Author and comedian Amber Ruffin has been dropped from the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the Associated Press reports.
Ruffin is a writer for Late Night With Seth Meyers and the co-author, with sister Lacey Lamar, of the books You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism and The World Record Book of Racist Stories. She had been scheduled to speak at the annual Washington, D.C., event, being held this year on April 26.
Her planned appearance would have continued a tradition of comedians speaking at the event. Past comics to appear include Meyers, Conan O’Brien, and Colin Jost.
But last week, she angered Republicans after she appeared on a Daily Beast podcast and said that she did not plan to target both sides of the political spectrum equally, calling the Trump administration “kind of a bunch of murderers.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association dropped Ruffin from the dinner over the weekend, with the group’s president, Eugene Daniels, saying, “I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.” Daniels said this year’s dinner would not feature a comedian.
Ruffin addressed being cut from the dinner on Late Night Monday, jokingly saying that her values had changed since she was disinvited. “I thought, When people take away your rights, erase your history, and deport your friends, you’re supposed to call it out. But I was wrong. Glad to find that out now, because if they had let me give that speech, ooooh, baby! I would have been so terrifically mean.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
