President Joe Biden took the annual White House press corps’ gala as an opportunity to make light of the criticism he has faced in his 18 months in office.
Earlier in the night, in a return to some normalcy, journalists, government officials and celebrities paraded down the red carpet even as the threat of COVID-19 loomed over the massive hotel ballroom.
That raised questions about whether the 79-year-old Biden should have attend Saturday's dinner. The president planned to pass up the meal but turn up later for the program and wear a mask when not speaking. Instead, he was maskless while greeting award winners on the dais and smiled broadly throughout the evening.
The U.S. is experiencing a COVID-19 case spike from a highly contagious subvariant of omicron, with confirmed infections rising to about 44,000 per day, up from 26,000 a month ago. Biden mentioned the dinner during a speech this past week about Russia's war on Ukraine, saying, “I’ve always had respect for the press, but I can’t tell you how much respect I have watching them in these zones where they’re under fire."
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