No joke: Biden turns up the heat on Trump [View all]

Were he ever to consider a career in stand-up comedy, Joe Biden would be well advised to keep his day job. But delivering big laughs was not the president’s mission when he appeared Saturday night before a black-tie audience of 2,600 journalists and Washington power players at the White House correspondents’ dinner.

Almost from the start of his appearance in what is traditionally a lighthearted evening, Biden took the kind of personal swipes at his opponent that we have rarely heard from him. “The 2024 election’s in full swing and yes, age is an issue,” he said. “I’m a grown man running against a 6-year-old.”

Where he has ordered White House aides not to speak publicly about Donald Trump’s legal troubles, Biden himself mocked the seamy scandal that has the former president spending his days in a Manhattan courtroom. “I had a great stretch since the State of the Union. But Donald has had a few tough days lately. You might call it ‘stormy weather,’” Biden said, making an unsubtle reference to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, whose claims that she had an affair with Trump are at the center of the hush-money trial.

And toward the end, Biden chastised the media: “I’m sincerely not asking you to take sides. I’m asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment. Move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the side shows that have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics, and focus on what’s actually at stake. … The stakes couldn’t be higher.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/28/biden-white-house-correspondents-speech/