How to Watch the 2019 White House Correspondents’ Dinner
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The WHCA will host its annual dinner Saturday at 9:30 p.m. ET. President Donald Trump will not be attending the dinner for the third year in a row.
American presidents and statesmen biographer, Ron Chernow, will be the featured speaker this year. Chernow wrote the biography of Alexander Hamilton that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda to write the hit Broadway musical. Chernow’s hosting marks the first time in decades the event has not been hosted by a comedian.
C-SPAN will livestream the event on its website .
“The White House Correspondents’ Association has asked me to make the case for the First Amendment and I am happy to oblige,” Chernow said in a statement . “Freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to basics.”
Instead of attending the dinner, Trump will host a rally Saturday night.
Even without the president, the dinner has continued to be a hot ticket in Washington. This year, UTA planned the party the night before the event, and Samantha Bee held another “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” at DAR Constitution Hall.
Olivier Knox, the president of the White House Correspondents Association and SiriusXM’s chief Washington correspondent, said that the time was right for a “reset,” and other members likely agree, given that many thought that last year’s comedian, Michelle Wolf, was a bit too biting in her barbs, particularly since members of the Trump administration were in the room.
