‘Obama Out’: See President’s Scathing Correspondents’ Dinner Speech
Barack Obama attended his eighth and final White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night in Washington, D.C., and the president made sure to go out with a bang by delivering a biting 20-minute speech that ragged everyone from the media and Congress to presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. “Next year at this time, someone else will be standing here in this very spot, and it’s anyone’s guess who she will be,” Obama joked about his possible successor.
The president took special aim at Republican frontrunner Trump throughout his speech, even though Trump didn’t attend the dinner. “It is surprising: You’ve got a room full of reporters, celebrities, cameras — and he says no,” Obama said. “Is this dinner too tacky for The Donald? What could he possibly be doing instead? Is he at home, eating a Trump steak, tweeting out insults to Angela Merkel? What’s he doing?”
Obama continued, “There’s one area where Donald’s experience could be invaluable, and that’s closing Guantanamo. Because Trump knows a thing or two about running waterfront properties into the ground.” Obama previously blasted Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner – an event attended by the mogul – but Trump’s absence deprived attendees of a sequel.
Unlike Clinton and Trump, Bernie Sanders was present to take some ribbing from the president. “Bernie, you look like a million bucks,” Obama said. “Or to put it in terms you understand, you look like 37,000 donations of $27 each.”
Obama ended his final Correspondents Dinner as president by telling his audience, “And with that, I just have two more words to say: Obama out.” He then unleashed an emphatic and resounding mic drop.
The Nightly Show‘s Larry Wilmore, who replaced Stephen Colbert in Comedy Central’s post-Daily Show slot, served as the dinner’s host and introduced himself as “a black man who replaced a white man who pretended to be a TV newscaster… so yeah, in that way Lester Holt and I have a lot in common,” a slam on former NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams.
Wilmore teased the president for how much he has visibly aged since entering the Oval Office eight years ago. “Your hair is so white, it tried to punch me at a Trump rally,” Wilmore told Obama. “The president’s hair is so white it keeps saying ‘All Lives Matter.’ All I’m saying is that in less than eight years, Mr. President, you’ve busted two time-honored stereotypes: Black does crack, and apparently once you go black, it looks like we are going back. Thanks, Ben Carson.”
Wilmore’s speech also saw the host mentioning the recent deaths of David Bowie, Merle Haggard and Prince, “or as Hillary Clinton calls them, ‘my favorite singer,’ ‘my favorite singer’ and ‘my favorite singer.'” Wilmore’s comments boasted references to Beyoncé – he suggested renaming Fox News’ The Kelly File as Becky With the Good Hair – as well as Sanders supporter Killer Mike.