For the second year in a row, there will be no White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“We have worked through any number of scenarios over the last several months, but to put it plainly: while improving rapidly, the COVID-19 landscape is just not at a place where we could make the necessary decisions to go ahead with such a large indoor event,” the White House Correspondents’ Association said in a statement.
The annual event normally brings together political journalists, Washington D.C. heavyweights and pop culture figures, but hasn’t been held since 2019 due to the ongoing pandemic. The 2020 dinner was canceled last June after initially being postponed from April 25 to Aug. 29.
The organization said even without the dinner, it will spend the next few months celebrating and honoring the First Amendment and will soon announce its annual awards for presidential news coverage, including the second annual Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability.
Next year’s dinner is scheduled to be held in person on April 30, 2022.