“I’m really excited to be here tonight with a group of Americans with a lower approval rating than I have,” President Joe Biden, speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner joked in good humor, which was a pleasure to hear after four years of a guy who couldn’t take a joke or be self depricating.
Later, Biden added: “I’m not here to roast the GOP. Besides, there’s nothin’ I can say up here that Kevin McCarthy hasn’t already put on tape. … The Republicans seem to be supporting one guy, named Brandon. He’s havin’ a really good year, and I’m happy for him.”
Noting the gravity of the current political situation in the United States and the tenuousness of American democracy, Biden went on to commend the press and encourage them to defend democracy: “A poison is running through our democracy,” Biden said talking about the stream of misinformation inundating Americans, adding, “What’s clear–and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, that you, the Free Press, matter more than you ever did in the last century.”