Biden to introduce election year at annual correspondents’ dinner as protests over Gaza war await

Washington: President Joe Biden is set to deliver an election year speech on Saturday night before a packed crowd of journalists, celebrities and politicians amid growing protests over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

In past years, Biden, like most of his predecessors, has used the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner to poke fun at media coverage of his administration and political rivals, particularly Republican rival Donald Trump.

But with protesters pledging to gather outside the dinner venue, any efforts by Biden to highlight Washington’s weaknesses and the pitfalls of the presidential campaign will run up against concerns over the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the dangers to journalists covering it. Have to balance. Confrontation. Criticism of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s 6-month-old military offensive in Gaza has spread to US college campuses, with students camping out in an effort to force their universities to disengage from Israel. The protests supported Israel’s invasion and complained of anti-Semitism.

Biden’s speech before an expected crowd of about 3,000 people at a Washington hotel will be followed by “Saturday Night Live” entertainer Colin Jost, who will surely take a few jokes at the president as well as his opponents.

Attention will likely also be given to the many journalists detained and otherwise persecuted around the world for doing their work, including Wall Street Journal reporter Ivan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia since March 2023.

But before the president arrived at the Washington Hilton – where the event has been held for decades – he was expected to pass hundreds of people rallying in and around Biden’s motorcade along the way to mourn the deaths of Palestinians and others. To draw attention to the large number of Arab journalists. by Israeli forces since the war began in October.

Law enforcement, including the Secret Service, have taken additional road closures and other measures to ensure that there will be “the highest level of safety and security for attendees,” said Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Guglielmi said the agency is working with Washington police to protect protesters’ right to assemble. However, “we will remain intolerant of any violent or destructive behavior.”

More than two dozen journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week calling on their colleagues in Washington to boycott the dinner altogether.

“The burden placed on us just to carry out our journalistic duties is staggering,” the letter said. “For the ‘crime’ of journalistic integrity we face detention, interrogation and torture by the Israeli military.”

One organizer complained that the White House Correspondents’ Association – which represents hundreds of journalists covering the president – ​​has been largely silent since the first weeks of the war about the killings of Palestinian journalists. The WHCA did not respond to a request for comment.

Nearly 100 journalists covering the war in Gaza have been killed, according to a preliminary investigation released Friday by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel has defended its actions, saying it was targeting terrorists.

“Since the Israel-Gaza war began, journalists are paying the highest price – their lives – to defend our right to the truth. “Every time a journalist dies or is injured, we lose a piece of that truth,” CPJ program director Carlos Martínez de la Serna said in a statement.

“It is shameful for the media to dine and laugh with President Biden while he is talking about Israel’s destruction and Enable starvation.” Of the Palestinians in Gaza.”

Additionally, the Adalah Justice Project launched an email campaign targeting 12 media executives at various news outlets – including The Associated Press – who were expected to attend the dinner, who have previously advocated for the safety of journalists in Gaza. A letter was signed.

___ Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo and Fatima Hussain contributed to this report.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – The Associated Press)