US President Barack Obama joked about Russian President Vladimir Putin and issues much closer to home as he headlined the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last week on Saturday.
In the annual event, the US president traditionally mocks others and himself as celebrities mingle with journalists and politicians.
Obama made fun of conservative television hosts’ talk about Putin’s bare chest and one’s comment last year about the Russian leader being headed for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Photo: AFP
“To be fair, they give those to just about anybody these days,” said Obama, a Nobel laureate himself.
He also joked about opposition claims that he had been born overseas instead of in the US.
Looking to a possible successor, Obama said it will be a lot harder for Republicans to prove that former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton was born in Kenya.
The US president then poked fun at CNN’s extensive coverage of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Saying that he was still jet-lagged from his recent trip to Malaysia, he joked: “The lengths we have to go to get CNN coverage these days.”
Obama also poked fun at himself and his difficult last year in office, including the deeply troubled rollout of the Web site for his healthcare overhaul.
US first lady Michelle Obama accompanied him to the black-tie event, which had Joel McHale of the NBC series Community as the featured entertainer. Other celebrities there included Sofia Vergara and the stars of Washington-centric shows like Veep and Scandal.
The dinner has often come at key moments of Obama’s presidency. In 2011, it came the day before special operations troops killed former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, while last year’s dinner came nearly two weeks after the deadly Boston Marathon bombings.
This time, the US and Europe are anxiously watching Ukraine and Russia’s incursion into it.
The correspondent’s association, which represents the White House press corps, celebrated its 100th anniversary at the dinner, where several journalists were awarded prizes for their coverage of the US presidency and national issues.
Glenn Thrush of Politico and Brianna Keilar of CNN won the Aldo Beckman Award for coverage of the presidency, while Peter Baker of the New York Times and Peter Maer of CBS News won the Merriman Smith Award for deadline coverage.
Megan Twohey of Reuters and a partnership between the Center for Public Integrity’s Chris Hamby and ABC News’ Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross won the Edgar A. Poe Award for covering issues of national importance in the US.
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