*”Saturday Night Live” star Kenan Thompson and “The Daily Show” alum Hasan Minhaj have been tapped to headline the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April.
“Kenan and Hasan are two of the most engaged and engaging entertainers in America. I’m thrilled they’ll help us celebrate the role of a free press in our democracy,” said Jonathan Karl, the chief White House correspondent for ABC News and president of the WHCA. “We’re looking forward to a lively evening honoring the most important political journalism of the past year.”
Thompson, 41, will serve as the evening’s host, while Minhaj will be returning as the “featured entertainer,” as he headlined the dinner in 2017, PEOPLE reports.
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“Kenan and Hasan are two of the most engaged and engaging entertainers in America,” ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, president of the WHCA, said in a statement. “I’m thrilled they’ll help us celebrate the role of a free press in our democracy. We’re looking forward to a lively evening honoring the most important political journalism of the past year.”
Historian and Alexander Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow hosted the event last year, after s a comedian was not chosen to emcee the dinner.
During his speech, Chernow noted on the importance of the media, saying, “The press is a powerful weapon that must always be fired with reluctance and aimed with precision.”
He also touched on how Trump has encouraged his naïve base to not trust the media.
“We’ve seen past administrations threaten the press directly, whether it be Lincoln shutting down disloyal papers during the Civil War, or Woodrow Wilson stifling dissent with the Espionage Act in World War I,” Chernow said last year. “But what is happening today is perhaps even more insidious — a relentless campaign against the very credibility of the news media. Even the smartest courtroom lawyers can’t defend the press against such vague and sweeping attacks. You folks can only preserve that hard-won credibility in one way — with solid, fair-minded, accurate, and energetic reporting.”
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner will be held on April 25, and according to reports, there’s no word yet on whether or not Trump will attend.
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