WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden delivered his election-year general election address Saturday night to a crowd of journalists, celebrities and politicians against the backdrop of growing protests over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. We plan to do so.
The event is scheduled to begin at 8pm ET. Watch in the player above.
Biden, like many of his predecessors, has used the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner to drum up media coverage of his administration and attack political opponents, particularly his Republican rival Donald Trump. Ta.
But as protesters have vowed to gather outside the dinner venue, any effort by Biden to downplay Washington's weaknesses and the pitfalls of his presidential campaign, including the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and This will have to be balanced against concerns about the dangers of journalists covering the Gaza Strip. Conflict. Criticism of the Biden administration's support for Israel's six-month military offensive in the Gaza Strip has spread to American university campuses, where students set up encampments to force universities to withdraw from Israel. Counter-protesters support Israeli attacks and call out anti-Semitism.
clock: Protests against Israel's war in Gaza spread to university campuses across the country
Following Biden's speech to an expected crowd of nearly 3,000 people at a Washington hotel, “Saturday Night Live” entertainer Colin Jost appeared to address not only the president but his opponents. I'm sure he'll say something though.
We also spotlight the many journalists who have been detained or persecuted around the world for doing their jobs, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia since March 2023. The light will hit it.
But many of the protests outside the lavish annual dinner in the run-up to the event were directed not at Biden but at Western news outlets.
Chants accused American journalists of covertly covering the war and misrepresenting the facts. “Shame!” the demonstrators, wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, shouted as they chased men in suits and women in long dresses carrying clutches, as well as guests and other attendees. I chased after the person as they hurried to the venue.
Other protesters lay sprawled motionless on the sidewalk next to a model of a bulletproof vest with a “press” insignia.
Other protesters marched toward the scene chanting “Free, Free Palestine.”
Before arriving at the Washington Hilton, where the event has been held for decades, the president passed hundreds of people who had rallied along or near Biden's motorcade, speaking with Palestinians and It was meant to draw attention to the killing of many other Arab journalists. Since the war began in October, the Israeli military.
Law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service, have put in place additional road closures and other measures to ensure what Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi called “the highest level of safety and security for participants.”
Guglielmi said authorities were working with Washington police to protect the demonstrators' right to assembly. However, “we remain intolerant of any violent or destructive behavior.”
More than 20 journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week asking their colleagues in Washington to boycott the dinner entirely.
“The cost to us simply of fulfilling our journalistic duties is staggering,” the letter reads. “We are subjected to detention, interrogation and torture by Israeli forces, all for ‘crimes’ against journalistic integrity.”
One organizer complained that the White House Correspondents Association, which represents hundreds of journalists who cover the president, has been largely silent about the killings of Palestinian journalists since the first weeks of the war. WHCA did not respond to requests for comment.
About 100 journalists covering the war in Gaza were killed, according to a preliminary investigation released Friday by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel has defended its actions, saying it was targeting extremists.
“Since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war, journalists have paid the ultimate price with their lives in defense of the right to know the truth. Every time a journalist is killed or injured, we We lose pieces of the truth,” said Carlos, CPJ program director. Martinez de la Serna said in his statement:
“President Biden is enabling devastation and starvation in Israel,” said Sandra Tamari, executive director of the Adalah Justice Project, a U.S.-based Palestinian advocacy group that helped organize the letters from Gaza journalists. It's a shame that the media eats and laughs with them during this time.” It's about the Palestinians in Gaza. ”
In addition, the Adalah Justice Project has signed a letter calling for protection for journalists in the Gaza Strip and has been involved in an e-mail targeting 12 media executives from various news organizations (including the Associated Press) scheduled to attend the dinner. We started an email campaign.
Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo and Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.
