Headline WHCD

Comedians Kenan Thompson, Hasan Minhaj to headline WHCD

Thompson will serve as host while Minhaj will return as the featured entertainer.

By QUINT FORGEY

Comedians are making a comeback at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

Kenan Thompson of “Saturday Night Live” will serve as host for the 2020 iteration of the annual gala and Netflix's Hasan Minhaj will return to the awards banquet as the evening’s featured entertainer, the White House Correspondents’ Association announced Tuesday.

The evening's headliners mark a return to precedent for the dinner, which has traditionally featured a comedian who shares the stage with the president. But after sharp criticism of the 2018 performance of comedian Michelle Wolf, whose jokes at the expense of then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders were derided as sexist by President Donald Trump and his allies, the WHCA selected presidential biographer Ron Chernow to serve as the featured speaker for last year's dinner.

Trump has refused to attend the dinner throughout his tenure in office, instead counter-programming the annual celebration of journalism with political rallies in swing states he captured in the 2016 election. Last year, the president ordered administration officials to boycott the dinner.

Jonathan Karl, WHCA president and ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, praised both Thompson and Minhaj as “two of the most engaged and engaging entertainers in America” in a statement Tuesday.

“I’m thrilled they’ll help us celebrate the role of a free press in our democracy,” Karl said. “We’re looking forward to a lively evening honoring the most important political journalism of the past year.”

Minhaj previously performed at the dinner in 2017, just three months after Trump’s inauguration, and ripped the president as the “liar-in-chief” who “can't take a joke.” He also mocked White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, press secretary Sean Spicer and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, all of whom have since departed the administration.