While President Donald Trump was away in Pennsylvania, taking part in a campaign-style rally on his 100th day in office, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was in full swing Saturday night with all the jokes at Trump’s expense that you could want.
But it was the end of Hasan Minhaj’s night as host where he gave his most powerful remarks. And it wasn’t meant to be funny at all.
Instead, Minhaj praised the First Amendment for allowing a “first-generation Indian-American Muslim kid” to make fun of the president on live TV. It’s an amazing sign, he said, to the rest of the world that the president isn’t beyond the reach of the First Amendment. Even if, as Minhaj said, the president doesn’t care about free speech.
“The man who tweets everything that enters his head,” Minhaj said, “refuses to acknowledge the amendment that allows him to do it.”
Watch Minhaj’s closing remarks here. Come for the insightful commentary, and stay for the Trump burn at the very end.
The closing summation of @hasanminhaj‘s #WHCD speech is very much worth your time. pic.twitter.com/uWQR2EfX7L
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) April 30, 2017
Oh, and Minaj had some jokes as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECXKB0-2FA
All of it was enough to make CNN’s Wolf Blitzer give a hearty guffaw.
