Jon Stewart correspondents dinner takedown calls WHCD ‘an act of submission’

Jon Stewart correspondents dinner commentary turned into a full-blown call to shut the event down after Donald Trump’s nearly hourlong White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech, which Stewart dissected on The Daily Show.

The annual dinner, held Friday night after being rescheduled because a gunman fired shots inside the Washington Hilton in April, featured Trump trying out jokes that Stewart said left the room cold. Comedy Central footage showed Stewart playing clips from the speech, then picking apart Trump’s timing and delivery.

After one clip of Trump trying to land a joke drew silence from the WHCD crowd, Stewart said, “Normally I’d say, ‘Don’t quit your day job,’” before adding that he would make an exception in Trump’s case.

Stewart said Trump’s allies had praised the president as funny, but he did not buy the reviews. He argued that one failed joke was not enough to judge the whole speech, then played more examples and criticized Trump for setting up premises before drifting away from them.

Why does Jon Stewart want the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to end?

Stewart said the dinner creates the wrong image by putting the press and the people they cover together in a friendly banquet setting. He described the event as “an act of submission” because journalists were sharing the room with Trump despite his past actions toward members of their profession.

In Stewart’s view, the problem went beyond Trump’s performance. He said the dinner “should not have happened at all” and argued that celebrating a cozy relationship between reporters and power looks bad, especially during Trump’s presidency.

Stewart said Trump was shaking hands with leaders in a field whose members, according to Stewart, he has subpoenaed, arrested, sued, threatened, barred from access, cut funding for and, in one case, had deported.

The segment also focused on Trump’s remarks about CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, who received an award at the dinner. Trump congratulated Collins during the speech, then called the award “fake” and said she should not have received it, according to video shown and discussed on The Daily Show.

Trump also said he had confused Collins with Dylan Mulvaney and criticized Collins for not smiling, telling her, “So smile, Kaitlan. Just smile.” Stewart responded on air by joking that CNN’s Wolf Blitzer should have gone onstage in a Will Smith-style Oscars moment.

Collins later appeared with Stewart to talk about the speech and her reaction. She said she was not surprised Trump insulted her, because she said that happens “pretty regularly” inside the Oval Office.

What stood out to Collins, she told Stewart, was how quiet the room became while Trump spoke. She said the audience included Trump staffers, cabinet members, allies and Republicans in Congress.

Stewart praised Collins as “unflappable” in her exchanges with Trump. Collins said she tries not to make those moments about herself, and instead wants viewers to focus on the reporting, the questions asked and the answers she said reporters do not get.

This story draws on original reporting from Rolling Stone.