It was only a matter of time, but the White House Correspondents’ Association formally announced today that it is cancelling the 2020 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The annual soiree, drawing political journalists, Washington, D.C., heavyweights, pop culture figures and often headlined by a comedian, had originally been pushed back from April 25 to Aug. 29.
The White House Correspondents’ Association announced in February that SNL’s Kenan Thompson would serve as host of the 2020 dinner and comedian Hasan Minhaj would be the featured entertainer.
WHCA president (and ABC News chief White House correspondent) Jonathan Karl said that the association is working to host a virtual event “that would allow us to salute award-winning journalism, toast an impressive group of scholarship winners and still enjoy a few laughs.”
Unfortunately, we must cancel the 2020 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
We still hope to have a virtual event later this summer. But an in-person dinner simply is not possible.
Here is my note to @whca members pic.twitter.com/WwlNksM3Lz
— jonkarl (@jonkarl) June 23, 2020