President Barack Obama teased Fox News officials Saturday night, saying that the channel would miss him when he's no longer in office.
"It'll be harder to convince the American people that Hillary was born in Kenya," he jibed,
according to The Washington Post.
Obama was addressing
the Annual White House Correspondents' Dinner hosted this year by comedian Joel McHale. The annual dinner, filled with insider jokes and elbow jabs masquerading as humor, brings Washington journalists together with celebrities and power brokers for a meal with the president and first lady.
Story continues below.
While CNN and MSNBC carried the event live, Fox aired a special on the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Conservatives have long blamed Obama officials, including Clinton, for mishandling the debacle.
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The president, playing the traditional role of standup comic at the charity affair, poked fun at House Speaker John Boehner's troubles with critics in his own Republican camp.
That proved, Obama joked, referencing Boehner's seemingly perpetual tan, that "orange really is the new black."
In making fun of how his administration botched Obamacare's rollout, the president said: "That could have gone better. In 2008, my slogan was 'Yes we can.' In 2013, my slogan was control-alt-delete.
"On the plus side," he then added, "they did turn the launch of HealthCare.gov into one of the year's biggest movies." A poster of the Disney movie "Frozen" then flashed on the screen.
The president announced that he had prepared a video clip in honor of the White House Correspondents' Association. When the film froze, Obama asked for assistance from the audience. "Does anybody know how to fix this?"
Kathleen Sebelius, the former Health and Human Services Secretary, sprinted up to the stage. "I got this. I see it all the time," she said. Sebelius dramatically typed something into a laptop and the clip resumed.
Obama referenced his own unpopularity, "I admit it, last year was so bad, the 47 percent called Mitt Romney to apologize."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was in the audience, came in for some ribbing. Comparing Washington's paralyzing political gridlock to the Bridge-gate scandal, Obama allowed that, "You have to wonder: What'd we do to piss off Chris Christie so bad?"
McHale also referenced Christie's Bridge-gate troubles with: "Finally, a politician who is willing to stand up to America's commuters." He told the gathering, "I promise tonight will be amusing and over quickly, just like Chris Christie's presidential bid,"
according to Politico.
Most of McHale's jokes were at the expense of the corpulent Christie, who was at the dinner. McHale mocked Christie's girth as well as a local traffic scandal that could sink his hopes to become the 2016 Republican presidential nominee.
"I promise that tonight will be both amusing and over quickly just like Chris Christie's presidential bid," McHale joked.
Christie seemed unfazed by the blistering ribbing. "Listen, baby, it's better to be relevant than ignored," Christie said, according to a posting on Twitter by a Washington Post reporter.
The comic also needled Obama's spokesman: "It's good to see that White House press secretary and boy detective Jay Carney is here,"
Politico reported.
Besides jesting that CNN had become obsessed in its coverage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and saying CNN reporters in the hall were "still searching for their table," Obama also mocked MSNBC: "MSNBC is here. They're a little overwhelmed. They've never seen an audience this big before."
McHale took his own swipe at CNN: "Have you watched the news? Not CNN, I mean the real news."
In addition to politicians and media people, the audience included actors and sports personalities including cast members from the "House of Cards," "Scandal" and "Veep," according to the Post.
The annual dinner has been a Washington institution since 1920.
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