The annual White House Correspondents' Dinner usually features the sitting President of the United States of America cracking jokes in front of a crowd of celebrities, journalists and administration officials. This year, expect that crowd to be less packed than usual as Samantha Bee, the host of TBS's Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, has announced that she will be hosting an alternative event on that same night (April 29) called "Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner" at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC.
"We’re not trying to supersede it [the White House Correspondents’ Dinner],” she told The New York Times. “We just want to be there in case something happens—or doesn’t happen—and ensure that we get to properly roast the president.”
How did the idea come about? “We were talking out loud about whether we thought the White House Correspondents’ dinner would change during a Trump presidency, or if it would even exist,” she said. “And then we thought, Why don’t we just do one, just to do it in the way that we would want it done if we were hosting it?”
Although details about the event's lineup and a possible air date on TBS are still being sorted out, it appears that the gala will function as a giant roast of President Donald Trump.
One thing is certain: The event officially takes a position in the recent battle between President Trump and the press by donating all of the night's proceeds to the Committee to Protect Journalists.