Joe Biden was hailed by Democrats and supporters for his first White House Correspondents Dinner as US President, in which he delivered a “roasting” of Fox News.
The Democrat, who attended the star-studded evening on Saturday with first lady Jill Biden, told the crowd it was the first correspondents dinner for six years with a sitting president.
“It’s the first time a president attended this dinner in six years,” said Mr Biden, apparently referencing Covid-19. “It’s understandable. We had a horrible plague followed by two years of Covid”.
The joke, which took aim at his predecessor as US president, was followed by a number of lines aimed at Fox News, the Trump-friendly cable channel owned by Rupert Murdoch.
“Fox News, I’m really sorry your preferred candidate lost the last election,” said Mr Biden.
“To make it up to you, I’m happy to give my Chief of Staff to you all so he can tell Sean Hannity what to say everyday,” the Democrat added to widespread applause.
The comments appeared to reference the 80-plus text messages reportedly sent by Hannity to the Trump White House between December 2020 and January 2021, as CNN revealed on Friday.
The Fox News anchor allegedly agreed to tell voters in some states to come out to vote for Mr Trump on Election Day. He has since claimed that he does not identify as a journalist, and told viewers of his own show on Friday “I claim to be a talk show host.”
Mr Biden also mocked Fox News on Saturday for airing misleading claims on Covid vaccines.
“Everyone had to prove they were fully vaccinated and boosted,” Mr Biden told the crowd. “So if you are at home watching this and you wonder how to do that, just contact your favourite Fox News reporter”.
“They’re all here, vaccinated and boosted, all of them,” he added.
The crowd laughed along with the Democrat, apart from Fox News’s White House correspondent Peter Doocy, who was pictured sitting stony-faced.
The image was compared by some Twitter users to pictures of Donald Trump after former US president Barack Obama roasted him in 2011 for pushing the false “birther” conspiracy about the Democrat’s birthplace.
One person wrote: “We’re gonna have Joe Biden to blame for President Peter Doocy, huh?”
Many hailed Mr Biden for his correspondents dinner performance, with one person arguing: “We need to see the Biden we are seeing tonight every single day!”
“And the fact is, this IS how Biden always is…but between Fox News propaganda and other mainstream media regurgitating flawed narratives, the American people don’t get to see this side of Biden. This is a President!,” the user argued.
“President Biden has a sense of humor, he’s owning Fox News,” wrote another.
