Obama 'not pulling any punches' at White House dinner
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest says President Barack Obama is going to speak in an honest way without trying to be kind at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner.
“He’s going to be funny. And he’s not going to pull any punches,” Earnest said before the event on Saturday. “This is an opportunity that he always enjoys. Put on a tux, poke a little fun at himself, poke a little fun at Washington and poke a little fun at his adversaries too.”
Obama, delivering his final speech at the black-tie event in Washington, will probably make the Republican front-runner Donald Trump the butt of many of his jokes, Earnest added.
"It would not be the same if we left him out," he said.
This is while Trump has opted out of the 102nd White House Correspondents' Dinner, saying he has received several invitations to the dinner but wouldn’t attend because “the press is dishonest.”
“If the press would be honest, I’d go because I’d have a good time … But no matter how good a time I had, the press would say, 'Donald Trump was miserable.' What would I need that for?”
The billionaire businessman's son, Donald Trump Junior, has expressed willingness to attend the ceremony, saying, “We can dish it out, and we can take it.”
“If there’s anyone that can make fun of ourselves, it’s my father, it’s me, it’s our family. That’s what we are,” he added.
Although the real estate mogul is reportedly high on Obama's comedy hit list, White House sources have stressed Trump won't be alone on the firing line, meaning that Senators Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and the rest might also find themselves in the spotlight.
The annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, began in 1920 and has become a Washington, DC tradition and is usually attended by the President and Vice President. The dinner is traditionally held on the evening of the last Saturday in April at the Washington Hilton.
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