NEWS AND OPINION:
It’s that time of year again.
“The 2024 White House Correspondents’ Dinner takes place on Saturday at the Washington Hilton. The so-called ‘Nerd Prom’ attracts presidents, senior government officials, the media, and — in more recent years — Hollywood stars. “Saturday Night Live” Weekend Update Co-Lead Colin Jost headlines this year’s dinner, following in the footsteps of fellow comedians Darrell Hammond, Jay Leno, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien, Keegan-Michael Key, and Trevor Noah,” the public affairs channel said in a handy new summary of the occasion.
And yes, the always fabulous C-SPAN will offer live, uninterrupted coverage of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern time on C-SPAN, C-SPAN.org and on the C-SPAN Now app. The network will also show “red carpet arrivals” on C-SPAN.org.
How many arrivals are we talking about here? Well, let’s just say that last year’s crowd numbered 2,600.
“The 103-year-old event is a celebration of the First Amendment, with proceeds going toward the work of the White House Correspondents’ Association and the journalists who cover the presidency, as well as scholarships and other awards. Every president since Calvin Coolidge in 1924 has attended at least once during their time in office, except for former President Donald Trump. However, he did attend the dinner in 2011 as a private citizen,” C-SPAN said.
“President Biden is expected to attend this year’s event, his third since taking office. C-SPAN has covered the dinner since 1988 when Ronald Reagan attended in his final year as president, and again every year since 1992, except when it took a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022,” the network said.
THE BIG SIDESHOW
Meanwhile, a coalition of interest groups and organizations plan to protest the gathering with a “nonviolent action,” organizers say.
“It will serve as both a protest and a tribute to the courageous Palestinian journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty,” according to a written statement from CODEPINK, a grassroots feminist group that is among eight organizations participating in the event.
“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, traditionally a symbol of journalistic integrity and freedom, has now become a platform that celebrates and endorses the administration’s actions. CODEPINK emphasizes that trustworthy journalism does not lie in complicity but in holding power to account and amplifying the voices of the oppressed,” the group said, again in a written statement.
The organizers are also asking participants to “bring noisemakers.”
HAWLEY HAS A MESSAGE
“I’ve been thinking about this Bible verse a lot lately: ‘Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men’ — Acts 5:29. I think it’s a lesson a lot of politicians could take to heart,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, in an outreach sent on behalf of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
“Too many members of Congress have completely lost sight of what we were put here to do, Friend. Instead of defending our God-given freedoms, they want to take them away for power and riches,” he said — warning that American values and faith are at stake.
“It’s time to bring faith back to America,” the lawmaker said.
MINDING THE IMMIGRANT VOTE
A presidential election is looming on the horizon, now 193 days away as of Friday. In the meantime, some analysts are pondering election law.
“The Biden administration’s expanded mass parole program for illegal immigrants could threaten lawful voter registration and election law,” wrote Fred Lucas, chief news correspondent and manager of the Investigative Reporting Project for The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation.
“Under President Joe Biden’s parole system — which targets illegal aliens from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — up to 30,000 migrants per month who wouldn’t normally qualify for a visa may use a U.S. government app on their cellphones to gain parole and either cross the border or fly into the United States,” he wrote.
“That means they are eligible to work and eligible to get a Social Security number. It just massively increases the number of Social Security numbers for people who are not here legally,” Cleta Mitchell, chairwoman of the Election Integrity Network, told The Daily Signal.
“This administration has a duty to direct the Social Security Administration to be able to tell states that just because somebody gets a Social Security number doesn’t mean they are a citizen,” Ms. Mitchell said.
It’s complicated.
“Under a U.S. law called the Help America Vote Act, a Social Security number may be used by someone who registers to vote. Several states also allow the last four digits of a Social Security number to be used as voter identification on absentee or mail-in ballots. The citizenship status of those providing the Social Security numbers wouldn’t be known by local voter registrars, Mitchell noted,” Mr. Lucas wrote.
WEEKEND REAL ESTATE
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POLL DU JOUR
• 47% of registered U.S. voters “strongly disapprove” of the way President Biden is handling his job; 84% of Republicans, 46% of independents and 10% of Democrats agree.
• 13% overall “somewhat disapprove” of the way he is doing his job; 9% of Republicans, 16% of independents and 12% of Democrats agree.
• 21% “strongly” approve”; 3% of Republicans, 16% of independents and 49% of Democrats agree.
• 14% overall “somewhat approve”; 2% of Republicans, 16% of independents and 25% of Democrats agree.
• 5% don’t know; 3% of Republicans, 6% of independents and 5% of Democrats agree.
•Source: A Quinnipiac University poll of 1,429 registered U.S. voters conducted by telephone April 18-22.
Follow Jennifer Harper on X @HarperBulletin, on Facebook @HarperUniverse. Contact her at [email protected].