WASHINGTON — With President Joe Biden and Donald Trump heading toward a rematch, Biden, speaking at the annual Gridiron Club and Foundation dinner on Saturday night, zinged Trump, mocked himself with self-deprecating jokes and on a serious note talked about the threats to our democracy triggered by Trump.
Turning around questions about age dogging Biden, he quipped, “Of course, the big news this week is two candidates clinched their parties’ nomination for president. One candidate is too old and mentally unfit to be president. The other is me.”
And in another well-received line Biden said, “Kamala and I and the members of the administration here tonight are proud — proud of our accomplishments on behalf of the American people: record job growth, wages rising, rigging the Super Bowl for Taylor Swift.”
Joking at Trump’s expense — the former president faces a fine of more than $400 million in a New York civil fraud case, Biden said, “Our big plan to cancel student debt doesn’t apply to everyone. Just yesterday, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, “I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out.” I said, “Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.”
Turning to the challenges to democracy the U.S. is facing, Biden said, “The lies about the 2020 election, the plots to overturn it, to embrace the January 6th insurrectionists pose the gravest threat to our democracy since the American Civil War.”
Saturday marked the 139th Gridiron dinner. Biden, who took his daughter, Ashley, to the dinner, delivered his first speech to the club as president. Vice President Kamala Harris also attended with second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
The members put on musical skits lampooning Democrats and Republicans in politics, the White House and Congress. I’m a member and was president in 2017. I was in the chorus and had a bit part in a skit about Biden’s dog Commander biting Secret Service agents.
It’s a white tie affair — the men wore tails, women gowns. More than 650 journalists, media executives, members of Congress, administration officials, military officers, ambassadors, governors and other notables gathered at the Grand Hyatt Washington Hotel — including the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and ex-President Barack Obama’s first chief of staff.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox spoke for Republicans. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whose name is often mentioned as a future White House contender, represented the Democrats, and she ribbed Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and jabbed at California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a riff about her potential presidential rivals.
“Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the only guy with more gold bars in his house than Bob Menendez,” she wisecracked, playing off the New Jersey senator’s criminal indictment, which allegedly involved receiving gold bars in exchange for favors.
“I love J.B. I’m just not sure that a billionaire hotel heir is the right profile after the last guy,” she said, a reference to Trump.
“But hey, at least J.B. is actually a billionaire,” Whitmer said.
In the Republican skit, in a parody about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sending migrants to cities led by Democrats — and to the tune of the “Yellow Rose of Texas” — the Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page, another former Gridiron president, portrayed Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and others played New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.
Sang the Gridiron’s “Johnson,” “Chicagoland progressives say Bienvenido folks. Just keep out of our cities ‘cause we ain’t all that woke. Go ahead and cross the border, but watch out where you roam. Us lib’ral blue-state bosses will send you right back home.”
