White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of one of the most powerful clubs in America.

AFL CIO President Richard Trumka Praises Trump’s Steel Tariffs in Exclusive Interview with Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli

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Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli Scores Interview with AFL CIO President Richard Trumka

Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli nabbed an exclusive interview with AFL CIO President Richard Trumka, who out is supporting Democrat Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional district, on Friday, March 9th. The Pennsylvania election, happening Tuesday, March 13th, is the first special election of 2018. The victor will fill the seat vacated by Tim Murphy, who retired in October.

While Trumka is supporting a Democrat he is quick to give credit to President Trump for his recently proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum and says the move will help Republican candidate Rick Saccone saying, “You’re going to see steel plants expand their capacity. It’s going to create jobs. When you enforce laws, everybody gets a fair playing field.”

You can watch Cirilli’s full interview with Richard Tumka here.

Bloomberg Politics Lampoons the Post-Election Hangover

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Bloomberg’s Griffin Hammond, Matt Negrin, and Alexander Trowbridge have teamed up with celebrities and comedians to create “The Day After it Happened”, a satirical take on the post-election blues. The video goes through some of the highlights, and many of the lowlights, of the wildest campaign in modern history, from the deplorables, to Omarosa entering the Spin Room with Mark Cuban.

Some choice quotes from the video: “Why were so many random celebrities involved in this election?” FOX News commentator Bret Baier said of the media’s role in the election, “I think the numbers went down for press approval.”

Summing up the election, Paul Scheer said, “It was like a training sequence from a movie where you never get better, you just keep getting pushed in the dirt.”

The film featured cameos from Mike Murphy, Sheryl Crow, MJ Lee, George Lopez, Michael Steele, Paul Scheer, Brianna Keilar, Tim Miller, Mandy Moore, Boris Epshteyn, Lis Smith, Alex Wagner, and Mark McKinnon.

More here.

Masters in Politics: Trevor Noah Criticizes Cable Media, Says “To Call Themselves News is a Stretch”

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New Hampshire Primary 2016, Trevor Noah, Donna Brazile, Michael Steele. Photo Courtesy of Haddad Media.

New Hampshire Primary 2016, Trevor Noah, Donna Brazile, Michael Steele. Photo Courtesy of Haddad Media.

Trevor Noah, the South African comedian who replaced Jon Stewart as host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”, gave a wide ranging interview with Bloomberg Masters in Politics hosts Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin. The 32-year-old comedian who landed the most coveted job in comedy has some pointed words for cable news media and addressed the “strange” American political landscape and the high unfavorables of both major candidates.

Noah finds that young people are hungry for news that isn’t simply comedic, but truthful. “I find there is a ravenous appetite for the truth right now. When I say that I don’t mean fact vs. fiction. It almost feels at times as if people almost don’t want jokes, they just want a place where they can find the truth.”

For Noah, the reason behind this is that young people, including himself, have become disenchanted with traditional news sources. “I’ve come to realize it is partly due to the fact that so many other sources that are supposed to be providing that truth are not. So the news has become this world of opinion now. For most news corporations to call themselves news is a stretch because it’s really not completely news. It’s opinion with a few news bites here and there.”

As a native South African raised during the apartheid era, Trevor has a unique view of American politics, and has no trouble calling the state of the country’s politics out. “Everyday I’m perplexed at how America, a country founded on ideals and a country that really is based on an idea, is so behind in its politics. It’s a very strange thing for me. This was a country that had the most advanced Constitution, and at some point it stopped getting updated. It’s very strange. It’s like launching the first iPhone and then never updating the software.”

Noah finds that South Africa’s politics have advanced farther than America’s, and takes issue with the idea that Americans should “settle” with candidates that the majority of Americans view unfavorably. “Even the presidential election itself, to see two political parties, I mean one more than the other with the Republicans, but to see two political parties basically settling to a certain extent and saying, “Okay, this is our candidate. This is what we’re doing. We have to do it like this,” is very strange because where I’m from, the party would have no qualms replacing that person because the party and the voters and the ideals are more important than the individual.”

Asked whether he would have Donald Trump on the show Noah said, “I don’t think he would ever come. I think Donald Trump purposefully stays away from places where he feels like he’ll be tested so I don’t think that would ever happen,” while adding “We’d have him on the show, I don’t know what he would say. We’d have anyone on the show.”

The Daily Show show under Trevor Noah is the #1 daily late night talk show among adults ages 18-24, men 18-34 and men 18-34, and is also the #2 rated late night talk show with adults ages 18-34, with a growing young, millennial audience.

You can listen to Trevor’s full interview here.

 

Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli on Life in Donald Trump’s Press Pen

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Kevin Cirilli, the Bloomberg reporter who has been covering Donald Trump’s presidential campaign from the beginning, says traveling with Trump is unlike any other in the way his unconventional campaign handles the press and the way the candidate himself utilizes the media.

Cirilli explains to Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin on Bloomberg’s “Masters in Politics” podcast just how the Trump campaign operates. “I remember back in New Hampshire ahead of the primary, ahead of Christmas and the holidays, and I had to go to events for Governor Christie, Governor Kasich, and Governor Bush and the difference in the apparatus that was surrounding them just from them having the wifi always work, they had donuts for the press corps, and they had charter buses for all the reporters. Donald Trump’s campaign doesn’t have any of that.”

Cirilli also spoke about the way Trump supporters view the press and how Trump manipulates those anti-media sentiments. “Whenever you’re a journalist and you talk to other folks, they don’t view you necessarily as a young professional who has a job and is just trying to do their work, but they view you as ‘the media’. I think that he has really tapped into that frustration that people have with institutions in general but I will say I think that there have been some rallies where the mood in the room, in the crowd, is a little bit more anxious…and a little bit more angry.”

Listen to the new episode here.

Follow Kevin Cirilli on Twitter: @kevcirilli

You can find Kevin’s latest dispatch from the campaign trail here.

3 Months Till the White House Correspondents' Weekend

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Polson Kanneth of ABC News and International superstar Aamir Kahn

Polson Kanneth of ABC News and International superstar Aamir Kahn

The booking competition begins! Which media organization will win the White House Correspondents’ Weekend guest sweepstakes and land the biggest, most engaging stars for the weekend. It’s big business for the news organizations to bring together their best clients and important friends for a weekend of star-gazing and conversation with Washington’s top players.

Vanity Fair and Bloomberg are at the top of the list but Christian Broadcasting and Politico always deliver interesting guests. At White House Correspondents Insider we will follow all the action. To get you in the mood here is last year’s White House Correspondents Garden Brunch video.

Darren Criss Took Over Bloomberg/Vanity Fair Afterparty In True Glee Fashion

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Daily Beast Bipartisan Brunch
Every year after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, folks wait around at their various after-parties for ‘that’ to happen. Sometimes it’s a wardrobe malfunction, other times griping about long lines or how traffic slows to a crawl between the Hilton and Embassy Row. But this year during the Bloomberg/Vanity Fair soiree at the French ambassador’s residence it involved “Glee,” a piano and a collection of A-list musical talent standing nearby.

As the party went on with guests like Barbra Streisand, Katy Perry, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the cast of House of Cards and Morena Baccarin we’re told people noticed a piano off to the side. Soon Glee’s Darren Criss sat down and played an impromtu and acoustic set of whatever happened to tickle his fancy on the ivories. Guests standing around joined him on a few tunes and it established the sort of urban legends that the White House Correspondents Weekend is famous for having.

White House Correspondents' Dinner 2013 Celebrities and Tom Brokaw's Spite?

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2010 WHC GARDEN BRUNCH

The Sunday after the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Tom Brokaw attacked his former Washington colleagues for frolicking with Hollywood stars like Kim Kardashian. Appearing on Meet The Press and in later interviews he criticized the culture of Washington journalism, but what does he think about the students who benefit from the journalism scholarships presented at the dinner? Let’s hope we hear from him on Morning Joe this week in the countdown to the dinner.

Here is The Wrap’s take:
“As Conan O’Brien readies for a second performance as host of the festivities, oft called the “Nerd Ball,” this year’s guest list includes Harvey Weinstein, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Nicole Kidman, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Douglas, Paul Rudd and Michael J. Fox.

Once again, this year’s dinner will cement Washington’s annual turn as Tinseltown on the Potomac, the main event in a weekend of social activities that includes not only the dinner itself, but cocktail parties, lunches, brunches and related dinners. The dinner will feature not only a funny speech by a top comedian, but a funny one by the President of the United States. This year the correspondents’ dinner will be televised on both MSNBC and C-SPAN.

In recent years the dinner, which raises money for journalism scholarships, has grown from a one-night event into a weekend that represents the height of the Washington social season and combines the crème of the Washington political set with Hollywood.

Vanity Fair and Bloomberg sponsor one after dinner party, while Atlantic owner David and Katherine Bradley sponsor a Friday night dinner in just a few of the events.

As before the stars will be plentiful this year.

Tina Brown is bringing Weinstein and Kidman on behalf of Newsweek and the Daily Beast. Her other Hollywood-oriented guests include Barry Diller, “The Newsroom’s” Olivia Munn and Joel Kinnaman of “The Killing.”

Time and Fortune are bringing Spielberg and Katzenberg as well as Julia Louis-Dreyfus and husband Brad Hall, and Olympics gymnast Gabby Douglas.

CNN, meanwhile, is hosting Banks, Rudd, Navid Negahban and Justin Bartha as well as University of Louisville guard Kevin Ware, who broke his foot in the March Madness college basketball finals.

Also read: Conan O’Brien Returns As Host of White House Correspondents Dinner

Arianna Huffington’s Huffington Post/AOL guests include Jon Bon Jovi, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Shaquille O’Neal, M.C. Hammer and super angel investor Ron Conway.

ABC News’ guests include “Modern Family” stars Sofia Vergara, Eric Stonestreet, Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen; “Nashville’s” Connie Britton, Hayden Panettiere and Charles Esten; and Shonda Rhimes, Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn of “Scandal.”

At CBS News, the guests include Claire Danes from Showtime’s “Homeland” and Daniel Dae Kim from “Hawaii Five-0.” Ryan Zimmerman of Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals and celebrity chef José Andrés.

NBC News is bringing Michael Douglas (who voices the introduction of NBC’s “Nightly News”), Fox (who will star in an NBC comedy series next year loosely about his life), his wife Tracy Pollan and Matthew Perry, star of the network’s “Go On” series.

USA Today is bringing Courtney Cox, Kristin Chenoweth, Kate Walsh and Josh Gad.

The media outlets inviting Hollywood guests bring them to compliment more traditional Washington and their business guests.

CBS for instance is bringing several congressmen and retired Admiral Mike Mullet, former chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. NBC’s other guests include members of the Federal Communications Commission, several senators and congressmen and several present and former White House officials.

Even as the event attracts glamor, it regularly attracts two kinds of criticism. Some question whether it replaces the picture of an adversarial and always questioning Fourth Estate with one in which reporters appear too chummy with the public officials they cover. Other critics point to the dinner’s Hollywood element and question whether raising reporters’ celebrity quotient hurts the press’s image with the public.

Last year The Washington Post’s Reliable Source column called the event, “decadent and depraved. It is elitist and shallow, smug and insidery, a three-day orgy of corporate preening and celebrity suck-up so far removed from its earnest D.C. journalism roots as to be completely meaningless.”

The column immediately dismissed its own criticism, suggesting the event was unchangeable, “so make the best of it.”

Other critics have been less sanguine. Jay Rosen, commenting on a decline in public confidence in the press showcased in a Gallup poll last year, called the dinner “ground zero” of concerns that the press is becoming part of the power structure.

“The glamorization of journalism after Watergate, combined with the influence of celebrity within the news tribe, plus the growing concentration of media ownership in a few large companies that themselves seek influence, [has] made mockery of the journalist as a courageous truthteller standing outside the halls of power,” Rosen wrote, saying all those concerns are on “vivid display” at the correspondents’ dinner.

Brokaw raised his concerns immediately after last year’s dinner. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, he suggested the celebrities’ glamour disserves the media — increasing concerns the public has about “mainstream media” not fulfilling its traditional independent role.

“If there’s ever an event that separates the press from the people that they are supposed to serve, symbolically, it is that one,” said Brokaw. “It is time to rethink it.”

“I think George Clooney is a great guy. I would like to meet Charlize Theron. I don’t think the big press event in Washington should be that kind of glittering event where the whole talk is about Cristal champagne, taking over the Italian embassy, who had the best party, who got to meet the most people.

“That’s another separation between what we’re supposed to be doing and what the people expect us to be doing, and I think the Washington press corps has to look at that. It’s gone beyond what it needs to be,” Brokaw added.

Defenders of the dinner dismiss the criticisms suggesting that Washington reporters oft fierce and skeptical questioning of public officials hardly belies a press that has become part of the power structure. Instead they picture the dinner as a one night truce between the parties in 364 ¾ days of sustained conflict, a truce to raise money for a worthy cause.

Brokaw’s comments got an immediate push back last year from the correspondents’ group president Ed Henry, who noted in a radio interview that the event raised $100,000 for scholarships and that the Italian embassy event Brokaw mentioned was sponsored by Brokaw’s own MSNBC, not the correspondents association.

“I do think that there are challenges … that it sometimes looks too much like a celebrity fest and we have to do things to make sure that that doesn’t overshadow it, but we give a lot of money to needy students who are the next generation of journalists so there is a balance there,” said Henry.

DEADLINE.com LEADS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS DINNER STAR LIST

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The competition for stars at the White House Correspondents Dinner is only comparable to the competition to report which stars are attending with what news organization. Here is how the Hollywood site Deadline.com led the pack today. Take Notes….

PREVIOUSLY, TUESDAY PM: Hollywood is again the guest everyone seems to want at their table for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Returning headliner Conan O’Brien is set to take up the court-jester role that Jimmy Kimmel played last year and news organizations have began to reveal guest lists for the April 27 event. There’s a lot of Tinseltown glitter already set alongside generals and top-tier cabinet secretaries — as well as power players like Harvey Weinstein. We know President Obama and the First Lady will be there, and big Obama donor Jeffrey Katzenberg has been invited by the Wall Street Journal, but no word yet whether he will attend. Here’s who else we know is going from Hollywood so far:

Thomson Reuters: The current head of the Canada’s Central Bank and the next Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney will be sitting at Thomson Reuters table as will new SEC chief Mary Jo White, Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Newtown Conn. First Selectwoman Pat Llodra among others. They will be joined by The Bourne Legacy’s Jeremy Renner, Revenge’s Madeline Stowe, Kathleen Turner, SNL’s Fred Armisen, Steve Zahn of HBO’s Treme and the almost next Lord of Downton Abbey. That’s right, the now departed Matthew Crawley himself Dan Stevens will be there.

USA Today: Courtney Cox, Kate Walsh, Kristin Chenoweth and 1600 Penn’s Josh Gad are at the paper’s table. Although she decided not to run for the U.S. Senate seat from Kentucky, Olympus Has Fallen’s First Lady Ashley Judd will also attend.

ABC/ABC News: Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara, Eric Stonestreet and other cast members will be back this year. Nashville’s Hayden Panettiere and Connie Britton will also be in attendance. And the President of the United States will be at the table — the fictional POTUS Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III, that is, from the DC-based political drama Scandal. Tony Goldwyn will be there with Scandal star Kerry Washington, executive producer Betsy Beers and show creator Shonda Rhimes.

Huffington Post: Jon Bon Jovi will be sitting at this table, joining fellow Jerseyite Gov. Chris Christie, who many think may take a run at the White House in 2016. Scarlett Johansson, who gave a speech with Kerry Washington during last year’s Democratic National Convention, also has a spot.

Newsweek/Daily Beast: He may have missed the inauguration because he was at Sundance, but Weinstein will be here. IAC boss and Newsweek/Daily Beast owner Barry Diller is sitting at his table, as is editor Tina Brown. The Newsroom’s Olivia Munn will be there too. Nicole Kidman is coming, but no word yet if hubby and American Idol judge Keith Urban is attending.

CNN: Elizabeth Banks will be sitting at the cable news network’s table. She’s the only Hollywood type so far, but don’t be surprised if new boss Jeff Zucker tries to stack the seating arrangement with more as well as the likes of Anthony Bourdain from his own network — remember, the man used to run Today.

NBC/NBC News: Matthew Perry plans to break bread with his network brethren.

Bloomberg: If you are going to star in the ultimate DC insider show, then you have to show at the Correspondents Dinner: House Of Cards stars Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright as well as Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos have spots here.

Time: Last year, Lincoln’s Daniel Day-Lewis came as a guest of the Huffington Post and Steven Spielberg came as a guest of Time. Day-Lewis isn’t coming this year, and it is unclear whether Spielberg will make an encore appearance. But DreamWorks CEO and co-chair Stacey Snider is coming.

White House Correspondents Weekend Parties Start To Roll Out

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Kerry Washington and Hilary Rosen

The annual land-grab for talent and venues has officially, or at least publicly, begun for the 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner Weekend. Yeas and Nays found out that on April 25 that Marie Claire will host their first party in the 99 years of the Correspondents Dinner. Indeed there’s a certain type of magic to be found during the WHCD Weekend. Where else can you find, like last year, Kerry Washington and Hilary Rosenside-by-side on a Grin-and-Grip?

The where, when and how are TBD even by party co-hosts Meredith Fineman and Jessica Hoy. Hoy, however, talks up a few more potential parties at her entry on Examiner–no relation to the Yeas and Nays’ own Washington Examiner–when it comes to break-ups and strange sponsor bedfellows:

  • Time and People will be back at the St. Regis, despite recent news that Time titles into publicly traded companies.
  • The Atlantic ditched Funny or Die for Our Time as a co-partner and chose Jessica Alba and Warren Cash as their co-hosts. Hopefully they’ll be doing it for free since The Atlantic doesn’t have the funds to pay anyone these days.
  • Bloomberg/Vanity Fair, Capitol File, Google, Allbritton and Washingtonian all are going to do something Saturday or Sunday. This news is as shocking as the Metro being broken down or Conan O’Brien being tall.

    And that’s it. Invitations are still secretly being rolled out as Washington media elites struggle to keep their guest wants out of prying eyes. We’ll wait and see what other parties or confirmed info happens to come out now that we’re just about 46 days away from the “nerd prom” that’s become popular with the Outer Beltway folks not used to the magic of the Hinckley Hilton.

    • White House Correspondents’ Dinner Surprise: Daniel Radcliffe

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    Daniel Radcliffe and Bloomberg's Peter Cook

    Mega star Daniel Radcliffe was Bloomberg’s guest at the correspondents’ dinner.  He talked with Obama’s former top aide Reggie Love, Steve Ricchetti and Evan Ryan, from the Vice President’s office and Bloomberg LP CEO Dan Doctoroff at their pre-reception.  Radcliffe fans screamed with joy as he arrived with his co-star Dane DeHaan from the production, “Kill Your Darlings.”

    Other Bloomberg guests were Kevin Spacey, Alicia Keys, Elle Macpherson, Kerry Washington, Sports Illustrated cover girl Kate Upton, actress/singer Malin Ackerman, plus Kyle McLachlan and Desiree Gruber.

    Tech CEOS were well represented at Bloomberg tables, including Hosain Rahman from Jawbone, Chamath Palihapitiya, formerly of Facebook, and Brad Keywell, co-founder of Groupon.