Around midnight Saturday, new MSNBC host Eugene Daniels strolled into the French Ambassador’s residence. Daniels, the outgoing White House Correspondents Association president, had just presided over the organization’s annual dinner, which was taking place at an ominous time for the press under President Donald Trump. “It felt fulfilling,” said Daniels, who was decked in all white with sparkling brooch details, hand-in-hand with his husband.
“At the end of the day,” he told me, “what we wanted to do we did, which was to put journalism front and center, to put the First Amendment front and center, to put a spotlight on the students who are only in that room because of the tickets from that dinner, and to allow our award winners to speak about their stories, talk about the importance of freedom of the press.”
I was curious how this Washington tradition would play given understandable ambivalence about celebrating the First Amendment on the heels of the Trump White House taking over the press pool, one of the Correspondents Association’s key roles, and battling the Associated Press over access. The WHCD dinner weekend, which kicks off Thursday night with a slew of events and wraps with Sunday’s boozy brunches, was already under way when Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that the Justice Department was rescinding Biden-era policies over subpoenaing journalists’ records in leak investigations.
While some revelers I encountered questioned whether this is really the best time for journalists to party—and yes, while hanging out at parties themselves!—the sprawling weekend, in other ways, was as frenzied as ever, complete with newer entrants, like Substack and Status, joining the four-day-party circuit among more established media brands, like NBC News and Telemundo, which sponsored the big Saturday night afterparty.
NBC News and Telemundo afterparty. Clockwise from top L: Craig Melvin and Symone Sanders Townsend; guest, Kaitlan Collins and Trey Yingst; Bobby Flay; Ryan Nobles and guests; Michael Chiklis and Dean Norris.By Shannon Finney and Paul Morigi/NBC News/Telemundo.
Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, appeared in good spirits while making his rounds to guests at the French Ambassador’s residence, which included Axios’s Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Barak Ravid, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Brian Stelter, and Scott Jennings, and MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, Symone Sanders Townsend and Alicia Menendez.
At the corner of the bar, I spotted MSNBC host Ari Melber in a brief huddle with former Republican congressman Paul Ryan, who I later saw posing for photos with Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Ryan, a Green Bay Packers fan, joked with Klobuchar about her Minnesota Vikings not winning a Super Bowl.
I asked Daniels about the more subdued nature of this year’s dinner, which notably didn’t include the president—Trump declined the invite–or a comedian, as the WHCA dropped headliner Amber Ruffin. “This year, this was the right move,” he said, adding that “the folks in the room, everything I’ve heard, is that people feel like they got what they paid for and what we promised.”
CAA and Condé Nast Party. Clockwise from top L: Vladimir Duthiers, Yamiche Alcindor, Brian Abel and Jeff Zeleny; Meghan Rafferty, Rebecca Blumenstein, Peter Baker, Susan Glasser, and guest; Michael Steele; Zinhle Essamuah, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Julie Tsirkin; Kyle Griffin, Molly Jong-Fast and Rebecca Kutler.All from Getty Images.
There would be a flurry of events before Daniels and company descended on the Washington Hilton. On Thursday night, I found myself at another celebration: the 12th Annual Washington Women in Journalism Awards, hosted by Story Partners and Washingtonian, and held in the opulent garden of the Larz Anderson House. Most of the furniture and art in the house was marked “Do Not Touch Antiques,” and Ancient Greek styled sculptures surrounded the packed garden. The scent of jalapeños wafted from the crowd of attendees sipping spicy margaritas and applauding the New York Times’s Elisabeth Bumiller, CBS News’s Margaret Brennan, the Wall Street Journal’s Vivian Salama, and USA Today’s Francesca Chambers as they received awards for their work this year. Former honoree Andrea Mitchell was also present, to celebrate this year’s class. Punchbowl News CEO Anna Palmer was also in attendance, as was CNN’s Alayna Treene and the Wall Street Journal’s Josh Dawsey.
I then rushed over to the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where Semafor was putting on a black-tie optional gala to close out its World Economy Summit. As most guests came dressed to the nines, CEO Justin Smith didn’t think the dress code of his own event required a tuxedo, donning a simple black suit and butter yellow tie.
While Smith told me the timing of kicking off WHCD weekend was purely coincidental, it certainly worked in their favor as the lavish fete was attended by those across the media and political worlds. As attendees sipped on top-shelf specialty drinks including a Zacapa old fashioned, Don Julio margarita, Tanqueray Vesper Martini and a Bulleit Manhattan, and listened to a live DJ play a sampling of global music, “The Semafor Gala” was projected on multiple walls of the museum. In the massive venue, which must have held nearly a thousand attendees at one point, I spotted MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle and Melber, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash. Former New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio was also in attendance as well as Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank fame.
