were very happy to laugh along with seth meyers or the president at trump. you saw about half of them take a hard turn and say, never mind, this is our president, we're getting behind. we're going to buy into this alternate reality he's creating. >> you have to remember that moment. that was when then donald trump, 2011, not a presidential candidate, he was a leader in the birther movement against barack obama, and barack obama had just released the long form -- the state of hawaii had released this long form birth certificate. it was a chance for the president to get up and sort of rib at donald trump in a way that donald trump didn't seem to

be so uncomfortable with, but when seth meyers got up there and just like rapid fire, just went after him, he seemed to really, really dislike that. >> that's right, it wasn't a political opponent, it was a colleague of his from nbc, a family member of his. it really showed how thin his skin was. i'm from l.a., i'm behind the times on weeke s os on washingt. there was a passage in james comey's book that i want to read to you guys. he talks about president trump's ability to laugh at himself or laugh at all, frankly. he said, i don't recall seeing him laugh, ever. not during small talk, before meetings, not in a conversation, not even here during an ostensibly relaxed dinner. i suspect his apparent inability to do it is rooted in deep insecurity, his inability to be have you been initial or risk himself by appreciating the humor of others which on reflection is really very sad in a leader and a little scary as a president. what do you think about that? >> you know, james comey is a

confusing figure. to love, to hate, to feel nothing. but i am totally in line on this. donald trump is a sad man. and it's unfortunate that we created a country where someone so small could rise to an office so large and wield so much power. and that's not just on him. that's on the society that created this opening. so someone who is so nonself reflective and nonvulnerable, that's not what you want when their job is to empathize with as many people as possible and wield this power. >> how would you attempt to write a speech for somebody like that? >> i honestly wouldn't. i've thought about this from two perspectives. one as a moral perspective. people say, if you were a speechwriter for president trump what would you say? i would quit. but even from a practical perspective, if i wanted to write really good jokes for president trump, he did the gridiron dinner, another one of these dinners, off the record, he had a few okay jokes. if you look at the transcript,

he spoke for 37 minutes. he had about five good jokes. that leaves a lot of minutes of just rambling. so it's like sort of watching a bad wedding toast. and that's the president. so there's not -- you can't write your way around that problem. >> there's nothing worse than a bad wedding toast, though a one hour 19 minute speech from the president of the united states might be there. >> i generally watch on television as i am now. >> what is your perception about what goes on in a room like this? is it something that members of the white house press corps, people that cover the administration, want to be a part of? >> i think sometimes. for years it's had its ups and downs. it was a lot of excitement around it, sort of like the night that hollywood comes to d.c. but then there's always been the conflict. because we are reporters covering an administration. this idea that we're seeing sort of schmoozing with the people that we're covering along with folks from l.a. and new york. >> some of my neighbors.

>> it sort of leaves a bad taste in some people's mouths. you can understand that. >> and there is a perception, in all fairness, that there is too much of a coziness between the press corps and the administration. is there anything to that? >> i think it's possible. i think sometimes, especially when you are covering a beat so closely, you are so entrenched, talking to these people every day, you do get very close to them. i think sometimes it's good to step back and have some perspective. although i think by and large the press, the working press here in washington, d.c., who you see very frequently on this network and others are working very hard in doing a very good job in covering this administration overall. >> tonight is a fun night, tonight aight the president was trying to counter program. did make a little bit of news in this rally in michigan. he talked about natalia veselnitskaya, this russian attorney who had been adamant she was not involved with collusion and with the russian government. sitting down with richard engel, our very own, earlier this week on friday night, as a matter of

fact, she sort of threw a monkey wrench into that messaging, said she was an informant for the russian government. the president responded tonight, take a look at that. >> i want to thank, by the way, the house intelligence committee. okay? they do it with us too. russian collusion. you know, i guarantee you, i'm tougher on russia. nobody ever thought -- in fact, have you heard about the lawyer? for a year a woman lawyer, she was like, oh, i know nothing, know nothing. all of a sudden she's supposedly involved with government. you know why? if she did that, because putin and the group said, you know, this trump is killing us. why don't you say that you're involved with government so that we can go and make their life in the united states even more chaotic. look at what's happened. look at how these politicians

have fallen for this junk. russian collusion. give me a break. i'll tell you, the only collusion is the democrats colluded with the russians and the democrats colluded with lots of other people. take a look at the intelligence agencies. >> so perhaps anticipating what may come up tonight at the white house correspondents' dinner, the president said natalia veselnitskaya said this because vladimir putin all of a sudden wants to make the united states more chaotic, what are your thoughts? >> as a lawyer i can't imagine the adjective his legal team has every time he opens his mouth and speaks about this, that he even mentioned her at all that he even acknowledged that this happened was the most shocking thing about the speech, to me, to be night. it's not the first time, he does this frequently. but trying to get ahead of a joke is a terrible reason to keep giving information that can ultimately be used against you

in a major investigation. >> all right, all of you stay here, stay with us. you at home, coming up, past presidents have not only gone to the white house correspondents' dinner but actually killed. some using the event to show a very different side of themselves. why is president trump ducking the event tonight 92 we'll look at that as well as some of the reasons president trump stays far, far away. >> i can't understand why everyone treats donald trump with kid gloves. then i realize they're the only gloves that will fit his stupid baby hands. your hair is so white it tried to punch me at a trump rally. donald trump looks like the rich dad in every episode of "law and order" where the frat kid accidentally strangles a hooker. ♪ with this level of intelligence... it's a supercomputer. with this grade of protection... it's a fortress. and with this standard of luxury...

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being president is never easy. i still have to fix a broken immigration system, issue veto threats, negotiate with iran, all while finding time to pray five times a day. [ laughter ] >> that was president obama back in 2015 over his eight years in office president obama earned rave reviews for his performances at the white house correspondents dinner. but not every president feels that comfortable. although every single one until president donald trump at least gave it a try. kim, david, and baratunde, oops take a look into the room now. the room is still dark but the program is about to start in about six minutes. you're going to hear some remarks, play should videos, then the headliner is comedienne

michelle wolf. kimberly, let me talk to you about one of the past performances that i really thought would be relevant to this evening. president clinton had a contentious relationship with the press, faced with his own special counsel investigation. i want to show you how he dealt with that, take a look. >> they've only got seven more months to investigate me. that's a lot of pressure. so little time. so many unanswered questions. [ laughter and applause ] for example, over the last few moth i've lost 10 pounds. where did they go? [ laughter ] why haven't i produced them to the independent counsel? >> so that was in 2000 after the senate refused to impeach bill

clinton. probably a little bit easier for him to joke about it then. harder, do you think, for president trump to joke about this ongoing investigation? i don't think we ever him joke about it. >> right, no. this clearly gets under his skin. his twitter feed is the best example of evidence of that. but you have to also understand, bill clinton, george w. bush, every other president that came before them, they had a life. most of them, a history in politics. in politics you have to learn how to crack self-deprecating jokes, you have to learn how to have a sense of humor about yourself. donald trump hasn't had to do that as a businessman, somebody his own boss, didn't answer to anybody, not a board of directors, not anybody else. he hasn't really had that long history of this. you can tell that he's much less comfortable doing that than you see other previous presidents. >> it's got to be hard in fairness to president trump, to joke about ongoing scandals. george h.w. bush at one point i think joke the about wmds and

was absolutely hammered for it. is this a no-win situation for president trump? >> i think it's a pretty easy situation for president trump. if he was willing to do what president clinton did. for example, president obama did something not about an investigation or scandal, because we didn't have those in the same way president trump does, but 2014, healthcare.gov had injure launched, that went quite poorly. but when the dinner rolled around, one of the things we wanted to do was joke about this, show we're on top of it, we're over it. we're still working on the website but this is not an existential threat to us or we wouldn't joke about it. by not joking about it, trump is recognizing, this is really serious. in a way that he probably doesn't understand that he's doing. >> i think it was an important moment for president obama. i think we have that sound, we can play it right now, take a look at that. >> of course, we rolled out healthcare.gov. that could have gone better. [ laughter ]

in 2008, my slogan was, yes, we can. in 2013 my slogan was, control-alt-delete. >> there are -- i've known you a long time, you have worked on getting people to sign up for healthcare.gov, a big advocate. >> huge advocate of health care coverage, yes. >> of it, basically. >> canadian. >> very good to have health care corage. w important was that moment for president obama in recovering from a big snafu? i think it was huge. there was obviously more -- i'm more a farch of him than the last two we were just talking about, but there's humility, there's acknowledging that this actually didn't work. he also came in with such high expectations. he was the digital president. he had the social media kids. he was hot on these twitter streets. had the facebook game and the apps. and for that president to fail at something with technology was extra embarrassing. you know, extra disappointing to those of us who saw him as more

innovative and more of a pioneer. the fact that he own the it and made a weird windows joke was an extra-nice point. >> you don't use windows? >> i used to but i grew up. >> did you ever work on one of these speeches? >> yeah, i was our token funny person at the white house. the way i put it, as opposed to most speeches, joke-writing was a team effort, but if it had been badly, there were four years it would have been my fault. >> how did you go from working for president obama to working at funny or die? the opposite question, why do they want to hire you as the funny guy? >> fair question. >> nothing personal. >> yeah, sounds a little personal, but no, i got to know the "funny or die" folks between two firms which president obama recorded with zach galifianakis which was great. they had their people write it, they'd been writing "ferns" episodes forever. a huge success.

"funny or die" had this moment of thinking, we should do this with other organizations, do something some washington no other comedy company is doing. they ended up hiring me, because i can speak d.c. policy, or comes person, and i can speak l.a. funny person, and i can translate. >> if i'm a white house, there's extraordinary power in taking these images, even those caricatures of the president, putting them out there and quite literally, as george w. bush did, putting them side by side. there was that amazing moment where he stood up there with the impersonator and they talked about nuclear or nuculear present live race. >> i want to talk about some serious issues. such as -- >> okay. here it comes. nuclear proliferation. nuclear proliferation. nuclear proliferation.

>> nu-kear-proliberation. >> alec baldwin would never do this with donald trump. would donald trump do this with a donald trump impersonator? >> he should. that would be a momen both his supporters and the people who criticize him could laugh at for a minute. i think that would be a key moment. i don't think he can do -- george w. bush would poke fun at himself all the time, talking about stra teenry, the other words he seemed to make up. it became an endearing quality about him and the president would be better served if he laughed a little more. >> the rest of us would be better served by a president who even though he knew he was out of favor with the majority of the country still tried to appeal to him. even someone like me, diametrically opposed to his policies and feeling pain from the 15-year war we've been at because of him, could say, that is a human being with some modicum of compassion, is willing to show it, is willing to look weak to help the rest of

us be a little stronger. >> i don't see any scenario in which donald trump, as relatable as he could try to make himself, is going to attract people, at this point, who are outside that 30%, 38%, whatever, base. >> yeah, we haven't had a president who so openly, at a minimum, refused to criticize nazis. i'm being as charitable as possible. he has crossed some lines in a way that no other modern president of either party ever has. so he's raised the stakes. even when bush joking about wmd, which caused a lot of unnecessary deaths around the world, there was a domestic level of his behavior, of his language, that didn't approach what trump is doing. i think trump has made it harder for many of us to want to be open-minded, open hearted, toward him, because he's been so closed. >> i don't think necessarily the goal toss try to change hearts with sdwrojokes. i don't think he's trying to get the people who don't support him to support him. but it's having a sense of humor about yourself. most of the people who watch

"saturday night live" don't support donald trump, but during the campaign at least, at least he went on the show and danced to a drake tune. i mean, it was funny. it was a moment that was surprising and funny, you know -- it was a breath of fresh air. if he did more of that, i think that would be better for him. >> i think one of the things about trump is that right now, if he felt that not just the deplorables he was talking about visiting in his fund-raising e-mail, what i think of as the respect respectables, people who support republicans, support some of trump's policies, but don't like the chaos he's bringing to the country. they're kind of okay with the racism but they're not thrilled about it. that group of people -- >> sounds like a pretty terrible lot. >> what a great group. >> i mean, this is where we're at. but i think that's a chunk of trump voters who we could see vote for democrats in 2018 if trump felt like he needs to bring those people back into the fold, that's where humor actually would matter a little

bit. sometimes it does try this just joking defense. he'll say something horrible, something that's kind of racist, something kind of terrible, "no, i'm just joking." that's a permission structure for some of his supporters who don't like that to say, okay, he was just kidding, i can still support him. >> real quick, i want to say we're looking at reince priebus, former white house chief of staff. one thing about tonight, i mentioned it briefly, there are former and current trump administration officials in the room tonight. trump evidently has encouraged people from his staff to show up tonight. sarah huckabee sanders will be on the dais along with the president of the white house correspondents dinner and comedienne michelle wolf tonight. it seems like at least the presentation is that the president and the administration are trying to make nice tonight. what do you make of that? >> i just, to quickly tag back on david's comment, i think you want your racism to have a level of plausible deny ability. this president has gone past the point of no return on that one. it's a bit hard. as far as the people who openly

lied to the public every day from the white house press booth being on stage celebrating freedom of press, i find that deeply humorous and ironic. >> they weren't here last year, they're here this year. is it an olive branch? is it just a big show? >> it's really difficult to know. look, these are people who deal with the press every day, whether they like it or not. these are people who work with him. again, a complete blackout by this white house, complete boycott of this event, draws more attention than if they are there. i think maybe it's trying to soften the blow a little bit, we'll see. maybe they'll all go back and report that it wasn't so bad and try to convince the president to come next year. >> one thing that i think kellyanne conway said, which surprisingly made sense, they get double coverage tonight. they get the benefit of the people tuning into this event, th get the president's rally. i think for a media-savvy, communications strategy, that's very smart. >> i was going to add on that i

actually -- i'm not a fan of this white house, but you can see them becoming more communications savvy. i think the real question to me, i know i've gotten to know a few white house correspondents, they do really tough jobs. i wonder if the correspondents association is making the right decision by saying, this is great, we'll have past and present white house people here, we'll honor them, at the same time as the president of the united states is out there telling his supporters, these are dishonest people, they lie, encouraging that kind of anger. >> that's a fascinating philosophy. if you're the white house correspondents association, do you ban the trump administration from showing up? as long as the president doesn't show up to your event? >> i would but i'm a professional democrat, so i'm a bad person to ask. >> fair enough. >> i think that raises as many problems as it might solve in the short-term. i mean, it's not the job of the press to decide who is banned and who is allowed. it's a party that's meant to have the person in the oval office as the guest of honor, if he's not there, if he sends

other people instead, so be it. >> i don't think you need sean spicer, what's he doing? >> i don't think you need to invite kim kardashian, she's been there. >> i agree. i would be fine getting rid of both those two people. >> i do believe we see sarah huckabee sanders. there she is. john kasich, the governor of ohio briefly walked out of frame. but here it is. again, the hobnobbing between these journalists. many of my colleagues, many of our colleagues, and members of the administration they spar with on a daily basis. >> i think i want to remind folks of the stakes. we have the supreme court this week arguing about a version of a muslim ban. we don't have a d.r.e.a.m. act, even though that's totally initiated by this president within the power of our congress to fix. we are ranting against migrants who are suffering. >> that's right, the president talked about that. >> vilifying them as if they're all gangsters and murderers and criminals. this is not a normal time. the press in the past has been pilloried, rightly, por cozying up to administration officials.

i think in this time for the most part, they have had their jobs slapped back in their face by the extremism of this administration. democracy dies in darkness is how "the washington post" sells subscriptions now because they are doing a much more intense job. maybe they're here because half these people are their sources slipping them notes under the table about the next testimony, about the next scandal, about the next misappropriation of funds or whatever clark kent booth that scott pruitt has installed at our expense. >> ed henry, took scott pruitt to task in quite an impressive way i think a lot of people thought, whatever you think of fox news. you mentioned some of the things that the president brought up tonight. he also talked about the embassy costs, israel, moving the embassy in israel to jerusalem, he talked about the comey interviews. he said, let's see how it goes, which is one of his favorite things to say about this meeting with kim jong-un. the border caravan as you mentioned, the border wall, his favorite thing. i personally have been spending the majority of the past 30 days on the southern border.

he was supposed to be talking about the economy and tax cuts. that's why he went to michigan. that's what he was supposed to be talking about there. why can't he do it? why can't he stay focused? >> i think a couple of reasons. i think a lot of the things you hit on, the way he said it, he knew he would get applause lines. like the lady gaga song, he lives for the applause. he knows how to get a crowd revved up and he's going to go to those points every time. it's also a time where people may not be feeling -- even though people may have a positive view of the tax cuts, for example, people may not be feeling them yet. there are still factories closing. there are still people in the manufacturing industry that are suffering. massachusetts, a state where my paper is, there was a plant that just closed and sent 160 jobs to mexico. maybe it's tougher to make that economic argument right now. so he's going to go to the other things that he knows are going to be crowd pleasers. >> i did catch a glimpse of our own ken dilanian doing what he does best, talking to adam

schiff from the house intelligence committee. there's still work going on in the room although everybody is having a great time. sources inside the room have told me people have been asked to take their seats. we'll monitor this closely. casey hunt, the woman who normally sits in this chair. stay with us, we'll be right back. ♪ hey grandpa. hey, kid. really good to see you. you too. you tell grandma you were going fishing again? maybe. (vo) the best things in life keep going. that's why i got a subaru, too. love is out there. find it in a subaru crosstrek.

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i'm jacob soboroff,ing about back to msnbc live, continuing coverage of the white house correspondents dinner dinner. kimberly david, just to give you an idea what's going on inside the room right now, they were supposed to have started 12 minutes ago. you can lights flickering, that means go sit downright now, people, please. they are really, really trying to get the people inside this room to sit down. in fact, spoiler alert, we should be seeing a video about paul ryan right now. but we're 14 minutes behind schedule. so that will come maybe 14 minutes from now.

baretende, you've gotten up as a comedian in front of rooms, give us an idea of what may be going through michelle wolf's head. >> i don't know michelle well enough to know, probably some great jokes that she and her team have come up with. she's very much a professional. i'm sure she's probably not that queasy. this is a weird audience, though. an audience of political people, of media people. 3,000's a pretty big crowd. it's in a hotel, that's an awkward venue. so i any whatever the expectations i've heard from the people who have done it in the past, it's not like anything else. >> stand by one second, the presentation has started they're telling me. this is the cartoon president. >> -- between mark noeler and dave weigel. >> just get my up speed, are you ar incoming or outgoing cabinet member? >> i'm margaret tolliv, president of the white house correspondents association. i want to see if you've made a

decision on attending the dinner? >> i'd look pretty thin-skinned if i didn't show up so i'm in. only under the following conditions. someone tranquilizes jim acosta. i get two scoops of ice cream big enough to bend a shovel. and i can use jeff bezos as my napkin. >> hannity! >> president trump will attend the white house correspondents dinner. breaking fox news alert, we can confirm that chris hayes stole his glasses from a child on a teeter-totter. >> can you believe the lying fake media invited me to the white house correspondents dinner? you don't see the central park five inviting me to brunch. >> are you sure you don't want me to go? the press corps loves me and my reese boother spoon charm. >> of course i'm going, what am i going to do, hold a rally to harden my eeg goe goe? >> great to hear, i'd be honored if you wore my clothes. >> is shepard smith going to be there? i can't believe some lucky lady hasn't snatched him up.

>> to truly understand the white house correspondents dinner, you have to understand where the journalists in attendance sit. tables. tables didn't always look like this. here's a table from 1415 bc. looks similar to what we use today. flat top, leggy things down there. we'll get deeper into tables later. first, let's talk about what made them possible. the big bang. >> welcome to the white house correspondents dinner. >> hey, it's donald j. trump. as you all know me, a source close to the president. a lot of people complain that washington is just a bunch of white guys talking to an audience who agrees with them. but i like pod save america. where's the sinclair media table? >> right here, almighty trump! >> the tribune merger's going through. but tonight we're really here to honor some great people. for example, maggie haberman.

♪ remember that lunch at the trump grill ♪ ♪ you got the scoop on my presidential bid ♪ ♪ and i got the bacon cheeseburger ♪ ♪ and licked the ketchup lid ♪ where did we go wrong was it when i called you a hillary flky ♪ ♪ stop pretending your paper has integrity you work with brett stevens ♪ ♪ there's only so much a rasmussen poll can do ♪ ♪ i've already lost comey and i can't lose you ♪ ♪ maggie maggie maggie maggie haberman ♪ ♪ you don't play along congratulations to tonight's honorees! i look forward to locking you all up in the coming years! >> ladies and gentlemen, once

again, please welcome correspondents association president margaret tollive. >> thank you. good evening, everyone. to those of you in this room and those of you watching across america, welcome to the white house correspondents dinner. in this room we are republicans and democrats and independents. people of all economic classes, races, religions. and gender self-identifications. my name is margaret talev. i am senior white house correspondent for bloomberg news and cnn contributor and i'm so very proud to serve as your president of the white house correspondents association. before we get too far, i'd like to thank our cartoon president,

r.j. fried, chris licht, and stephen colbert for getting us warmed up tonight. i think i can speak for all of us in this room when i say that we're sending our very best thoughts to former president george h.w. bush tonight. he was, of course, a repeat guest at our dinner and he's been recovering after his hospitalization, and of course the passing of former first lady barbara bush, his wife of 73 years. and i was listening to old tapes of 41's monologues as i got ready for the dinner. one of my favorites was where he's talking about dana carvy's impersonations of him on "snl." if you guys remember, president bush had infamously taken this phone call from someone he thought was rafsanjani, the iranian president, but it wasn't. at the dinner he joked dana

carvy's impress was so good it asked him to phone rafsanjani and tell him it was george bush. dana said, wouldn't be prudent. to bush family, if you're watching, we're thinking of you. i'd also like to acknowledge our student scholarship recipients in the audience tonight and our journalism award winners whom you'll meet later. this night is about you and what you've accomplished and the promise of what's yet to come. yesterday we held a luncheon for the scholars and we paired them up with mentors and then they got a visit from house speaker paul ryan, who was amazing, he spoke eloquently about the role of journalism and the next generation of journalists. then this happened. the u.s. president, the same one who has called american journalists the enemy of the people, welcomed these scholars to the white house. and he and his team rolled out the red carpet like they literally rolled out a carpet. and in the midst of this visit

by the german chancellor, angela merkel, they gave them -- they gave these scholars an insider's glimpse at all the backroom passageways of the white house. the china room, the diplomatic room. took them outside, lined them up on the stairs with that amazing view of the south lawn and the ellipse. lined them up on the stairs, then they were invited to meet with the president and vice president mike pence and to pose for photos. the president and the vice president went to each scholar shook their hand, created them. who are you? where are you going to school? the president asked them if they wanted to become journalist. any praise journalist, and i quote, a praised profession and asked how quickly they could get to work so they could kick us out and replace us. after the president left i asked the students how they felt. a group of them all responded with one answer, they said, that was surreal. and we nodded because we know

the feeling. tonight is an important thiegt for everyone who cares about good journalism. we're all here, all of us because we cherish the first amendment. we love the news and believe in the power of reporting to raise up and better the lives of all people. that includes coverage of the white house to be sure and threats like international terrorism, or russian election interference. it also applies to local stories across the country, how we hand l gymnastic, "me too" movements and pilots who save people onboard. real news is sometimes happy, and often it's heart breaking or critical or makes you angry. but we reject efforts by anyone especially our elected leaders to pain journalism as unamerican. to undermined trust between reporter and reader.

or to cast doubt on the relevance of facts and truth in the modern angle. an attack on any journalist is an attack on us all. this really isn't about the business of protecting journalism as a business, in fact our business is all done pretty well in the last couple of years. it's about protecting a pillar of american democracy. the best leaders and public servants champion of the fst amendment even when turned on and proclaim at home and even overseas because they know that it help democracy. i'd like to ask for a moment of silence to remember journalists around the world killed for doing their jobs issue or who are alive by imprisonened. i also like to make a special mention of our colleague

kidnaped in syria in 2012. austin, if you are somehow watching there are a lot of people working to bring you home. i'd also like to remember some long time veteran white house correspondents who we've lost to age and illness over the past year. for decades correspondent members brought a -- freedom of speech, freedom of the press. we took our act on the road beginning a new program with presidential libraries to connect with more americans outside the beltway. we began with the truman library in missouri, and were met with a full house. next month we'll be at the reagan library in senior valley, california and if any of you happen to be out there we welcome you to join us. i also mention, since y'all have your phones out tonight, thanks to the board and zeke miller and olivia knocks, we have a new

fantastic website live as of just a few hours ago. the new address is whca.press and we look forward to serving you on that website in the months to come. u.s. presidents have attended this dinner nearly every year since calvin coal lajs days and that's a tradition we believe will withstand time. tonight we represent head of secretary sara sander at the table. thank you for being here. sara we appreciate your participation and ongoing work with members to cover the white house. thank you. also like to welcome, ae jazz zee, you may recognize her from a scene in the oval office a year ago. her husband and two members of

the fgo was arrested by a bogus egyptian authority and served three years. and her husband, whose in the audience with us tonight also continue to advocate for the release of others and they strongly believe that it was the press kochlks in addition to government intervention that shed a spotlight on their situation and helped to build the leverage for their release. welcome home. and of course we have with us nice lady, michelle wolf. i'd also like to call out all my fellow board members. who will do a terrific job.

steve thumb, our new executive director brought his passion for white house coverage to the job. no one will ever replace julie will ston whose in the audience but steve we are so grateful to have you on board. and i'd also like to thank the staff of the washington hilton all of you, you treat us like family, we couldn't do this without you and we appreciate you so much. in our audience tonight we welcome many ambassador from around the world who care about press freedoms. including just to name a few, the u.k., israel, and the ambassador from bulgaria and his wife. which is a pretty cool thing for me. thank you for joining us.

we welcome representative to some oe leading free speech and jrnalism advocacy groups in the nation who are here with us tonight and some american baseball greats who join us. i don't know whether you've had a chance to find these gentlemen but thank you for your support and for being here. we also welcome many members of the trump administration, thank you for being here. and we welcome the leadership of the white house historical association. several presidential historians and representative from the university of maryland college park who we selected as our partners this year to build a pool report archives. this is an incredible project that all of the bored and i have been working on for a few years now and we're thrilled to bring this to you live if the in the next year or two. there's other people in the room i'd like to mention, because as our president always says, it

takes a village. but in all seriousness please stand and remain standing if you are a past president of the white house's correspondents' association. a current member of the white house correspondents' association or the white house press core. [ applause ] >> please stand, if you are a journalist. please stand if you serve in the current administration or congress or elected office anywhere in this country. please stand if you serve in the military. if you run a business or work for a business. if you come from hollywood, if you're a teacher.

a police officer. if you are a person who cares about freedom and the truth. as a personal privilege, i'd also like to thank a moment to thank my editors and teammates at "bloom burg move" starting with all of the white house team and everyone else in the boom berg newsroom for the support that i have given to me and this organization for the past six years. for your patients, i will be back to work soon, i promised. i'd like to thank my dear family and friends and loved ones who are here to support me tonight. to my girls abbey and maggy, i'm

so proud of you both. finally, there are two people who i want to thank who i hope are watching from the great beyond, my parents. my father was born and raised in bulgaria and he and his brother escaped in the early 1960s because they feared for what their future would be and what was an oh apprehensive regime. they came to the u.s. because america welcomed them. my mother was born american but like our current president she was captivated by the drive and self-determination of a young dashing immigrant. my father was wauld i would call a judge h. bush return and they

agreed a lot when it came to politics. i became a journalist in large part because of the the debates unfolded in the dinning roam table. what thing they have always agree on, what always made america great was the ability to disagree publicly. to have facts and make informed arguments for whatever the subject might be, welfare, taxes, war, religion, to speak your mind without fear of beating or arrest or seizure of assets or death. and journalism gives us information to do that. my father risked everything to come to this country because of our ideals and for him the first amendment might be the important of all. it's my job to do all i can to live up to that legacy and preserve it. thank you.

and now, please turn your attention back to the video screens. ♪ >> good evening everyone, paul ryan here. i'm sorry the correspondents' association decided against my idea to have the dinner in jamestown this year so i'm not able to be there with you tonight. instead, jenna and i will be spending the evening freshening up my link ten page. waiter the tortilla coast 1991

to 1994. you know, i'm looking forward to figuring out whatever's next for me. but i'm going to miss sparring with the press every day. in fact, bored ar dem is probaby biggest worry for life after congress. anyway, i just wanted to say a quick word to congratulate the young men and women receiving scholarships this evening. i was able to visit with them yesterday and it affirmed for me the future of the journalism indeed bright.

my message to the next generation of reporters is simply know what you do matters. pay attention to the policy, not just the personalities. look at the human impact, not just the horse race. and above all, challenge yourself to challenge us, those of us in public office, because what you do it really matters. it provide transparency and accountability. done right, journalism cannot just inform but power people. we may not agree whags fair but that push and pull makes us better. it's part of the genius in this country and it will endure through any turbulent time. so, tonight i say cheers to the first amendment and again offer my congratulation to the scholarship winners. have a great night.

>> thank you speaker ryan. don't forget your mandatory drug test. now, to introduce our newest scholars, the cochairs of our scholarship committee, julie pace and zeke miller. >> we just saw a video, the promise video of speaker of the house paul ryan. and former speech writer from president obama you thought there might have been a little joke stealing in there. >> i wouldn't say joke stealing bauds it would require they were jokes. that was really bad. i'm not trying to be partisan just somebody who had to watch something for three minutes. it felt like ten minutes. in 2016, i left the white house at this point, but president obama did a sort of i'm retiring, what am i going to do next. he did a video with bainer. so -- >> it was very funny. >> it was funny so i think it's

nice you could see both of those back to back. just in case you thought this was easy, i appreciate paul demonstrating. >> bayer did it better. it was like a hostage video, we were the hostages. >> everybody's okay here on set. i want to remind everybody what we're looking at. julie pace is up there introducing scholarship winners who are coming on and meeting everyone. i want to remind everybody normally be shaking the hand of the president of the united states. these scholar winners did get the point to shake the hand of the current president of the united states at the white house yesterday. she gave what's known as a bit of a read out about that meeting. she said the president sent to these scholarship leaders are you sure want to be journalist. and how fast can you kick out the one currently in there. kimberly. >> you have to give a jab at the press core. >> he couldn't help himself. >> right. remember a while back i think it

was bring your kid to workday where some of the press core kids were in there and he was making fun of their parents to the children's faces. >> i love how he thinks the next generation is going to be easy on him. has he not paid attention to the park land students. >> more serious thing that margaret toll liiv did, she putm on the record saying he also respects journalist. and also, just so you know mr. president we think you're a hypocrite when you go out and talk about fake news. it was her trying to push back on some of that. i thought that was a smart way to do it. >> at the beginning of this presentation, we've all been watching live, we saw the tune credit, the show time program that steven colbert is producing. it is likely the president is

upon air force one watching this play out right now. how's it going so far? >> it's early time yet, most of the jokes haven't started flying. >> they did show maggy haberman in that video, the pulling surprise winning "new york times" reporter, or i should say "the new york times" reporter president trump says he doesn't associate with and there was a picture of him in the oval office. >> whose been covering him for years. you have to poke fun at that relationship of course. >> and i want to say to everybody stay tuned. coming up right here we're going to be hearing from our headliner comedian, the performer from the night's entertainment, michelle wolf, she's about to take on some of the toughest room in comedy. stick around you're watching msnbc coverage of the white house correspondents' dinner.

this is the video on the screen in the room right now. we'll be right back. >> trump may not be a good closure for president but he'd definitely make a good press secretary. how much fun would that be? kim jong-un's a loser. latest rally was a flop. i on the other hand sell my own line of ties. le said it just mas until exxonmobil scientists put it to the test. they thought someday it could become fuel and power our cars wouldn't that be cool? and that's why exxonmobil scientists think it's not small at all. energy lives here. kyle, we talked about this. there's no monsters. but you said they'd be watching us all the time. nono. no, honey,

we meant that progressive would be protecting us 24/7. we just bundled home and auto and saved money. that's nothing to be afraid of. -but -- -good night, kyle. [ switch clicks, door closes ] ♪ i told you i was just checking the wiring in here, kyle. he's never like this. i think something's going on at school. -[ sighs ] -he's not engaging. i think something's going on at school. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. that's it? everybody two seconds! "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job.

. i would say it is an honor to be here but that would be an alternative fact. it is not. no one wanted to do this, so of

course it lands in the hands of an immigrant. that's how it always goes down. no one wanted this gig, no one. >> i'm jacob, you're watching msnbc's live coverage of the correspondents' dinner. all of my colleagues are inside the ball resuoom at the washing hilton having a good time. this has always been regarded as a very difficult room for a comedian to maneuver with, a crowd of politicians and media figures to no torresuously thin skinned group. that is something michelle faced as she took the panel. what do you make of the picks to head loan the dinner? baratunde is joking, no one wants to do this anymore.

big late night take show hosts, now we have the up and comers. >> we do. i thought it is a great opportunity. hassan i thought was great last year. he has muslim, they're trying to ban these people. i didn't see steve bannon. which again is a remind that we have these real issues that he was able to use language and humor to bring forth some of the darkest parts of our society. we have michelle wolf this year in age where women's representation in everything in media is emerging it makes since to have an up j coming female comedian take the stage. >> i was watching michelle as i was preparing for this, nice lady on hbo and she has a nice -- about feminist and what it means to her. what do you make of these

comedians? they're really well established. >> yeah, people know of these people, they're not unknown. i think baratunde was right on. they're picking the right people at the right time. i think picking a bomb was a great opportunity and an important thing to do. it was something that when you have other thing that are also thinkless jobs like giving the response to the state of the union, a white guy was picked, no offense, i thought that was a missed opportunity that members of the press seem to be saddened about. >> i think also he spoke to dreamers in spanish when is not something that you need to do. david, what do you make of michelle wolf as this year's pick, is this someone you guys talk about funny or not? >> i think she's somebody people

talk about because seizure seizure a comedian whose got a netflix show coming. >> she's good. >> yeah i think so. in small and subtle ways i think that are using the dinner to remind us -- it's not an anti-trump statement but it's to say trump is in pron of his base, its exclusive why. it was mostly white people. >> there was one black guy there. >> was it? >> yeah. >> it was kanye. >> except for kanye, you had almost exclusive white base. i think it's important to say in this era we don't think of america as this narrow slice of america that donald trump thinks of america as. bringing other people from backgrounds and other voices into that conversation and not sayi saying let's just have jalen kn le /* jay leno do it again.

it's great. >> awards being presented to journalist for the reporting over the course of the last year, the president's award will be coming up after this. which brings us to the real purpose of this evening which is celebrated the first amendment and the work the journal lis having doing over the course of the last year. i think we see john carl there from abc, accepting an award or introducing one of the next ones. what do you think, kimberly has been the reporting here over trump over the last year? >> i think all of it. like i said, i think this press journalism here in washington has been doing an outstanding job and covering every aspect. you've seen reporters in washington, i've been here over ten years, than you've ever had before. we have a president whose attacking the fir amendmest amen

a regular basis. he's doing ridiculous things he shouldn't do to open up libel laws. it's an extraordinary time and to see journalism thriving in this town, still suffering in a lot of other parts of our country of the industry, but to see it thriving here in the face of that is remarkable. >> now, david it makes you proud to be part of an institution like this one. my colleagues that were both on capitol hill and in the white house do deserve a break. stay with us you're watching msnbc's continuing coverage of the white house correspondents' dinner. michelle wolf coming up after this. >> i stand by this man because he stands for things, not only for things but he stands on things. things like aircraft carrier and rubble and recently flooded city skbars. and that sends a strong message that no matter what happens to america, she will always rebound with the most powerful staged

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. you are watching live coverage of the 2018 correspondent's dinner. i'm david here in washington, d.c. we are moments away from michelle wolf, the comedian from head leaning this dinner. just a reminder this night is designed to honor the first amendment here in the united states of america. freedom of the press. and the president of the united states has decided to skip this evening. let's listen in to the president of the white house correspondents' association. >> the first time i saw michelle wolf stand up i was like, what is with that voice. the second time i just gave in and let myself laugh. at some point as i kept watching her i thought, this woman is actually saying a lot more in between the punch lines. michelle wolf is not always a

comedian, she grew up in pennsylvania, ran high school track and worked at jp morgan chase first. figured that's who a bloomberg reporter would pick. she's written for seth meyers. then wow, that big hbo special last year. right after we signed her for the dinner we found out she was going to be doing a netflix series. she's not really a political comedian by training, she's not of washington, but if 2016 taught us anything is that we should be listening to more people outside of washington. if 2017 taught us anything, it's hey, that means women. so, without further adieu, please welcome michelle wolf.

>> all right, this is long. this has been long. yeah. good evening. good evening. here we are the white house correspondents' dinner. like a porn star says when she's about to have sex with a trump, let's get this over with. yep, kiddos this is your getting tonight. i'm going to skip a lot of the normal pleasant centuries. we're at a hilton, this is not nice. this is on c-span, no one watches that. trump is president, it's not ideal. white house correspondents' association thank you for having me, the martin luther kionk fis. just a reminder to everyone, i'm here to make jokes, i have no

agenda, i'm not trying to get anything accomplished. so everyone that's here from congress, you should feel right at home. now, before we get too far a little bit about me. a lot of you might not know who i am. i am 32 years old, which is an odd age. ten years too young to host this event and 20 years to vote for roy moore. i know, he almost got elected, yeah. it was fun. it was fun. honestly, i never really thought i'd be a comedian but i did take an aptitude test in 7th grade and this is 100% true. i took an appear attitude test in 7th grade and it said my best profession was a clown or mime. well i first said clown, and then everyone heard my voice, oh maybe mime.

and i know as much as some of you might want me to, it's 2018 and i am a women so you cannot shut me up. unless you have michael cohen wire me $130,000. michael, you can find me on venmo under my porn star name, reince priebus. reince just gave a thumbs up. okay. now, people are saying america is more divided than ever. but i think no matter what you support politically we can all agree this is a great time for craft stores. because of all the protests, poster board has been flying off the shelves, faster than robert mueller can say, you've been subpoenaed. thanks to trump pink yard sales are through the roof. after trump got elected women

started knitting those fussy hats. when i first saw this i was like, that's a fussy. i guess mine has a lot more yarn on it. yeah. should have done more research before you got me to do this. now, there is a lot to cover tonight, there's a lot to go over, i can't get to everything. i know there's a lot of people that want me to talk about russia and putin and collusion, but i'm not going to do that because there's also a lot of liberal media here and iefr never really wanted to know what any of you look like whether you orgasm. except for you jay tapper. i bet it's something like this. okay that's all the time we have.

it is kind of crazy, the trump campaign was in contact with russia when the hillary campaign wasn't even in contact with michigan. it's a direct flight it's so close. of course trump isn't here, if you haven't noticed, he's not here. and i know i would drag him here myself but it turns out the president of the united states is the one fussy you're not allowed to grab. he said it first, yeah he did. you remember. good. now, i know people really want me to go after trump tonight but i think we should give the president credit when he deserves it. like, he pulled out of the paris agreement and i think he should get credit for that because he said he was going to pull out and he did and that's a refreshing quality in a man. most men are like, i forgot. i'll get you next time.

oh, there's going to be a next time. people say romance is dead. people call trump names all the time, and look, i could call trump a racist, or a massage insist, or unstable, competent or impotent, but he's heard all of those and he doesn't care. so, tonight i'm going to try to make fun of the president in a new way, in a way i think will really get him. mr. president, i don't think you're very rich. i think you might be rich in idaho but in new york you're doing fine. trump is the only person that still watches "who wants to be a mail fa millionaire" and think, me. although i don't think you'll

get very far. i'm going to say trump is so broke and you guys go, how broke is he. all right. trump is so broke -- he has to fly failed business class. trump is so broke. >> how probation is he? >> he lack for foreign oil in don junior's hair. trump is so broke -- >> how broke is he? >> southwest used him as one of his engines. i know it's so soon. it's so soon for that joke why did she tell it. trump is so broke -- >> how broke is he? >> he had to borrow money from the russians and now he's compromised and not discuss acceptable to black man and now he's collapsed and close to the

republic. y yay, it's a fun game. trump is a racist though. he love white national list. which is so weird for a nazi. trump's also an idea guy, he's got loads of ideas, you got to love him for that. he wants to give teachers guns, and i support that because then they can sell them for things they need like supplies. like proprogrtractors. a lot of people want trump to be impeached, i do not. just when you think trump is awful you remember mike pence. mike pence is what happens when anderson cooper isn't gay.

mike pence is the kind of guy that brushes his teeth and then drinks orange juice and thinks --. mike pence is very anti-choice, he thinks abortion is murder, which first of all, don't knock it till you try it. when you do try it, really knock it, you know you got to get that baby out of there. and yeah, sure, you can groan all you want, i know a lot of you are very anti-abortion, you know unless it's the one you got from your secret mis-tres. it's fun how values can waiver, but good for you. mike pence is a we're doe

though. he won't meet with women after his wife crazy. when people hear this they're like that crazy. which prings me to the "me too" movement. it's probably the reason i'm here. they were like a woman's probably not going to jerk off in front of anyone, right? to that i say, don't count your chick ens. now, i worked in a lot of mail dominated fields, for comedy i worked at a tech company, before that i worked on wall street, and honestly i never been sexually sexually harassed. i did work at ber rent stern in 2008, so while i haven't been harassed i have been fucked. that went down on me without my consent. and nomen ever got in trouble for that. things are changing, men are being held accountable. al franken was ousted, that hurt

liberals. i believe it was the great ted kennedy who said, wow, that's crazy, i murdered a woman. in theaters now. i did have a lot of jokes about cabinet members but i had to scrap all of those because everyone has been fired. you guys are going through cabinet members quicker than starbucks throws out black people. no, don't worry they're having an afternoon, that'll solve it. mitch mcconnell isn't here tonight, he had a prior toen gaugement, he's finally getting his neck circumcised. moz l. paul ryan also couldn't make it, of course he's already been circumcised unfortunately while

they were down this they also took his balls. great acting though, in that video. republicans are easy to make fun of, you know, it's like shooting fish in a chris kristy. but i also want to make fun of democrats. democrats are harder to make fun of because you guys don't do anything. people think you might flip the house and senate this november, but you guys always find a way to mess it up. you're somehow going to lose by 12 points to a fie name jeff pedophile nazi doctor. oh, he's a doctor? we should definitely talk about the women in therump administration. there's kellyanne conway, man, she has the perfect last name for what she does, conway, it's like if my name was michelle

joke frizzy hair small tips. you guys got to stop putting kelly an on your shows. all she does is lie. if you don't give her a platform she has nowhere to lie. it's like that old saying if a tree falls in the woods, how do we get kellyanne under that tree. i'm not suggesting she get hurt just stuck. stuck under a tree. incidentally a tree falls in the woods is scott pruitt's definition of porn, we all have our kings. there's also of course ivanka, she was supposed to be an advocate to women put it turns out she's about as hellful to women as an empty box of tampons. she's done nothing to satisfy women, so i guess like father like daughter. oh, you don't think he's good in

bed, come on. she does clean up nice though, ivanka cleans up nice. she's the diaper jeanie of the pr administration. on the outside she sleek looks sleek on the inside it's still full of shit. and of course we have sara huckabee sanders. we are graced with her presence tonight. i love you as aunt lidia in the -- hand maids tail, mike pence if you haven't seen it you'd love it. every time sara steps up to the podium i get excited because item not sure what we're going to get, a press briefing, a bunch of lies or divided into softball teams. it's shirts and skin and this tome don't be such a bill bitch

jim acosta. i really really like sara, i think she's very resourceful. like, she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye. like, maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies. it's probably lies. and i never really sure what to call sara huckleby sanders. you know is it sara sanders, is it sara huckleby sanders. is it cousin huckleby is it aunty huckleby sanders. what's uncle tom for white women who disappoint other white women? oh i know, it's culture. we've got our friend at cnn here, welcome guys, it's great to have you. you guys love breaking news, and you did it, you broke it.

the most useful information on cnn is when anthony bower dane tells me where to eat noodles. fox news is here. so, you know what that means ladies, cover your drinks. seriously. people want me to make fun of shawn hannity tonight but i cannot do that, this dinner's for journalists. we've got msnbc here, msnbc's news logan is, this is who we are. guys, it's not a good slogan. this is who we are is what your mom thinks the sad show on nbc is called. did you watch "this is who we are" this week? someone left on a crock pot and everyone died. i watch morning joe every

morning. we now know mee ka and joe are engaged. congratulation you guys, it's like when a me too works out. we also -- rachel mad doe. we cannot forget about rachel maddow. she's the peter man of msnbc. instead of never going up she never gets to the point. watching rachel maddow is like going to target. you went in for milk but left with shampoo, candles and the spire history of by san teen empire. i didn't need this. and of course, meghan kelly. what would i do without meghan kelly. probably be more proud of women.

meghan kelly got paid $20 million by nbc and then they didn't let her go to the winter olympics. and by the way, santa's plaque. the guy going through your chimney was bill o'riley. might want to put a flute on it or something. there's a lot of prank media here, put i'm not going to go after prank media tonight because it's illegal to attack an endangered species. there's a ton of news right now issues a lot is going on and we have all of these 24 hour news networks and we could be covering everything. instead we're covering three topics. every hour is trump, russia, hillary and a panel full of people that remind you why you don't go home for thanksgiving. you guys are obsessed with trump, did you used to date him?

because you pretend like you hate him put i think you love him. i think what no one in this room wants to admit is that trump has helped all of you. he couldn't sell stakes or vodka or water or college or ties or eric, put he has helped you. he's helped you sell your papers and your books and your t.v. you helped create this monster and now you're profiting off of him. if you're fong to profit off of trump you should at least give him some money because he doesn't have any. trump is so broke -- >> how broke is he? >> he grabs fussies because they thinks there might be lose change in them. an imgrant brought here by a pattern who didn't do anything wrong, i got to get the fuck out of here good night.

flint still doesn't have clean water. >> ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for supporting the first amendment and the free press and we wish you a good night. thank you. [ applause ] . >> that was the president of the white house correspondents' association and that was quite something, michelle wolf, the headliner of the white house correspondents' dinner this year. first on. of all of my colleagues here at msnbc i'd like to apologize for a little bit of an f bomb that slipped in there and some other

profanity throughout the course of the set. guys, we heard michelle wolf call sara huckleby sander, and kellyanne conway a liar. what's that to you? >> it wasn't an exchange, the part of sara huckleby sander, remind you, one of the most difficult jobs is to sit and be on the receiving end of the brunt of the jokes. i think the best way to do is sort of laugh hardest is the way to get through it and that is not the approach she took. she seemed quite perturbed. i think we'll be hearing more about that from the podium in the white house in the weeks ahead. >> there she is, back to the cameras now talking to the folks up there. she look pretty shook up there. david. >> i think this thing is so easy if you're about butt of the joke. you can laugh hardest, that will be good or you can smile a little bit, that would work.

it saysing this that not just sara sander or obama 2011 when made fun of it seems to be contagious and laugh at one's self or pretend to be in the joke. it's interesting to see that. >> baratunde, this was a separate bomb but we did hear laughter inside the room, you were taking notes, what do you think? >> yeah, this is to be as positive as a wide ranging performance. she had jokes that kill like the starbucks line, the teachers guns thing. i think a lot of it was mean spirited and the level of aggression and profanity. even i was like, oyo, really you're dropping this many on c-span. this is who she is, she's like

you should have done your research. she was honest who to the who she is. some of it was a lot. some of it was awesome. it's a mixed report from me but that as the president said, the president who actually showed up tonight of the correspondents' association. thank for celebrating the first amendment. >> this is about airation of the first amendment. we're living in a time right now where the united states rank 54th in press freedoms around the world. we dropped two positions over the last year. the president calling the press the enemy of the american people. revoking broadcasting licenses. did you guys feel like this was a celebration of the first amendment tonight, david? >> i thought there was a lot of michelle wolf's performance stood out for differently reasons. the one that stood out for me and it was probably the least joky, she was delivering an indictment not just of trump and of the people in washington but

of the press. and saying you, by the way, includes msnbc, i wrote a book called thanks obama, i'm sure it sold copies because donald trump was president. it is a hung we do need to recon with. this idea, those of us who care about the news and what's going on are certainly benefitting from the fact that trump is president. i thought it was interesting. she was saying it's the danger of complicity. this was an event where the press and the trump white house officials who are so disdainful of them were pretending this was all in good fun and she was basically saying, hey this was not in good fun this was serious. whether you liked it or disliked it she was not playing around. >> is there a chance, kimberly, let's be honest, the president probably was watching this or not, what was the -- that this president want to attend this in time to come?

>> i think it might. i'm sure we will see the president probably stand up for sara huckleby sander, just a matter of all probably checking our phones to see how long it takes for a tweet to come out. i think it may make it tougher. this is not something he likes to sit through. >> the one thing i think, baratunde that baits the thing the most the president not having a lot of money. he may have a lot of money in suburb ya but not in new york city. if the president tweets about anything tonight what will be the first thing he tweets about? >> i honestly think he'll try to defend his press secretary. he loves playing the grief. i think what he'd fear most is if robert mueller delivered that monologue next year. stay with us, we got a little bit of time here to break down what we just witnessed. the 2018 white house

correspondents' dinner. i'm jacob solve rodolfo and you're watching msnbc. o happy? because they've chosen the industry leader. subaru forester holds its value better than any other vehicle in its class according to alg. better than cr-v. better than rav4. better than rogue. an adventure that starts with a subaru forester will always leave you smiling. get 0% apr financing on the 2018 subaru forester. kyle, we talked about this. there's no monsters. but you said they'd be watching us all the time. no, no. no, honey,

we meant that progressive would be protecting us 24/7. we just bundled home and auto and saved money. that's nothing to be afraid of. -but -- -good night, kyle. [ switch clicks, door closes ] ♪ i told you i was just checking the wiring in here, kyle. he's never like this. i think something's going on at school. -[ sighs ] -he's not engaging. that skills like teamwork, attention to detail, and customer service are critical to business success.

like the ones we teach here, every day.

i want to try to make fun of the president in a new way, in a way that i think will really get him. mr. president, i don't think you're very rich. i think you might be rich in idaho, but in new york you're doing fine. >> the white house

correspondents' dinner is over. that was the comedian headliner michelle wolf. i'm jacob soap rboroff back witr panel. was she an equal opportunity offender tonight? >> i mean she definitely was trying to hit -- go for the soft spots. i mean that right there, the president's wealth, his success is what his whole thing is about, and i think that was a really purposeful shot. i think, yeah, she hit all over the place. i mean i think some of the points that she made about the press, the fact that it is more -- it's a point that i made. there are more journalists here than ever. there's more cable news -- >> let me hold you right here. the president of the united states has just arrived at joint base andrews with an upside down umbrella. it must be windy and very rainy. he got off the plane just moments after the end of that set. in all likelihood he was watching this tonight. sorry, kimberly. >> i think that's probably right. i think some of the things he said about sarah huckabee

sanders, i think there's a lot to make fun of about -- potential fodder to make fun or jokes about sarah huckabee sanders. i didn't love going at her appearance, you know, talking about her eyeshadow and stuff. i think she's a better comedian than that. i don't think anybody was off limits tonight. >> there's still an opportunity to hear from the president tonight on the south lawn when he comes back in to the white house. >> i just love this creepy shot of our president sneaking into washington under the cover of darkness. like that's a visual metaphor for who's running our country right now. >> coincidence or not that is literally making the journey from air force one to marine one after the set is over? >> like what are you hiding president trump? why can't we see you right now? >> we didn't see when the plane actually landed. >> there's the upside down umbrella. >> is that him, though? i don't know. where's the lights. >> david litt, is this better comedy than we witnessed at the washington hilton tonight? >> no. i think the washington hilton has the president walking down some stairs beat.

but i do think i will say, thinking about the president's reaction, i mean if there's one thing president trump -- he does not -- he just loathes, it's women and/or black or brown people being what he perceives as being disrespectful. i think this is going to get under his skin because you had a woman of color who was not respectful of the president or his staff. so i could see this setting him off and that lack of discipline may prove to be a problem. >> here we go one more time. let's watch the president coming down. >> amazing gifts are coming. >> do your thing, twitter. >> this may be worth watching. i do want to go back real quick to inside the room one more time. take a look at what michelle wolf said not about the president, but about his 2016 opponent, hillary clinton. >> it is kind of crazy that the trump campaign was in contact with russia when the hillary campaign wasn't even in contact with michigan. >> always comes back to hillary, baratunde.

>> yeah, solid joke, right? well constructed, delivered sharply. i think the campaign would take issue with some of the underlying facts but it's a great joke. >> marine one is a place where the president tweets from. actually just checking my twitter feed right now to see. f >> i'm going to stick with probably the defense of his press secretary. he's probably going to say michelle wolf was not funny. that's why she -- going to make some shot about ratings probably being bad. i think it's going to be the presidential greatest hits in response to this. >> at the end of the day, do you feel like, david, if you're the trump administration, he made the right decision in staying away from all of this tonight? >> i still don't think he made the right decision, but i wish this was the wrong decision that i felt most strongly about. i mean i think that basically if trump could go next year and sit through some jokes and put a smile on his face and maybe

laugh once or twice, the press would give him so much credit, and he can't do it. >> we've got about 30 seconds left. baratunde, final thoughts? >> i think it's too late for this president to get that kind of credit. i look for a peaceful wind-down to his administration and we can get back to the business of normal governance and press freedoms that this country should be fighting over. >> it's been a real pleasure to be here with you all at home, to honor the first amendment and those young people, young journalists, future journalists, the people that will be sitting in these chairs very soon that were given scholarships tonight. special thanks to kimberly atkins, david litt, baratunde thurston. thanks for watching. stay with us for news updates and breaking news throughout the night here on msnbc. have a wonderful evening. "hardball" with chris matthews is next. ♪

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mission for moscow. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews from washington. tonight we're learning new details about that infamous meeting in june of 2016 between members of the trump campaign and the russians at trump tower. that meeting brought together three top officials from the trump campaign -- donald trump jr., paul manafort, and jared kushner, with an