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Nov. 19, 2018 / 4:09 PM GMT
By Dartunorro Clark
Famed presidential biographer Ron Chernow, author of comprehensive tomes about Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant, will be the featured speaker at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner next spring, the White House Correspondents’ Association announced Monday.
“I’m delighted that Ron will share his lively, deeply researched perspectives on American politics and history at the 2019 White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” said Olivier Knox, the president of the WHCA, in a statement. “As we celebrate the importance of a free and independent news media to the health of the republic, I look forward to hearing Ron place this unusual moment in the context of American history.”
It’s a departure from tradition for the nearly 100-year-old dinner, where a comedian usually headlines a roast. At last year’s event, comedian Michelle Wolf delivered blistering criticism of President Donald Trump, who was not in attendance, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, who was, touching off a firestorm.
Wolf responded to the news in a tweet on Monday, calling the association “cowards.”
“The @whca are cowards. The media is complicit. And I couldn’t be prouder,” she said.
At last year’s dinner, Wolf, a former correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” compared Sanders to a ruthless figure in the dystopian show “The Handmaid’s Tale.” She added that Sanders “burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye,” referring to her makeup.
Her act, which also skewered Democrats, other Republicans and the media, was met with a flurry of criticism, which led the former president of the association to issue a statement saying the comedian’s monologue “was not in the spirit” of its mission.
Others, including many fellow comics, defended her, saying she spoke truth to power and spared no one.
Wolf said at the time that she had no regrets about her performance.
Chernow is an acclaimed biographer of American presidents, and his book on Alexander Hamilton was the basis for playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway hit musical. He has also written biographies of business tycoons J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller.
“The White House Correspondents’ Association has asked me to make the case for the First Amendment and I am happy to oblige,” Chernow said in a statement. “Freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to basics. My major worry these days is that we Americans will forget who we are as a people and historians should serve as our chief custodians in preserving that rich storehouse of memory. While I have never been mistaken for a stand-up comedian, I promise that my history lesson won’t be dry.”
The dinner is slated for Saturday, April 27, 2019.
