Donald Trump Calls Michelle Wolf’s Roasting of Sarah Huckabee Sanders Filthy, Not Everyone Agrees

One of the United States’s greatness as a democracy lies in the ability of the country’s political elite to be bipartisan when the time calls for it as well as laugh at themselves when the occasion calls for it. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) is one such occasion, where journalists who hound the White House’s speakers and leave no whisper unreported, rub shoulders with their political targets and Republican and Democratic Party leaders call each other out in jest. In jest being the key words. But, the Trump Administration is different for one of its hallmarks is discrediting news organisations and their reportage as fake news/ fake news media.

Understandably, Donald Trump was absent from this year’s WHCD and he was represented by his press secretary/spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The ‘jest’ part of the night was conducted by Michelle Wolf, a comedian and writer who also contributes to The Daily Show hosted by Trevor Noah. As per tradition, comedians take pot shots as presidents and their cabinetry and so did Wolf. But what has not gone down well with many is apart from Wolf targeting Sanders for her job as Trump’s spokesperson but also her looks. Wolf’s most famous quip of the night is, “I think she's (Sanders) is very resourceful, like she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye. Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies," said Wolf.

Many have called Wolf’s targeting of Sanders for her looks downright bullying as Sanders was not in a position to respond or it would not be gracious to respond. Sean Spicer, Sanders’ predecessor as Trump’s press secretary, told the Guardian he thought Wolf’s speech was “absolutely disgusting”.

The U.S. President, who boycotted the dinner for a second year running, took no time in criticizing the event for being a “very big, boring bust … the so-called comedian really ‘bombed’.” He later followed it up with ‘filthy.’

But others are defending Wolf and saying she spoke truth to power. The actor and comedian Rosie O’Donnell slammed those who called Wolf’s speech vulgar by replying: “It’s a roast – truth telling is required.”

The Guardian reported that two senior New York Times reporters expressed distress. Maggie Haberman, who has gotten into a twitter fight with Trump himself for her reports, leapt to Sanders’ defense, praising her for absorbing Michelle Wolf’s barbs rather than walking out. Peter Baker, the Times’s chief White House correspondent, said: “I don’t think we advanced the cause of journalism tonight.”

Wolf replied to Haberman’s criticism and to address the social media storm of which she was at the center off. “Hey mags!” she wrote. “All these jokes were about [Sanders’] despicable behavior. Sounds like you have some thoughts about her looks though?” She wrote, she had not been criticizing Sanders’ looks, writing: “I said she burns facts and uses the ash to create a *perfect* smoky eye. I complimented her eye makeup and her ingenuity of materials.”

But the WHCD is emblematic of what the Trump Presidency has accomplished for America, of driving people on both the right and left of the political divide, further away from the center and away from each other.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 30, 2018 11:50 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).