White House Correspondents' Association

Organization of journalists covering the US executive branch
the press corps generally

The WHCA operates independently of the White House. Among the more notable issues handled by the WHCA are the credentialing process, access to the president and physical conditions in the White House press briefing rooms. Its most high profile activity is the annual White House Correspondents' dinner, which is traditionally attended by the president and covered by the news media. Except for Donald Trump, every president has attended at least one WHCA dinner, beginning with Calvin Coolidge in 1924. || Sirius XM
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| || Jonathan Karl || ABC News
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| || Zeke Miller || Associated Press
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| || Steven Portnoy || CBS News Radio
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| || Tamara Keith || NPR
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| || Kelly O'Donnell || NBC News
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| || Eugene Daniels (elect) || Politico
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| || Weijia Jiang (elect) || CBS News
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The WHCA is responsible for assigned seating in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House.

The WHCD has been increasingly criticized as an example of the coziness between the White House press corps and the administration. The dinner has typically included a skit, either live or videotaped, by the sitting U. S. president in which he mocks himself, for the amusement of the press corps. Rich wrote that the dinner had become "a crystallization of the press's failures in the post 9/11 era" because it "illustrates how easily a propaganda driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows". The public airings of the controversies around the dinner from the mid 2000s onward gradually focused concern about the nature of the event. While interest in the event from entertainers, journalists, and political figures was high during the Obama administration, by the period of the Trump administration, interest gradually slowed in attending, especially after President Trump announced he would not attend, nor his staff. Business related to the weekend event slowed considerably, including at hotels, high end restaurants, salons, caterers, and limo companies. During the Trump administration, some media companies stopped hosting parties, while other of the roughly 25 events held during the three day period gained more prominence as signs of social status. However, no cases of serious illness were reported as a result of the dinner.

DatePerformer(s)NotesMay 7, 1921 May 3, 1924 President Coolidge becomes the first President to attend the dinner 1930 Dinner canceled due to the death of former president William Howard Taft on March 8 March 15, 1941 1942 Dinner canceled following the United States' entry into World War II February 12, 1943 March 1945 Frank Sinatra, Danny Thomas, Jimmy Durante, Fanny Brice, Danny Kaye, and Garry Moore March 23, 1946 Ed Sullivan (host); featured performers included Herb Shriner, Señor Wences, Paul Draper, Larry Adler, and Sugar Chile Robinson. March 14, 1949 1951 Dinner canceled due to what President Truman referred to as the "uncertainty of the world situation." Feb. 27, 1954 Milton Berle, The Four Step Brothers, Jaye P. Morgan, The McGuire Sisters, and Irving Berlin performed. Held at the Statler Hotel. May 1956 James Cagney emceed; Nat King Cole, Patti Page, and Dizzy Gillespie performed. October 12, 1959 February 25, 1961 The Peiro Brothers (jugglers), Julie London, Dorothy Provine, Mischa Elman, and Jerome Hines Duke Ellington, the Smothers Brothers The Disneyland Golden Horseshoe Revue May 2, 1970 George Carlin May 8, 1971 President Nixon was in attendance; he later described the dinner as "probably the worst of this type that I have attended," and called the attendees "a drunken group; crude, and terribly cruel." 1972 President Nixon declined to attend and sent his wife, Pat Nixon, in his place. April 14, 1973 Held in the International Ballroom of the Washington Hilton Hotel May 4, 1974 Nixon again declined to attend;May 3, 1975 Danny Thomas and Marlo Thomas May 1, 1976 Bob Hope emceed and Chevy Chase performed. When President Ford rose to speak, he pretended to fumble, and began his speech with "Good evening. I'm Gerald Ford and you're not"—a reference to Chase's catchphrase from Saturday Night Lives Weekend Update. April 28, 1979 May 3, 1980 Preservation Hall Jazz Band April 25, 1981 President Reagan did not attend because he was recuperating after the attempted assassination the previous month. April 27, 1985 Mort Sahl April 17, 1986 Dick Cavett April 22, 1987 Jay Leno April 21, 1988 Yakov Smirnoff April 29, 1989 Jim Morris (Bush impersonator) Garry Shandling made a surprise appearance. April 28, 1990 Jim Morris April 27, 1991 Sinbad May 8, 1992 Paula Poundstone Poundstone was the first solo female host. May 1, 1993 Elayne Boosler This was the first year that the dinner was televised on C SPAN. April 23, 1994 Al Franken April 29, 1995 Conan O'Brien May 4, 1996 Al Franken April 26, 1997 Jon Stewart Norm Macdonald delivered a Weekend Update parody. April 25, 1998 Ray Romano May 1, 1999 Aretha Franklin A non comedian was chosen to host because of the recent impeachment of President Clinton. NBC's Brian Williams performed a skit. April 29, 2000 Jay Leno President Bill Clinton also mocked himself in the short film President Clinton: The Final Days, which depicted him as a lonely man closing down a nearly deserted White House, riding a bicycle, and learning about the Internet with the help of actor Mike Maronna. April 28, 2001 Darrell Hammond May 4, 2002 Drew Carey April 26, 2003 Ray Charles President George W. Bush decided to eschew a comedian that year, given the recent invasion of Iraq. May 1, 2004 Jay LenoApril 29, 2006Stephen Colbert Colbert performed while being in character of his television satire of a right wing cable television pundit. Colbert also screened a video featuring Helen Thomas. Several of President Bush's aides and supporters walked out during Colbert's speech, and one former aide said that the President had "that look that he's ready to blow". Steve Bridges also performed a Bush impersonation. April 21, 2007 Rich Little David Letterman appeared by video with a Top 10 list of "favorite George W. Bush moments". April 26, 2008 Craig Ferguson Like his Late Late Show monologues, Ferguson appeared to go off script and started improvising new jokes. It was noted that President Bush had difficulty understanding Ferguson's Scottish accent. May 9, 2009 Wanda Sykes May 1, 2010 Jay Leno Leno hosted for the fourth time, more than any other individual in the dinner's history. Leno had been chosen several weeks before his controversial Tonight Show conflict, and his use of recycled jokes was noted by critics. April 30, 2011 Seth Meyers Both President Barack Obama and then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates were seen laughing at Meyers' jokes about the government's apparent inability to track down Osama bin Laden, even though they were a day away from the operation to assassinate him. President Obama and Meyers also mocked then Celebrity Apprentice host Donald Trump's role as the face of the birther movement. Trump (who was present at the dinner) would go on to be elected President of the United States five years later in the 2016 United States presidential election. Journalists that were present at the dinner say that being mocked by President Obama and Meyers led him to decide to run for President of the United States, but Trump would later deny this, saying that he had been considering a run for the Presidency for many years prior to the dinner. April 28, 2012 Jimmy Kimmel April 27, 2013 Conan O'Brien May 3, 2014 Joel McHale April 25, 2015 Cecily Strong Keegan Michael Key made a guest appearance as President Obama's "anger translator", Luther, a recurring character from the Comedy Central show Key & Peele. April 30, 2016 Larry Wilmore Wilmore delivered a controversial, searing routine targeting the president, elite media, lobbyists, politicians, and celebrities. At the end of the speech, Wilmore ended his set by thanking President Obama for having been the country's first black President and finished his speech by calling him "my nigga" on live television. This remark sparked controversy among the media, with some calling it disrespectful. April 29, 2017 Hasan Minhaj President Donald Trump did not attend the dinner. April 28, 2018 Michelle Wolf President Trump did not attend the dinner for the second consecutive year. Instead, he sent his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Several attendees walked out in reaction to Wolf's "brutal" comments. Wolf received both praise and criticism for her monologue. The association released a rare statement regarding the monologue. After the dinner, newspaper The Hill informed the WHCA that it would no longer participate in the event, saying, "In short, there's simply no reason for us to participate in something that casts our profession in a poor light. Major changes are needed to the annual event. "April 27, 2019 Ron Chernow President Trump did not attend the dinner for the third consecutive year. Additionally, Trump ordered some of his staff and administration members to boycott the dinner. The WHCA chose historian Ron Chernow as the featured speaker instead of a comedian after Wolf's controversial set. On March 22 the dinner was postponed due to the COVID 19 pandemic in the United States, without naming a substitute date. On April 13 a new date of August 29 was announced. On June 23 WHCA President Jonathan Karl announced that the dinner itself would be canceled, but that the WHCA was working on a virtual presentation format to honor award winners and scholarship recipients. On August 14 Hasan Minhaj spoke privately via Zoom with the WHCA 2020 scholarship recipients, who also attended a private online panel discussion by three veteran Washington political reporters that day.2021 On April 14, 2021, WHCA executive director Steven Thomma announced that improvements in the pandemic situation had not been sufficient to allow the association to proceed with a large indoor event, and that no dinner would be held in 2021. However, the association still intended to select recipients for its annual journalism awards and student scholarships, and announced that it planned to go ahead with the dinner the following year, on April 30, 2022. The dinner was held in person for the first time since the COVID 19 pandemic. April 29, 2023 Roy Wood Jr. April 27, 2024 Colin Jost

Note: Award years represent the date the work was published/broadcast, which is always one year before the prize was awarded.

Named in honor of Raymond Clapper (1892 1944) and given "to a journalist or team for distinguished Washington reporting." The award was presented from 1944 to 2003, usually at the WHCA dinner (although in the period 1951–1965 it was presented at the American Society of News Editors annual dinner). In 2004, the award passed to the Scripps Howard National Journalism Awards.