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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Special Coverage; White House Correspondents' Dinner. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired April 27, 2024 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:59:52]
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But if you're going to do it, do it like Colin did, make it personal, throw in a few little jabs, keep it funny, but open your heart up and call this country back to its best self, which is what he was doing.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Scott, what did you think? Because Scott's got a different take. I saw those eyebrows go up.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I thought it was wise for Biden to keep it short and he didn't try to over modulate, you know, he was pretty even keel throughout, you know, sometimes he goes up and down and it's weird.
You know, he was very passive aggressive, mostly focused on Trump. I did think it was a little rich for him to tell the press, I don't want you to choose sides, but then he instructed them to cover the race in the exact same framing that he wants the race to be covered. I also -- you know, again, he and the rest of the Democrats continue to spew misinformation about what Trump used the word bloodbath.
He -- it's a complete lie and a canard that Biden -- and then says, we can't have misinformation in this race, while doing it himself.
I thought Jost was funny. Some of it was a little flat. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting the endorsement at the end. And there's a lot of sports contents on tonight, and I suspect a lot of what people are going to hear about this will be clippings over the next 24 to 48 hours.
My suspicion is the Jost endorsement will be one of the leading -- not the jokes, but the endorsement --
SIDNER: It will make news.
JENNINGS: -- and that will make news, and I'll be curious to see if that --
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Where? Where? Will it make news on Fox News or will it make news in the media?
JENNINGS: Well, Jost -- I don't view Jost as a political figure. He is someone that I think people who don't follow politics would know and follow. And so, his interjecting himself into it will probably make some kind of news.
I mean, look, we had Biden speak tonight, and then we had a Biden surrogate effectively speak tonight. And so, I agree with you, conservatives will not care for that, but there'll be a lot of people who only follow people like Colin Jost, who maybe take notice of it that wouldn't otherwise be following political events like this.
BERMAN: The way he did it, just to be clear, you know, he didn't go out there and say, Joe Biden for president. What he did was said my grandfather who passed away this year voted for you the last time he voted. He also said that President Biden reminds him of his grandfather and said the reason was because of decency.
SIDNER: And he was speaking to the country about decency and to the people in the room about decency and the reason why this exists, that we can rib each other and not go to jail, I think is what he said, is because of decency.
VAN LATHAN, HOST, "THE HIGHER LEARNING PODCAST" ON THE RINGER: I'll be honest, it's the single most effective celebrity endorsement I think I've ever heard. Because of the platform, where he was, how he had set it up before. And in my opinion, the reasons that he outlined that he feels like his grandfather voted for Joe Biden, those are the reasons, to me, that a lot of Americans vote for presidents.
Like we can get to the ins and outs of the economy, of politics, of foreign policy, but to me, I think -- I still think that a lot of Americans vote for the guy that they think most reflects their values and who they are and character. And you just can't get a stronger endorsement from somebody at that point. It definitely was an endorsed.
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he was he was talking to me That's why I voted for Joe Biden. I used to say, because I want to make America good again. And I think Joe Biden's a good person. And so, to sort of re-up that message, I think, was important.
But also, interestingly, he made jokes about some political issues, but he did not get political, at all. And I think that was really smart too because had he gone political, making a -- maybe a political commentary on Gaza, or I know he made an abortion joke, but he wasn't really making a value judgment, had he really leaned into the politics, that endorsement would not have worked. I think it really would have stepped on the endorsement.
The endorsement worked because he kind of stayed out of the politics, I think.
BERMAN: What about age as an issue, both for Biden and for Colin Jost? How do we think it played? If the goal clearly, one of the -- I surmise, one of the biggest goals from the White House at an event like this is to deal with head on what is one of the biggest issues with President Biden is his age. Do they do it effectively?
JONES: I think so. I mean, I think so. And, you know, in the State of the Union, when he was, you know, get off my lawn levels of like volume --
BERMAN: According to college years. Coked up. Or coked up, you know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Libyan marching pop.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That he left the White House, by the way.
JONES: Exactly. So, you know, with that one, you know, I think, it felt obligatory, it felt kind of like begrudging he had to kind of deal with the age issue. This time he seemed to actually enjoy it. He's even more Reagan.
Like, you know, Reagan played with that a lot. And I think he's finally kind of found his Reagan voice in talking about his age. I thought it was great.
JENNINGS: They don't have a choice. I mean, you can't go out and say, I'm not old, because you clearly are. So, they don't really have a choice other than to deal with it via humor. Having Jost there to ratify that strategy, I mean, again, it's a very effective political strategy when you want to do something and then someone who's a professional at doing that shows up and helps you do it. I mean, that's what they got out of it tonight.
And there's -- you know, there's not really other events that go on in our political atmosphere that are designed to massage the rough edges of Trump. This is designed to massage the very rough edge of Biden, which is concerns about his age. Trump doesn't have a -- like an analogous thing.
[23:05:00]
CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, you're right. I thought Colin did something that was really smart, when we page, and she -- because we're best friends, Colin. He did --
BERMAN: My boy, Colin.
CHAMPION: My guy. We talk on the phone, and the jokes went over well, we discussed, you know. I like that he really said, to me, what -- in my opinion, when he said, you know what, Diddy could run, be running mates with Trump, and it will still be tied.
SIDNER: Yes.
CHAMPION: He's talking about the state of where we are. Like, I want you to realize what's going on.
BERMAN: Wow.
CHAMPION: This is ridiculous. Are we paying attention to where we are today? Like, as a comedian, it is your job, I think, to observe the humor of the country and to make it digestible to people who don't necessarily follow politics, as you just talked about, but also to make it something that we can say, oh, that's funny, I remember, you're right, let me take a step back. Diddy, the running mate for Trump. Anybody at this moment could be.
SIDNER: It's funny because it's true, is what you're saying.
CHAMPION: That's my -- that is the exact -- what he's saying, listen to what I am telling you. This is funny, but listen, there's also something that we need to pay attention to. And that's what got my attention.
SIDNER: He brought up almost every single thing that Biden is having to face. He brought up Columbia, although he didn't put throw Biden in there. He was -- he teased the students about that. But he also brought up the black vote when talking about. That got a huge reaction.
CHAMPION: Out of me here.
SIDNER: Yes, yes, yes. He talked about his "Weekend Update" partner, Michael Che, saying that he was supposed to be here, but I'm also standing in solidarity with Joe Biden --
CHAMPION: And losing all my black supporters.
SIDNER: -- losing all my black supporters.
CHAMPION: Yes.
SIDNER: What did you make of that? Like, is that -- was that the right tone to deal with that issue?
CHAMPION: Yes. He was, to me, pitch perfect. Yes. You know, and people say this often, but it was. I wasn't offended by anything he said. Some awkward moments. Things weren't always funny, but it was accurate. I think he spoke for a portion of society on left and right sides who felt like they weren't getting what they need and haven't been getting what they needed from President Biden.
Also, the same with Trump and how ridiculous it is to have him falling asleep and farting himself awake.
JENNINGS: The jokes about the race being tied, actually, I think that was the most biting thing he said about. Biden, he lists off all these terrible things about Trump and then he says, yet the race is tied. What I didn't get from him was that he understands why the race is tied.
CHAMPION: Was that his job though?
JENNINGS: Well, I mean, he came out to make an endorsement in the race. So, maybe. It should be. I mean, I -- but I think if you ask the average conservative, like, why is the race tied or why is Donald Trump ahead in all the swing states? They know, but do the people on the dais and the people in that room know? They're outraged that the race is tied, but they seem to have little understanding about why that might be.
And I think if he had acknowledged that a little bit, it might have --
CUPP: On Joe's?
JENNINGS: Yes, it might have helped.
CUPP: Like, what did you want him to say? Like something about immigration? Something about crime? Something about the border?
JENNINGS: Something about how the only people who can afford groceries in America are sitting in the same ballroom tonight? I don't know. I mean --
CUPP: He did. He talked about the economy.
JENNINGS: I mean, there are things you can do to acknowledge what people are feeling outside the bubble versus the outrage that people inside the bubble feel about the -- how could anyone person ever vote for Donald Trump? Well, let me tell you, more than a few are going to vote for him, but it's sort of your job to understand outside versus inside the bubble.
BERMAN: Let me ask you this, Scott, because I've been here with you at these events before, and Jost did what he did, and either, you know, talked about his grandfather voting for Joe Biden, so that was definitely there, but this wasn't the type of comedy, I don't think, as I was sitting here near you, that offended you as a conservative.
JENNINGS: I'm not. I'm not offended by it, but I think my job here, as it's been for the last seven years, is to try to reflect what the average middle America conservative might -- how they might react to something. I think he said some funny things. I certainly laughed out loud at some of them and I'm just -- I'm giving you all --
JONES: I think it's useful. I think it's useful because you are correct. Half the country is going to vote for a guy and the other half of the country is bewildered as to why. And he did say one funny thing about the Trumps, since we already talked about what maybe -- I bet Lara Trump. He said Lara Trump sings so bad; he's going to invite her to go back to politics. That was pretty -- I don't know if the conservatives like that very much.
Just one last thing. You know, I think for me, that's one of the few moments in that room that you saw the Fox people, you saw the CNN people, you saw -- it's one of the few times in America where all those people are actually all together, people on both sides, people from rival news outlets. Sometimes it can be very awkward and uncomfortable, but I do think that both the people who are getting the awards, all that kind of stuff, that stuff really matters.
SIDNER: Sure.
JONES: It made me proud to be a part of this profession. It made me proud to be in a country where journalists can go and comedians can go and stick it to the president, and it still works out all right.
[23:10:00] SIDNER: It is about celebrating the First Amendment as well. So, those uncomfortable conversations that may be having or who you're sitting next to, the point is that we can do it without anybody going to jail, and it's something that he said, we can rib each other without --
JENNINGS: Do you think the reporters in the room understand that when Biden makes jokes, like I'm going on Howard Stern, that the joke is on you? Like I'm going to do Howard Stern, but I'm not going to spend any time with you people here? I'm going to come up here and I'm going to say all the things you expect me to say, but the real joke is, I'm not going to give you the time of day and I'm going to spend all my time with Howard Stern, ha, ha, ha.
I mean, the two "New York Times" reporters that got awards tonight, that's the only time "The New York Times" gets to spend with Joe Biden, those little photo ops tonight.
BERMAN: Well, based on the latest round of reporting from "The New York Times" and about "The New York Times," they do care, and they are very upset. And look we all want --
JENNINGS: But he doesn't. But Biden doesn't care. That's the joke is on -- if I were in that room there to celebrate journalism, I almost would be a little offended that Joe Biden is pranking me.
SIDNER: OK.
LATHAN: Well, I mean, I guess the question would be, what offends you more, a president that is maybe a little standoffish with you or one that continuously attacks your profession --
JENNINGS: It's worse than --
LATHAN: -- cuts it down and calls your profession out? And the base is it, like, what -- like, I guess they could take issue with it, but if we're looking at a binary choice between --
JENNINGS: But they don't.
LATHAN: We're looking at a binary choice between one guy who's maybe not so nice and fuzzy with the press and another guy who says that they don't have any worth and that --
JONES: And that don't get any of the people.
LATHAN: -- people.
CUPP: And I talked to a lot of reporters and writers in journalism, they're very annoyed that Joe Biden has been closed to the press. They talk about it openly. They complain about it. They're super annoyed. We demand more access. They complained to the White House about it. I mean --
BERMAN: Reckless.
CUPP: Oh, yes, but, on the other side, it's so much worse. And that doesn't give Joe Biden a pass, but the four years of Trump for journalism was a scary time to be doing what we do.
JONES: Trump would not even come.
CUPP: We got pipe bombs --
BERMAN: He didn't come.
CUPP: -- sent to our office and Donald Trump laughed about it. So, there is a comparison. It doesn't excuse Joe Biden's opacity, but people have an institutional knowledge of how this has gone over administrations. Obama was hostile to the press at times, and we remember that too.
So, you have to understand we're humans, as journalists, and we're observing everything that's been going on. And we have a compare and contrast from immediate recent history.
LATHAN: I think even for average Americans, this is how this whole race is framed. It's the difference between annoyance and annihilation. Like one guy who you might be annoyed with another guy who you believe is a clear and present threat to democracy.
CHAMPION: And that depends on who you're voting for, by the way. Yes, yes. It's like -- yes. It's interchangeable.
LATHAN: Of course. But my point here is that, yes, if those people in that room would be annoyed with Joe Biden, I just don't understand how they would make that big of an issue with it when another guy is like ripping to shreds their entire --
BERMAN: I don't want to stop this conversation because it's fantastic. And I love all of the input from around the table here, but we're going to lose our people who were actually in the room in one second. So, Laura Coates and Harry Enten, you were there. Abby Phillip is there too.
SIDNER: Oh, in the room where it happened.
BERMAN: So, talk to us. How did it play?
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR, "LAURA COATES LIVE": Yes.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I mean, I was not actually in the room. I was stuck out here. So, let me ask the question.
COATES: We were in the room where it happened. Hashtag Aaron Burr. Talk to me, Abby, about your reaction to how everything went. I thought it was funny.
ABBY PHILLIP, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSNIGHT: I thought it was really funny. Listen, it was funny. Most of the time people laughed. And you know, what I said earlier, the issue is that sometimes journalists don't want to laugh, they don't want to laugh at the jokes, but it was really funny.
There were even like some very subtle jokes. When he talked about the second gentleman, and he was just like, Doug. And that was a really funny joke, because everybody knows that Doug is Doug.
I thought he really hit the nail on the head in terms of the balance between -- he was a little bit more on the political side, I will say that, right?
ENTEN: Well, it's re-election year.
PHILLIP: Yes, I mean, he was pro-Biden, let's be honest. He was pro- Biden, but he made a lot of jokes about Biden's age, they were funny, they were interesting, they were generally on point. He needled Trump a lot.
COATES: So did President Biden.
PHILLIP: So did President Biden. I was actually -- I have to say, I was a little surprised by that. His speech, President Biden's speech was actually quite political, especially at the beginning.
COATES: For years, he hasn't even said his name really in the same way and this is the day he went at him.
PHILLIP: Yes. Yes, exactly. And so, I almost felt like it was kind of taking a page out of President Obama. This was from before Trump was a candidate or a political person, that was looming over this dinner, and President Biden really just went for it.
And it actually kind of indicated -- and maybe this is what they were going for, that they -- that he doesn't want people to think that he's afraid of taking on Trump directly.
[23:15:00]
ENTEN: So, hold on, hold on. We got a 10:00 p.m. anchor here. We got 11:00 p.m. anchor here. The 10 p.m. anchor has answered all the questions so far. The 11:00 p.m. anchor is trying to play anchor, but I'm going to play a little bit of anchor myself.
COATES: Well, you know, I'm just -- I was trying to hear Abby Phillip, because she is the boss.
ENTEN: Well, she's the boss, but you're perhaps the vice boss.
COATES: I'm the closer.
ENTEN: You're the closer. You're the closer.
PHILLIP: No, no. We are partners in crime. We're partners in crime.
ENTEN: You're partners in crime. And I'm off somewhere else typing some things under a computer into a spreadsheet. What did you think of what happened this evening?
COATES: Well, you guys now I'm an inappropriate laugher. So, I was laughing.
PHILLIP: Sure. I was trying to keep myself under control. COATES: I try, but like my smile is very ready. And I kept thinking, wait, is there a camera? Can I laugh? Can I laugh at this part? I was surprised that Biden was so political against Trump, by the same token, we're 190 days away for presidential election. Some would say, if not now, when?
And he did say, I mean, maybe you would debate him, maybe he wouldn't, maybe it was just way of doing so, I thought Colin Jost was very funny. There was a moment in time, he talked about his grandfather being a voter for Biden, about decency. There was a very nice moment.
I thought also the way that he and Scar Jo -- oh, sorry, Scarlett Johansson, is how you all call her? Scar Jo. The way he talked about their relationship and how she doesn't want any privacy. Come on up to her, it was a very funny moment.
All in all, they also gave us steak. I was happy. There was a whole dessert tray. It had macaroons. It had -- if you want to know, it had eclairs. It had little -- like little creme pots.
ENTEN: Oh, I'm getting hungry.
PHILLIP: It may not have been the best part of the dinner, let's be honest.
COATES: I mean, it was delicious.
ENTEN: Did you have the chicken, the fish? Was there a steak? What was going on?
COATES: I had the steak.
PHILLIP: It was surf and turf.
COATES: I had the steak.
PHILLIP: It was surf and turf.
COATES: And there were two shrimps. I was told there'd be three. But there were two shrimps.
ENTEN: But you got two shrimps, I got no shrimp.
COATES: Well, I don't know what to tell you, but you had -- you forgot, you brought the matzah.
ENTEN: I did. I did bring the matzah. And it has actually gotten used. This is gluten free matzah because I like to ensure that people with sensitive stomachs would be able to enjoy it as well.
COATES: How sensitive of you. Did you know that was going to come as part of the question?
PHILLIP: I am shocked that the gluten free matzah went first, but that's just me. ENTEN: You know what? We're in Washington, D.C., not necessarily in New York. You know, guys, I just want to point out, you know, Colin was on tonight, and he was talking all up about Staten Island. Staten Island is the worst borough. I'm sorry.
COATES: Oh, no.
ENTEN: It's just true. It's the worst borough. The Bronx is where it's at. Arthur Avenue. We're all going to go up to Arthur Avenue, get a little Mario's Pizza. We're all back in New York, and we're going to show Staten Island where it's truly at.
COATES: Well, I'm married to a man from the Bronx. So, we're going to Gun Hill Road as well and get the Jamaican food after that. And you? Where we going?
PHILLIP: I don't know. I'm going to go to Flatbush. Take me to Flatbush.
ENTEN: Oh, Brooklyn. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm done. I'm done with this. Terrible borough choices here. But we'll throw it back to a guy from Armonk, New York on the set there, and Mr. John Berman.
BERMAN: All right. Thank you all so much. Enjoy the after parties.
SIDNER: They've already started.
BERMAN: Harry Enten, Laura Coates, Abby Phillip, our thanks to all three of you.
All right. We've been talking about President Biden, we've been talking about Colin Jost, we saw things we really haven't seen before at this dinner. We're going to take a short break. Much more ahead. This is CNN's Special Live Coverage of the White House Correspondents Dinner.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:20:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN JOST, SNL HOST AND COMEDIAN: Wonderful to be back in Washington. I love being in Washington. The last time I was in D.C., I left my cocaine at the White House. Luckily, the president was able to put it to good use for his State of the Union.
I'm kidding, of course, the president doesn't call it cocaine, he calls it high speed rail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: There's Colin Jost making one of his many jokes about Joe Biden. And it went over well in the room. And Joe Biden himself did laugh, and we still don't know where that cocaine came from. BERMAN: No, we don't, we don't. Joe Biden, the president, laughed at every one of the jokes that Colin Jost told about his age, which was interesting. I do want to note that conservative media critic Curtis Houck, or conservative media critic -- not a critic of the conservative media, he actually posted that very clip and said Colin Jost kissing Biden's ass at the White House Correspondents.
So, in case you were wondering, you know, Scott Jennings has been here giving a conservative perspective of what we saw tonight. This is some of the immediate reaction to what was heard from Colin Jost tonight. You're shaking your head.
CUPP: Well, listen, I'm a conservative in the media. I have pretty thick skin. Van and I have attended this several times. I remember them being a lot meaner. Meaner, mean spirited, more cutting jokes directed across the board, but mean. This was light to me. To my ears, this was light, this was -- this wasn't very cutting. So, I don't know, maybe I've just been around long enough.
BERMAN: Well, I think that's what he's saying, it's not -- it wasn't cutting toward President Biden.
CUPP: But it wasn't even that cutting to Trump. I mean, he's making jokes about him farting in court. I mean, he really could have -- listen, I think he could have gotten a lot darker and a lot meaner about Fox, about conservative media, about Trump. I mean, pick your target. I don't think he did. I think he was pretty light.
JONES: What I think is interesting is that, you know, norms are falling across the board. You know, when Trump bust the norm, it scares me and we go nuts. We've never seen when these guys endorse anybody before or women, like we've seen a lot of stuff happen, sometimes they bomb, sometimes they suck, sometimes they're hilarious, sometimes remember forever. I've never seen that before.
So, another norm has fallen. And I just -- I think, if I were conservative, I would probably take exception. So, I think, I understand that. But, you know, I liked it, and I look -- I like Colin Jost. I told you, we were going to be talking about him, and nobody else. I think Colin Jost is going to be the news tonight and tomorrow.
[23:25:00]
I liked what he did. I like what Biden did. But we -- norm did fall today.
SIDNER: I was going to say, the news --
JENNINGS: You know what's interesting about the comedy, about Biden though, and the age stuff, it's almost exclusively about his physical limitations. There really is no comedy about his mental capacity.
BERMAN: I'm going to beg to differ. In this case, he made jokes about him being senile. He made jokes about not being able to follow what he says. In fact, the first joke he said is, it's hard to follow President Biden. In fact, I mean it, it's hard to follow what he says. JENNINGS: Most of it is about the stairs and the bicycle. I mean, I think this is -- it's smart for the Biden people to coordinate this, to make it more about his physical limitations and not -- because if you look at all the polling --
CHAMPION: They got together.
JENNINGS: If you look at --
SIDNER: Are you actually saying -- are you saying that Colin Jost --
LATHAN: Are you saying that Colin Jost is a member of deep state?
SIDNER: Wait. What are you saying?
JENNINGS: I'm saying -- I'm just saying, if you look at all the polling, everyone's worried. They're not worried about Joe Biden stumbling, they're worried about whether he has the mental capacity, at his age, to serve another term.
CUPP: You're worried about Trump --
JENNINGS: And if you -- but -- are they?
CUPP: Yes.
CHAMPION: Yes.
JENNINGS: There's not a single poll in America taken during this campaign that shows people worried more about Trump's capacity than Biden.
CUPP: I didn't say more.
JENNINGS: So -- but my point is this, it's a wise strategy to try to keep it focused on physical limitations and move the conversation away from, does this person have the mental capacity?
JONES: They're historical.
CUPP: It's wise.
JONES: Well, it's wise because it's proven that's exactly what Reagan did. People were very concerned that Reagan was losing it, and it turns out that he was losing it and actually had full on Alzheimer's. But when Reagan addressed it, he addressed it in this more gentle joking way. So --
JENNINGS: So, you think it's possible that they're effectively covering it up?
JONES: Well, no, I'm not saying that they're covering it up. What I'm saying is that just like your guy, just like when you had an old and you had --
JENNINGS: I hadn't endorsed anybody. JONES: No, I'm saying -- I'm just saying about Reagan, just like --
JENNINGS: I do endorse that.
JONES: Exactly. So, we have Biden, you have Reagan. But what we do have is, I think, a couple things happening tonight. Number one, you mentioned and I do want to go back and talk about that as well, there is a beautiful relationship there with Scarlett Johansson. Like that -- I mean that -- you talk about these celebrity couples and a lot of times it's like a bunch of drama and nonsense and crazy stuff. You could see the love there.
SIDNER: Yes.
JONES: You could see that he understands who she is. He's able to pull her. Like there's some beautiful stuff that was happening there. You know, we can beat up on the president, but this is an important night, and I think that was one. I just want to underscore. I thought that was a very important one.
CHAMPION: He is family oriented.
JONES: Yes.
CHAMPION: You could tell. Biden talked about his family. He talked about his grandfather, why he meant so much to him. Everything was family oriented, which I felt, to me, also spoke to his entire set, if you will. There was, yes, I'm being funny, I'm making fun of you. But at the same time, he ended it with what he wanted us to take away, which was the decent element of, we can still do this, we still talk about this election, we can still have all of these differing opinions. If you think he's a member of the deep state, kidding.
But we can have these different --
JENNINGS: No, he's a member of the class of people in this country who are geared to want there to be a democratic president.
CHAMPION: No.
LATHAN: But here's my --
JENNINGS: And there's no crime in that. A lot of people want there to be --
CHAMPION: Well, I just want a decent America. What about just gearing themselves up without --
JENNINGS: So, the only way to have a decent America is to vote Democrats.
CHAMPION: No. Well, that was --
LATHAN: All we have decent America is to vote for a decent candidate.
CHAMPION: That's it. JENNINGS: Well --
CHAMPION: That's what we all want, right?
JENNINGS: -- will have to disagree about the relative decency of Joe Biden. But your --
LATHAN: I have plenty of problems with Joe Biden, but what I would say --
JENNINGS: No, but your position is that we cannot have a decent America unless we have a Democratic administration.
LATHAN: No, no, no.
BERMAN: Maybe you could give a chance to have this position. What is your position?
LATHAN: Well, I mean, first of all, there -- there's plenty of red to take something from that "Black Widow" actually said. There's plenty of red in Joe Biden's ledger. I'm not the hugest fan of Joe Biden, I could go back to how some of the policies of Joe Biden have affected the black community and all kinds of things, but when we're talking about decency and what we would like to see out of someone that is in a leadership position, I think even, conservatively, you could look at Donald Trump and say, you don't want to tell your kids to be that guy. You don't want to tell the young people in your world to be that guy. You don't want to tell them to bully, to dominate, to make fun of, to debase, to destroy.
CHAMPION: To attack.
LATHAN: That's not how you would like tell them to be. But I think that most people that look at that are objective about it could make that determination. I think it's also very rich to see some people in conservative media to be -- to criticize Colin Yost. When I watch a nonstop sycophantic cycle, a whole media machine and apparatus dedicated to worshiping Donald Trump and his every single move without an ounce of objectivity. And that's -- there's so many different places that are doing that.
[23:30:00]
So, look, the guy got a little outside of his body. He said his grandfather loved the dude. That's cool. I've watched Sean Hannity actually look at Donald Trump and say, Mr. President, I know that's not what you meant. What are you talking about? Like it's what he said.
So, I just think hold the incredulousness for a little bit and let's have some fun.
BERMAN: We have a few -- just a few seconds before we're going to go to break here. I want to take a poll on a very serious matter. How many people think that Colin Jost ran the joke by Scarlett Johansson before he said it out loud on that stage? You think yes? 100 percent? CUPP: Listen, as a wife, I'm pretty sure he ran that joke by her and got clearance. Not for just that, though, probably all of them. OK. OK.
JENNINGS: Ran it by their attorneys.
SIDNER: In your mind -- don't do it. Don't do it, Scott.
JENNINGS: I'm just saying. I'm just saying. If I were in his shoes, I would run it by whoever I had.
CHAMPION: Happy wife, happy life.
CUPP: Happy wife, happy life, right?
BERMAN: All right. We are going to take a quick break here again. We have much more to discuss. I want to talk a little bit more about President Biden's short but pointed speech. I mean, this was a speech about Donald Trump, whom he called Donald repeatedly.
SIDNER: Yes. He actually named, and he doesn't often do that. He usually doesn't say his name.
BERMAN: OK. Much more, right after this very important break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:35:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOST: I'll be honest with you, I don't have a lot of time. I need to get back to New York because I'm juror number five on a big trial. Trump's lawyer took one look at me and he's like, he's got to be on our side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: All right. Joining us now, long-time late-night watcher Bill Carter, who is now the editor at large of a new website called "Late Nighter." It's perfect.
BERMAN: Perfect.
SIDNER: What did you think? There were some things nobody, I think, was expecting, especially Colin Jost at the very end there.
BILL CARTER, EDITOR AT LARGE, "LATE NIGHTER": Yes, that was unusual, I would say, and I'm tempted to say that Colin was decent. But I think he was a little better than that. I think he was good, but I think what people don't realize is he was a little out of his comfort zone. Because, you know, if you see him on the show, he's not really a stand up, he does material -- and there are visuals to illustrate what he says. And you don't get that in this kind of arena. So, that's one big change for him, I think. So, I think he was a little nervous and a little off. He didn't have a tremendous number of explosive jokes. He had many good jokes. He only had two or three jokes I thought were kind of explosive. I noticed you didn't mention one that I thought was interesting where he said, you know, something about, you know, it's refreshing not to have a president where the first thing is a bailiff saying, you know, you have to stand up for a trial. You know, he definitely had some material like that.
I thought that the grandfather thing was very -- it was emotional. I thought he almost choked up about it. And I could see why, he was talking about his grandfather. And let's face it, if you're talking about most comedians, most entertainers, they're probably not Trump supporters. They're probably going to hold back on things like that.
But he did tell jokes about Biden that were critical in their way, but not -- they weren't, like, pointed where he was going to, like, tear a piece of his flesh out. Where you've heard a few of those in the past, like the famous Seth Meyers joke about Biden -- I mean, about Trump running as a Republican, he thought he was going to run as a joke. That was a very big, pointed left hook, you know, from the left. And you didn't see a lot of that out of Colin tonight, but I think he did quite well.
BERMAN: You raise a good point, and just the style of comedy that Colin Jost is used to and the comedy tradition he comes from, and how he's trained, it was a lot of one-liners. I mean, it was one-liner -- it was -- you know, it was joke, one line joke, one line joke, one line joke. And then, when he shifted to the story about his grandfather, in which there were funny lines, it was almost as if it was an entirely separate thing, and the comedy was almost entirely separate as well. It was a different way of being a comedian, and in some ways -- and I'm not commenting on the near endorsement or putting endorsement in quotes there, but the comedy may have been more effective in that part.
CARTER: That's storytelling comedy. You're absolutely right, John. That's not one line, one line, that's a story. He's telling a story. That's storytelling comedy. And I thought he was kind of more himself there. You know, because it was personal, it was -- and the same thing when he mentioned Scarlet, obviously, that was very personal. And you could sort of feel his humanity.
I think it's also interesting to note this guy probably will be criticized by conservatives as one of the elite. This guy is from Staten Island. His grandfather was a firefighter. This is not an elite guy, OK. Yes, he went to Harvard. He's a very bright guy, but I mean, he's -- he can connect with those people.
BERMAN: And he's married to Scarlett Johansson. You know, again, which is just like everybody.
CARTER: Yes, exactly.
BERMAN: Just like every man, reeks of every man.
CARTER: But he got to that level because he's smart, and by the way, he's kind of a good-looking guy. So, that probably helped too.
SIDNER: Just a little. Bill, I'm curious what you thought of Joe Biden. He usually does not say president -- Former President Trump's name. He did quite a bit here and went after him.
CARTER: He did. He -- well, I think he saw it as an opportunity. He's campaigning right now. That was kind of one-third campaign speech, and two-thirds, you know, kind of the typical presidential comedy at one of these. He was making the point that it's the -- you know, democracy is at stake and that you have this guy who, you know, made all these outrageous statements and et cetera.
So, that was a little bit off from what you would expect, but it is like an election year and it's very unusual how often does this happen to be running against the same guy again who was just president? That's very, very unusual.
I thought it was shorter, which was probably smart. I thought it wasn't as funny as some of the others. He was funnier last year, for example. Obama was very, very funny. But many presidents have not been nearly that funny. He had a fantastic joke about his vice president endorsed him. That was a great joke. He had a really effective explosive joke there.
[23:40:00]
So, I thought overall his performance was good, but it wasn't as good as last year. It was a little off for me because he went overboard maybe in campaigning rather than being, you know, a performer at the event.
SIDNER: Yes, the joke that he made was age is the only thing that Donald Trump and I have in common with the exception of my vice president actually endorses me.
BERMAN: Yes.
SIDNER: And that got a huge laugh.
CARTER: Right.
BERMAN: You told it just as well. Well done. Sara Sidner. Well, Bill Carter, great to see you. I would say thanks for staying up late, but this is what you do. I think you probably stayed up late to watch more comedy than any person in America. So, thank you.
CARTER: Yes, and I've seen most of the 50 years of "Saturday Night Live." So --
BERMAN: All on tape, because you're such a young man. Bill Carter, great to see you, as always. Thank you very, very much.
CARTER: Thanks.
BERMAN: All right. This is CNN Special Live Coverage, post-game of the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Some of our smartest conversation, right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:45:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOST: My "Weekend Update" co-anchor, Michael Che, was going to join me here tonight, but in solidarity with President Biden, I decided to lose all my black support.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right. That was Colin Jost at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And again, as with most comedy, there is an element of it's funny but it's true because it's true, right? Because President Biden has had issues with the African-American vote, a bit softer than it was four years ago.
We are back with the best White House Correspondents' Dinner panel in the history of this fine dinner. And joining us, to only make it better, is Samantha Barry, editor-in-chief of Glamour. And, Sam, you noticed some certain jokes and some certain subjects matters that we haven't touched on yet.
SAMANTHA BARRY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GLAMOUR: Yes, it's funny, but it's true. The abortion joke was the one that I was listening and waiting for because, yes, there's all these jokes about Sleepy Joe and the trial, but abortion is going to be a massive ballot mover in this election.
He -- Colin Jost's joke was -- it was fun, it was kind of throwaway, it was like, I can't believe that in New York, Playboy has taken away your abortion rights and an 80-year-old Catholic man is going to give them back to you? But what it did -- that did touch on for me, because I was waiting for that to come up, is that we have seen how much abortion has changed even the small ballots, right?
You've seen in Arizona recently three Republicans go over the aisle to try to repeal that draconian 1984 -- 1994 measure. You've seen in Alabama after the IVF ruling that there was a 33-point swing to a Democrat, which was, abortion is going to be the campaign issue this year.
And there was one joke -- there was a lot of jokes about sleeping and age, but I honestly think that's much more of a campaign issue than was touched on tonight.
SIDNER: OK. So, there was a couple of other jokes. And I know, S.E., you just -- you are just chomping at the bit to get to one that did get a huge -- it's one of the really big laughs, made a joke about Lauren Boebert.
CUPP: I mean, I'm like a teenager, kind of. They're like the giggly, like, off color jokes, like the one about Matt Gaetz going to regular prom. BERMAN: This was President Biden, by the way, it's with Lauren Boebert.
SIDNER: Yes, correct. Not Jost. Yes.
CUPP: But to watch Joe Biden deliver a joke about Lauren Boebert, and I don't know if everyone knows what he was talking about.
SIDNER: Well, you're going to have to tell us.
CUPP: Oh, I'm so glad you asked. So, right, Lauren Boebert, congresswoman from Colorado, was at a movie theater -- I'm sorry, a theater seeing a musical.
BERMAN: A live play. "Wicked."
CUPP: OK, OK. Yes, yes. With a gentleman friend. And they were thrown out for doing stuff to each other inappropriately under sort of the table. I've said too much. I think you get the idea.
SIDNER: We get the idea.
CUPP: And you know, he made a joke about that. That is a really off- color joke for an 80 something year old man to make. And in a night, like I said earlier, that I thought was pretty tame, that really stood out for being different. I thought. Yes. The other --
JENNINGS: I'm sorry, are you not allowed to do that in the theater? I thought this was America.
BERMAN: It's a different kind of Republican Party.
SIDNER: Yes.
BERMAN: It's a different kind of Republican Party right now.
SIDNER: I blushed, I blushed. When you are constantly talking about children and inappropriate, you know, sexualization and then you're sitting in a theater where there are children and you're doing it, this is where the joke actually makes sense.
I do want to ask you guys what you think about one thing we haven't not discussed, and that is Joe Biden talking about the bible that Donald Trump is selling. And then he says, when he reads the part is no other God should go before me, that's when Donald Trump puts it down and said, this book is not for me.
What did you think, Scott?
JENNINGS: Oh, I think Biden leans on religion when it's convenient for him. And then he conveniently forgets his Catholicism when it's not convenient for some of his policy choices. But, you know --
CUPP: Sorry. Can you take a joke? Like, I don't know. I get it. This is what we normally do.
JENNINGS: I take one every day.
CUPP: But, Scott, Scott, Scott, Donald Trump is selling bibles. There's something inherently hilarious and absurd about that.
JENNINGS: I'm not endorsing it, but the idea that Joe Biden avowed Catholic is like the paragon of religious virtue.
CUPP: Who said that?
JENNINGS: He presents himself that way.
CUPP: Oh, come on, no. He made a joke that was sitting there, ready to be taken. Make this joke about Trump selling bibles.
BERMAN: I just want to go back and say it one more time here, because again, on the abortion issue, that is the one Colin Jost made there. But President Biden did talk about Donald Trump a lot. His speech was about Donald Trump.
BARRY: More than I expected it to be, to be fair. I think what you've seen from Biden of late is really -- and the Democratic Party in general, is this kind of avoidance of bringing up Trump's name or talking about him directly, and I think it's almost like a shift in campaign tonight, where it was like, no, we're going to address it. We're going to talk about him. We're going to make fun of him.
[23:50:00]
I think one of the jokes that landed for me when he leaned into his age, but he said, I'm an old man running against a six-year-old. So, I think that was one of the ones that landed for me.
LATHAN: One of the biggest criticisms of the Democratic Party that I hear from people that I talked to is that they seem soft. They seem like cowards. They seem like weaklings. They seem like people who aren't like willing to go to the mattresses for things that they tell us that are so important.
And sometimes when you're paying attention to this race, it seems as if they're waiting for Donald Trump to implode, for him to lose the election. They don't want to go take it. It's the most important election in the world, we don't want to go take it. We don't want to take a step back and pop the bully in the mouth. It seemed like he started to try to get there a little bit tonight.
BERMAN: All right. Everyone, thank you all very much. You've all been wonderful and all been wonderful good sports. Open bar.
SIDNER: For the past five hours.
BERMAN: Open bar in the green room right after this. A quick break. We are going to have the very best of Harry Enten's red carpet experience coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:55:00]
SIDNER: You're watching the special coverage of the White House Correspondents' Dinner here. Thank you so much for watching our coverage tonight. That five hours went by like that.
BERMAN: And thank you so much for being here. This was a --
SIDNER: It was fun.
BERMAN: -- joyous evening. Now, right before we go, here's the kind of best of Harry Enten on the red carpet. Good night everybody.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need a hype person, like a Flava Flav.
COATES: I'll be Harry Enten's Vanna White.
ENTEN: I want it to be your Vanna White. You took it away from me.
So, the idea of a room full of Harrys is probably the greatest nightmare that could ever be inflicted upon the American public.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a slightly bit more of a nightmare hanging out with Harry every Saturday night, but still, because all you would do would be talking numbers or weather.
ENTEN: You know, I went to Men's Wearhouse, but I should have gone to Fetterman's warehouse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're in love.
ENTEN: Oh, my god. This is the greatest thing.
Do you set your TiVo or your receiver in order to know when I'm up at the magic wall?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I do.
COATES: I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're who I wanted to meet.
COATES: You're who I wanted to meet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I give you a hug?
ENTEN: I feel so jealous right now.
I want to tell you, I took a poll of one person at this dinner myself, and I will say that that poll says Forrest Sanchez (ph) A plus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is very kind. That is incredibly kind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that within the margin of error?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I live at CNN actually. I think you've slept at the bureau once or twice too, right?
ENTEN: I may or may not have had an inflatable mattress.
COATES: What women want at the end of the night are flat shoes, am I right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, but we also don't want to look like this.
ENTEN: Colin ran away. He heard that I was going to be delivering a tough interview and he was like, bye.
COATES: You know what, you were going to do a tough interview, weren't you?
ENTEN: Yes.
COATES: You shouldn't have. I mean, you have to be nice to Staten Island. What's wrong with you?
ENTEN: Are we actually doing a good job this evening so far?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you're doing a stellar job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't seen a star yet, and I've been looking at myself for hours.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is here because she also plays a journalist in "Superman." This is Lois Lane, everyone. You are now in the presence of Lois Lane.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, thank you.
ENTEN: Apparently, we have the technology at CNN to make a badge for Lois Lane. But does that mean that I'm Clark Kent?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like this red carpet. It's very pulled together. It's very elegant. You know what I mean?
ENTEN: Like you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like me.
COATES: With Harry, it's so much fun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:00:00]
