Comedian Michelle Wolf ruffled a few feathers after she took on Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House Press Correspondents Dinner on Saturday.
The night was labeled a ‘disgrace’ by former press secretary Sean Spicer after Wolf dared to poke fun at Sanders’ eye makeup.
Reince Priebus also had harsh words for the comedian, writing that her jokes ‘started poorly and ended up in the bottom of a canyon’.
Sean Spicer labeled the White House Corespondents Dinner night a ‘disgrace’ on Twitter after comedian Michelle Wolf poked fun at Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ eye makeup
Wolf was quick to retweet Spicer’s jab, receiving 50,000 more likes than his original tweet
‘An R/X rated spectacle that started poorly and ended up in the bottom of the canyon,’ the former White House chief of staff tweeted on Saturday night.
‘Another victory for @realDonaldTrump for not attending and proving his point once again. The room was uncomfortable. Trump lovers and even a large number of Trump haters were pretty miserable.’
Wolf likened Huckabee to a villain from the Handmaid’s Tale and complimented the press secretary’s makeup during her routine.
‘I have to say I’m a little starstruck, I loved you as Aunt Lydia in A Handmaid’s Tale,’ Wolf told Sanders during the dinner.
‘Mike Pence, if you haven’t seen it you would love it,’ she added.
‘I like Sarah, I think she’s really resourceful. She burns facts and uses the ash to create a perfect smokey eye,’ Wolf said in another joke. ‘Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies.’
Wolf joked on Saturday night that Sanders ‘burns facts and uses the ash to create a perfect smokey eye’
Wolf also joked that Sanders was a white woman who disappoints other white woman.
‘I’m never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders,’ she began.
‘Is it Sarah Sanders, is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is it Cousin Huckabee, is it Aunt Huckabee Sanders?’ Wolf said, continuing, ‘What’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Ah I Know, Aunt Coulter.’
Wolf later retweed Spicer’s post claiming that her routine was a ‘disgrace’, simply writing ‘Thank you!’ Her tweet received 60,000 more likes than Spicer’s original jab.
She also responded to New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman, who tweeted: ‘That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.’
Wolf also joked that Sanders was a ‘white woman who disappoints other white woman’
Wolf compared Sanders to Aunt Lydia, a character from A Handmaid’s Tale. In the show, the Aunts are a class of women assigned to indoctrinate Handmaids with the beliefs of the new society and make them accept their fates
Former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was also not amused by Wolf’s jokes
But Wolf wasn’t afraid to hit back at her critics, including New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman – who claimed Wolf had criticized Sanders’ appearance
‘Hey mags! All these jokes were about her despicable behavior,’ Wolf fired back. ‘Sounds like you have some thoughts about her looks though?’
Others also came to Wolf’s defense, including celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.
‘Kudos to @michelleisawolf for making the #WHCD circle jerk as painful and awkward is it deserved to be,’ he tweeted.
‘If joking about a smokey eye made of lies is now a personal attack on someone’s appearance we have REALLY jumped the fragility shark,’ another supporter added.
Sanders wasn’t the only White House staff member that Wolf roasted on Saturday night. The comedian also had plenty of jabs ready Donald Trump, his lawyer Michael Cohen, and more.
‘It’s 2018 and I am a woman so you cannot shut me up. Unless you have Michael Cohen wire me $130,000,’ Wolf joked, referencing the Stormy Daniels controversy.
‘You can find me on Venmo under my porn star name: Reince Priebus,’ she added, receiving a thumbs up from him in the audinece.
Wolf also addressed the absent president, who decided to hold a rally in Michigan instead, head on.
‘I would drag him here myself, but it turns out that the president of the United States is the one p***y you’re not allowed to grab,’ said Wolf, best known from her work on the Daily Show.
Wolf also took shots at counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway. ‘Man, she has the perfect name for what she does. Conway. It’s like if my last name was tells-jokes-frizzy-hair-small-tits,’ she said.
Others were quick to come to Wolf’s defense, including celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain
Ivanka Trump also came under fire as Wolf joked: ‘Ivanka, she was supposed to be an advocate for women but she is about as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons.’
Wolf also compared the president’s daughter to a ‘diaper genie’, saying she ‘Looks sleek on the outside, but inside is full of s**t.’
One of the evening’s most shocking moments came while Wolf was attacking Vice President Mike Pence, and joked about abortion.
‘Mike Pence is what happens when Anderson Cooper isn’t gay. Mike Pence is the kind of guy who brushes his teeth and then drinks orange juice and thinks, Mmm,’ said Wolf.
‘He thinks abortion is murder. Which first of all don’t knock it til you try it. And when you do try it, really knock it, you gotta get that baby out of there.’
A view of the venue during the 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night
The crowd of 3,000 included the Washington DC journalism elite rubbing shoulders with the rich and powerful at the dinner
Wolf said she had decided to attack Trump on the basis of his finances, saying that when it comes to racism, xenophobia, incompetence or impotence ‘he’s heard all of those and he doesn’t care.’
‘You might be rich in Idaho but in New York you’re just doing fine,’ she said.
Using call and response from the audience, she shouted ‘Trump is so broke’, to which the audience responded ‘how broke is he?’
Among her responses were: ‘He has to fly failed business class’; ‘He looked for foreign oil in Don Jr’s hair’; ‘Southwest used him as one of their engines’; and ‘He had to borrow money from the Russians and now he’s compromised.’
Wolf promised however that she wouldn’t dwell too much on jokes about Russia, since there were many members of the ‘liberal media’ present. ‘I wouldn’t want to see what you look like when you orgasm,’ she noted.
Wolf is just the fifth woman to host the annual dinner since the tradition of having comedians perform began in 1983.
Before Wolf delivered the keynote she said she wished Trump had come to the event.
‘I like making fun of people to their face…more than behind their backs, so it would have been more fun’ if Trump were in the audience, Wolf told CBS’ ‘This Morning Saturday.’
‘None of my jokes changed. It’s just nicer to make fun of them when they’re there. I think it’s cowardly not to go.’
Before Wolf spoke, House Sepaker Paul Ryan performed in a video skit about seeking a new job after he retires from Congress at the end of his term. It was poorly received online.
The Washington dinner known as ‘nerd prom’, which once attracted Oscar winners and buzzed-about stars, comes as Trump routinely slams reporters as dishonest and their work as ‘fake news’
Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway (left) and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (right with husband Bryan) were among the current White House staffers in attendance – a major shift from last year when none attended
Former Trump aides Sean Spicer and Omarosa Manigault-Newman attended the White House Correspondents’ dinner
Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus (left) and Trump’s former chief economic advisor Gary Cohn (right) both attended the White House Correspondents’ dinner with their wives Sally and Lisa respectively
Comedian Kathy Griffin attends the 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton
Anti-gun rights activist David Hogg (right) appeared on the red carpet with his companion Scion Kelly (left)
Unlike last year’s event, some of the top current White House staff were in attendance this year, signalling a possible thaw in Trump’s often contentious relationship with the press.
Ex-White House staffers were also in abundance at the event, including former Trump advisor Omarosa Manigault-Newman, ousted Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, as well as Priebus and Spicer.
‘The president encouraged his staff to attend and so we did, we felt like it was important,’ Sanders said in a red carpet interview with CNN. ‘It’s gonna be a great night both here and in Michigan.’
Comedian Kathy Griffin, who created uproar last year by posing with a fake severed Trump head, also made an appearance on the red carpet, as did outspoken anti-gun activist David Hogg.
Meanwhile, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti blasted Trump for failing to attend.
‘I think it’s entirely disrespectful, I think it’s disrespectful to the First Amendment,’ said Avenatti, who is representing Daniels in her suit against Trump attempting to invalidate a hush agreement, in which the porn star says she was paid $130,000 to remain silent about a 2006 one-night-stand with Trump.
‘If you can’t laugh at yourself, you have no business being in the position,’ he added.
The Washington dinner known as ‘nerd prom’, which once attracted Oscar winners and buzzed-about stars, came as Trump routinely slams reporters as dishonest and their work as ‘fake news.’
On Saturday night, Trump was in an entirely different Washington from the Correspondents’ dinner – Washington Township, Michigan.
Trump posted on Facebook this past week that he would hold a Saturday evening rally in Michigan with his ‘favorite deplorables’ – a term that Democrat Hillary Clinton used in 2016 to describe some of Trump’s campaign supporters.
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on Saturday night headed for a rally in Michigan. It is the second year in a row he has declined to attend the WHCA dinner
Trump speaks during a rally at Total Sports Park in Washington, Michigan on Saturday night, instead of attending the dinner
Trump’s supporters packed into the arena in Washington Township – a far cry from the elite gathering in Washington DC
Trump’s aides skipped last year’s dinner, when some accompanied Trump to a rally in Pennsylvania where he celebrated his 100th day in office.
This year, however, even with Trump out of town, many White House aides hobnobed with the journalists who cover them.
In 2017, Trump became the first president to skip the event since Ronald Reagan in 1981; Reagan was recovering from an assassination attempt.
He spoke to a large crowd in Total Sports Park in a campaign style rally.
‘Is this better than that phony White House Correspondents Dinner,’ Trump asked the roaring crowed during his speech.
‘I could be up there tonight smiling like I love when they’re hitting you, shot after shot. These people, they hate your guts.’