Seven biting jokes from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

The White House Correspondents’ Association held its 2022 dinner Saturday, its first in six years to be attended by a sitting president due to cancellations because of COVID-19 and former President Donald Trump’s decision to not attend while he was in office.

President Joe Biden spoke at the dinner, followed by “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah, who headlined the event. Here are seven topics they joked about:

1. Biden’s approval rating

Biden joked about his low approval rating and needled the news media. “I’m really excited to be here with the only group of Americans with a lower approval rating than I have,” he said.

2. Kevin McCarthy’s tapes

Biden joked that he wasn’t going to “roast the GOP” because “there’s nothing I can say about the GOP that Kevin McCarthy hasn’t already put on tape,” a reference to tapes of the Republican House minority leader saying he was considering telling Trump to resign after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

3. The pandemic

Noah called the dinner “the nation’s most distinguished super-spreader event” and asked attendees if they learned nothing from the Gridiron Dinner, after multiple attendees tested positive for COVID-19 after attending the event in April.

“Do you read any of your own newspapers?” Noah said.

Guests had to be vaccinated, boosted and tested to attend this year’s dinner, but the nation’s top doctor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, decided not to attend because he did not want to take the personal risk.

4. Inflation

“Ever since you’ve come into office, things are really looking up,” Noah said about Biden. “Gas is up, rent is up, food is up, everything.”

5. Ron DeSantis

Noah joked that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was smarter and slicker than Trump because of Florida’s recent rejection of math textbooks it claimed were “woke.”

“Trump said he won the election but everyone was able to look at the numbers and see that he was wrong,” Noah said. “That’s why Ron DeSantis is one step ahead. First you ban the math textbooks, then nobody knows how to count the votes.”

Although Noah said DeSantis was in the audience, DeSantis said Monday he wasn’t there and would never attend. “I did not watch it. I don’t care what they do,” he said.

6. Fox News

Noah compared Fox News to Waffle House. “It’s relatively normal in the afternoon, but as soon as the sun goes down...” he said, before making fun of Fox News’ prime time lineup.

7. The U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan

Noah ended his routine with a dig at the Biden administration over the botched U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan.

“Please be careful leaving tonight,” he said. “We all know this administration doesn’t handle evacuations well.”

Patrick Semansky, Associated Press