Ron Chernow, who wrote a biography of Alexander Hamilton and consulted for the Broadway musical "Hamilton," acknowledged that he will be a change of pace for the White House Correspondents' Dinner. | Louis Lanzano/AP photo white house correspondents' dinner White House correspondents ditch comedians, ask biographer to speak at annual dinner

The White House Correspondents’ Association on Monday said presidential biographer Ron Chernow will be the featured speaker at the group's annual dinner in April, opting against the usual choice of a comedian as tensions between the Trump administration and press remain high.

Chernow is expected to speak about freedom of the press at the dinner on April 27, the association said.


“Freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to basics," Chernow said in a statement.

The association usually asks a comedian to headline the dinner. In 2018, however, comedian Michelle Wolf received intense backlash from the White House and some in the media, particularly for a series of jokes about press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The point of the decision, according to a person familiar with how it was made, was not to avoid a speaker who might inflame the president or other administration officials, but to make sure that, “if there is criticism, it comes from a place of authority and background.”

President Donald Trump criticized Wolf's performance following the dinner, saying the group should change the format or end the dinner entirely. The president has skipped the dinner for two straight years. The change also comes as the dinner has become less of a draw for Hollywood stars than it was during the administration of President Barack Obama.

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Tensions between the White House and the press corps have remained strained, particularly since the White House revoked access for CNN correspondent Jim Acosta. The administration now says it's writing rules for reporters' behavior at White House events.

Chernow, who wrote a biography of Alexander Hamilton and consulted for the Broadway musical "Hamilton," acknowledged in the statement Monday that he was a different kind of speaker, saying, "While I have never been mistaken for a stand-up comedian, I promise that my history lesson won't be dry."

"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," said Chernow, who also won a Pulitzer Prize for his book about George Washington. His most recent biography is about Ulysses S. Grant.

During the 2016 election campaign, Chernow said he was disturbed by Trump's campaign and feared that Americans "can forget who we are as a people and succumb to historical amnesia."

"Make no mistake about it, when the past is scrubbed clean and American history becomes a blank slate, Donald Trump or any other demagogue can come along and write upon it whatever the hell he wants. And that disturbs me most of all," he said in a video posted on Facebook. "Please, please, please folks, don't let it happen here."

Olivier Knox, chief Washington correspondent for SiriusXM and president of the WHCA, said in a statement that he's excited for Chernow to share "his lively, deeply researched perspectives on American politics and history."

“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," Knox said.

Knox has long disliked the role of the comedian at the dinner — well before the controversy over Wolf — and complained over the years about celebrity guests squeezing out the camera operators and sound technicians who used to attend, according to the person familiar with the decision to tab Chernow.

“A conversation has been going on for some period of time about is there a different way to do this,” said Major Garrett, chief White House correspondent for CBS News, who formerly served on the board of the WHCA and said he has discussed the issue over the years with Knox.

“This whole question about the comedian and whether or not the audience received it well placed the Correspondents’ Association and by definition the president of the Correspondents’ Association in an awkward and largely indefensible position of being an arbiter of what is good comedy and good taste,” he said. “That’s not anywhere within 100,000 miles of the mission, impetus or goals of the Correspondents’ Association.”

Garrett said he thought it possible that serious criticism leveled by a renowned historian like Chernow may even be “harder to take” for a president used to dismissing comedians’ jokes.

“I’m not sure that’s more or less palatable,” he said.

One D.C. editor said that, for years, there has been growing dissatisfaction among White House correspondents with the distraction and discomfort created by a comic. “The conversation among many of the members even three years ago is the comedian’s time is done,” the editor said.

Some, including New York Times Chief White House correspondent Peter Baker, applauded the move on Twitter.

“Great move by the White House Correspondents' Association @whca which is dispensing with the comedian for this year's dinner and featuring the acclaimed Ron Chernow giving a talk on the First Amendment,” Baker wrote. “Inspired decision by @OKnox and the whole board.”

Following the announcement, though, some comedians criticized the decision.

"The @whca are cowards. The media is complicit. And I couldn't be prouder," Wolf wrote in a tweet.

Comedian W. Kamau Bell, who hosts a CNN series titled "United Shades of America," said no comedian would have taken the job this year, given the association's treatment of Wolf after the 2018 dinner. The group's president at the time, Bloomberg's Margaret Talev, said Wolf's monologue "was not in the spirit" of the association's mission.

"After the way the WHCA & many journalists talked about Michelle Wolf, it was official that no comedian worth a damn would take this gig," he tweeted.

Garrett said that he is looking forward to “a slightly more boring dinner.” But, he added, “one more rooted in both the mission and the conversation that the dinner is about itself.”

