WASHINGTON — Say goodbye to the jokes that have flowed from the dais of the White House correspondents’ dinner for decades: The White House Correspondents’ Association announced Monday that biographer Ron Chernow will be the featured speaker at the annual black-tie event in the spring.
Having a serious speaker — Chernow is an esteemed historian who has chronicled the lives of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Ulysses S. Grant, among others — is a big break from the tradition of having a stand-up comedian entertain the ballroom of journalists, members of Congress and administration types.
“I’m delighted that Ron will share his lively, deeply researched perspectives on American politics and history at the 2019 White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” WHCA president Olivier Knox, who is the chief Washington correspondent for SiriusXM, said in a news release. “As we celebrate the importance of a free and independent news media to the health of the republic, I look forward to hearing Ron place this unusual moment in the context of American history.”
The programming switcheroo followed the controversy over last year’s comedian, Michelle Wolf, who landed polarizing punchlines about White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, who attended the dinner and sat at the head table in the stead of her boss. “She burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye,” Wolf said of President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman, whom she also likened to an “Uncle Tom, but for white women who disappoint other white women.”
