It’s only been a week since the White House Correspondents’ Association decided to forgo having a comedian host the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but Amber Ruffin seems to have already come to terms with her firing.
In fact, the “Late Night” comedian admitted on CNN’s “Have I Got News for You” on Saturday night that “it’s a good thing” she lost the job — because she wasn’t about to paint both sides of the political aisle as equals.
“Oh my God, I could f—king talk for the next three hours,” Ruffin began when host Roy Wood Jr. asked her about the situation. “I lost the gig because I was out here talking s—t. I think it’s a good thing that I lost the gig because I was going to show up there and act all the way out.”
“Also, it’s not anyone’s fault, because when I was hired, we were like, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll give it to everybody’ and I was like, ‘Bet,’” she further explained. “Then, they started f—king disappearing people to a prison in El Salvador, they rolled back f—king civil rights, so I was like, if I make this equal, then I’m also a piece of s—t. I can’t f—king do that.”
Last Saturday, WHCA president Eugene Daniels informed members that the board had unanimously voted to cancel Ruffin’s appearance in an effort meant to “ensure the focus is not on the politics of division.”
In turn, Ruffin responded on her NBC late night show with Seth Meyers, saying, “I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history and deport your friends, you’re supposed to call it out. But I was wrong.”
She later added: “We have a free press so that we can be nice to Republicans at fancy dinners. That’s what it says in the First Amendment.”
In addition to Ruffin and Wood Jr., Saturday’s episode of “Have I Got News for You” on CNN also featured Rep. Ro Khanna and fellow comedians Michael Ian Black and Karen Chee.
As things stand, the 2025 White House Correspondents’ Dinner is set to take place on April 26.
