Michelle Wolfe versus Donald Trump: Who Was Worse? The 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner

Many conservatives were outraged by Michelle Wolf’s tasteless satirical speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Let’s compare it with President Donald Trump’s angry speech the same day at a Michigan rally. Do conservatives really have a right to be outraged? And what is the value of satire?

Wolf’s jokes had a lot of bite. Let’s look at some of Wolf’s jokes (I’ll skip the R-rated ones):  

“I’m here to make jokes, I have no agenda, I’m not trying to get anything accomplished, so everyone that’s here from Congress, you should feel right at home.”

"It is kind of crazy the Trump campaign was in contact with Russia when the Hillary campaign wasn't even in contact with Michigan. It's a direct flight. It's so close.”

“Mr. President, I don’t think you’re very rich. Like, you might be rich in Idaho, but in New York you’re doing fine.”

“Trump is so broke he looks for foreign oil in Don, Jr.’s hair.”

“He loves white nationalists, which is a weird term for a Nazi.”

“I know a lot of you are very anti-abortion you know unless it’s the one you got for your secret mistress. Somehow values can waver.”

On being 32 years old, Wolf said: “Ten years too young to host this event and 20 years too old for Roy Moore.” Moore, of course, is a Republican politician accused of dating underage girls.

Wolf attacked White House press official Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “I think she's very resourceful, like she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye. Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies.”

“Kellyanne Conway has the perfect last name for what she does: Conway.”

Funny? Not if you’re her target. Justified?  Maybe. Huckabee Sanders has not done well on PolitiFact, which has never rated her statements as True or Mostly True—or even Half True. Or even Mostly True. Just False and Pants on Fire.

Trump’s nasty Michigan rally. President Trump skipped the White House Correspondents’ dinner, and instead held a rally for his supporters in Michigan. He boasted of his accomplishments, which was to be expected, and dished out plenty of insults of his own:

Mr. Trump attacked former FBI Director James Comey: “He's a liar and a leaker. I did you a great favor when I fired this guy.”

He also attacked “fake news” and “fake sources.”

He asked: “Any Hispanics in the room? . . . not too many. Eh, that’s all right.” He continued: “In all fairness, Kanye West gets it.”

Defending himself against charges of having worked with Russians during the election campaign, Trump retorted: “Sources don’t exist. These people are very dishonest people, many of them. Fake news. Very dishonest.”

Attacking Senator Jon Tester, Trump said: “I know things about Tester that I could say too. And if I said them he’d never be elected again.”

Now, to his credit, Mr. Trump did not tell any sexual jokes. But he said some very vile things. The truth of much of what he said was questionable at best, and he wasn’t funny.

There’s nothing new about satire, and satire can be very nasty. Let’s go back to ancient Rome and remember Juvenal’s satires. Juvenal said, for example: “Let each take the price of his own blood, and turn as pale as a man who has trodden upon a snake bare-footed, or of one who awaits his turn to orate before the altar at Lugdunum.” Not nice.

So, my comments:

1.     Wolf’s speech was over-the-top. But she got lots of attention, and many of her barbs were, although tasteless, also defensible. Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway do tell lies. Lots of lies. Many Republicans did support Roy Moore. Humor is a good way to bring people back to some degree of moral sense.

2.      Wolf said things to people’s faces. Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway were in the room. Mr. Trump said things at a rally behind people’s backs. He lacked the courage to confront the correspondents face-to-face. 

3.      The White House Correspondents’ Dinner has gone downhill. Compare this year’s event with Ronald Reagan’s wonderful speech. That kind of class seems like a lifetime ago.

We live in an era in which truth takes second place to political loyalty. Trump went to a friendly crowd so he could hide from criticism. Wolf dished it out. Did the world need to hear what Wolf said?

In general, conservatives have criticized Wolf’s tasteless but truthful speech, but ignored Mr. Trump’s barbed falsehoods. You can’t have it both ways. Some liberals complained too. But satire isn’t supposed to be pleasant. For my own part, I would have preferred a much less offensive speech, but I admit that Wolf made her points.

Did the country need a speech as volatile as Wolf’s? Or was it too much? That’s hard to say, isn’t it? 

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