The myriad attacks sort of do make you pause and wonder, like, oh, if we are fighting on behalf of a free press, if we believe that Trump and his administration are a threat to that, do we really want to have these people in the room, let alone at the table? Welcome to the Powers That Be daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood, and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby. It's Thursday, April 23rd. Today, I'm joined by Dylan Byers with a preview of this weekend's White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, which is giving the Beltway media class a little bit of acid reflux because President Donald Trump will be attending the dinner for the first time ever. And not only that, CBS News under Barry Weiss has invited Stephen Miller and Pete Hegseth to the dinner as their guests. But as Dylan explains, despite protests from some corners of the press about sharing a boozy ballroom with Trump and his minions, life in Washington will find a way to go on. And the party circuit this year is as busy as it's ever been. We'll discuss all that and much more on today's episode of The Powers That Be. Instagram teen accounts default teens into automatic protections for who can contact them and the content they can see. Explore teen accounts and all of our ongoing work to protect teens online at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. happy thursday everybody and welcome to the powers that be i'm joined today by dylan byers to talk about what else this weekend's white house correspondence association dinner and all the parties around it but most importantly donald trump for the first time is actually going to show up part of me thinks this is just a whole trap dylan i think we're gonna be trapped in a hotel ballroom while Trump annihilates everybody. You know, it's a catch-22, I think, for the Correspondents Association. Last year, they canceled the Comedian, I think, and everyone just sort of gave a toast to the First Amendment, which is actually really nice. I think people had a decent time last year. They shunted away some of the usual good humor to just be present in the moment with their colleagues, with Trump in the office once again, attacking the media, attacking the free press and saying, we're all in this together. Now this year, and I want to get into some details with you, but it seems like the vibe has sort of shifted a little over, not just because Trump is coming to the dinner, but last year there was some queasiness about the parties. Again, Trump had just come back into office. Should we really be doing this? These things happen. They do. They have in the past. They happened in the Bush administration. They happened in the first Trump term, of course. But this year, people just seem more willing to have events, go to gatherings, do the social circuit and people seem pretty willing to go to the dinner not everybody we should say our guy don lemon said the other day quote i'm not interested in dressing up in a tuxedo sipping champagne and pretending everything is normal don if we see you at a party we're gonna call you out he's not going to the dinner itself i think uh maybe he's doing something with the lemon heads anyway dylan there's lots of different angles lots of different threads to pull here i think we should start with, and this is related to Trump coming, CBS News. Barry Weiss, I assume, will be there. But one of the biggest news stories heading into this is that CBS invited Pete Hegseth, who's presiding over the war in Iran, and Stephen Miller to join their table. This is something that CBS News would not have done a couple of years ago, would not have done under Alison ownership, under Barry Weiss. I think they're going to get some side eyes over at that table. What do you think? Well, I'm not so sure that they wouldn't have done this because in years past, in administrations past, CBS News, like other broadcast news networks, cable news networks, sort of sends out a blanket invitation to cabinet members. Now, Stephen Miller is in a very different category. No I get it And that is and by the way that is the thing that has that is the talk of the town and has everyone in a tizzy about this right Because it is a different administration The myriad attacks restrictions lawsuits against the press and the general combative tone sort of do make you pause and wonder like oh if we are fighting on behalf of a free press if we believe that Trump and his administration are a threat to that Do we really want to have these people in the room let alone at the table I suppose the most crucial point I can make here Peter, is that, get ready for it, none of this fucking matters to the vast majority of Americans who really don't care how journalists conduct this one weekend out of the year when they decide to throw a few good parties. But it is a delicate dance. It is a delicate dance how you do this. And there are a few avenues available to you. Certainly, if you are Don Lemon, you can save the Tuxedo and the Champagne for one of the myriad other parties happening around town that weekend. I imagine for Don, that will be the UTA party at Osteria Moza in Georgetown, and a few brunches as well. I'll be at the UTA thing. UTA people, if you're listening, I need a plus one, actually. Dylan and I will be there, but I got to bring a friend. So you know my email. I'm sure we can figure that one out. But there's a lot of posturing here, right? Another version of this is Huffington Post, which is like, oh, we're sitting this dinner out because of moral principles. Or maybe because you're on the verge of bankruptcy. Maybe that's why you're sitting it out and you just can't afford a table. The other thing to do is to go to the dinner, recognize that this is a tradition that happens every year, recognize that he may not be the president you want or like, but he's the one who got voted into power. And I think the ramifications of trying to disinvite him from the dinner are probably worse than having him there. And you can do this sort of thing where you invite administration officials like Fox News does, but not necessarily invite the ones who you know are going to draw headlines. Or you can take the Barry Weiss approach, which is pretty much just like, how do I make my already controversial tenure at CBS News even more controversial? But, of course, once you get past the pearl clutching, there are strategic rationales for this. At the Ellison level, obviously, they're on the cusp of acquiring Warner Brothers Discovery. They don't need any more hiccups in that long process. And, oh, by the way, David's dad, Larry, just got a sweetheart deal for majority control of TikTok's U.S. business. Like pissing off Trump is not the strategy right now. So so they're content to do that hand wringing aside. And then I think for Barry, like, like, let's be realistic about what she's trying to do. I think the Ellisons, I think Barry have looked across the television news landscape and seen that there is one model of a successful television news company, and it is Fox News. And they are not trying to be a different version of MS Now or NBC or ABC or CNN, although they will have CNN. But they're basically saying, OK, if there's an audience out there, it probably exists to the right of where CBS News is now. And if we signal that we are cozy with the administration, or if we at least do things that are going to help with getting these guys on air, sure, that might piss off Oliver Darcy. But that could send a very positive signal about what the future CBS News is all about. So I don't think they're flying blind here. I think they know what they're doing, and I think it understandably and justifiably pisses a lot of veteran Washington press corps people off, but I don't think that that phases Barry or David at all. I think they're being very deliberate, and you're right about that. And by the way, they don't live in Washington, so they don't have to hear the daily noise. As long as they're not reading the Oliver Darcy content flywheel every day, they can come into D.C., do this, be methodical, and leave. To Oliver's credit, I take the occasional, I tweak it, Oliver. But to his credit, more people are reading him than would like to admit. I should say there are, speaking of protests about this, several hundred journalists in Washington signed an open letter to the White House Correspondents Association calling on the press there. I guess the White House Correspondents Association itself, I'm unclear who the target was, to, quote, forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump's efforts to trample freedom of the press. There is a long tradition of presidents attending the dinner. But these are not normal times and this cannot be business as usual with the press standing up to applaud the man who attacks them on the daily basis I will say having been to many of these including the Bin Laden dinner where President Obama roasted Donald Trump I was sitting right next to Donald Trump I could see the silhouette of his ducktail hair in the light as he sat there stewing You know reporters don really stand up and applaud the president, in my memory. Sometimes they might. We'll see. I think they applaud other journalists and stand up and give them standing ovations. Anyway, they have the right to say that. I should also give voice to Weijia Jiang, friend of Peter, who is the president of the WHCA. She says the dinner, quote, reinforces the importance of the First Amendment in our democracy. As we mark America's 250th birthday, our choice to gather as journalists, newsmakers, and the president in the same room is a reminder of what free press means to this country, why it must endure, not for the media or the president, but for the people who depend on it. Okay, read into all of those statements as you will. Dylan, let's take a quick break. Actually, when we come back, I want to keep talking about those statements and also some of the parties and what they mean when we come back. Instagram teen accounts, automatic protections for teens. Instagram teen accounts have built-in content settings and limits for who can contact teens. Plus, teens under 16 can't change these default safety settings without parental approval. So parents can help teens connect safely. Instagram teen accounts, automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. Learn more at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. Welcome back to the powers that be everybody. I'm talking to Dylan Byers, host of the Grill Room podcast, author of In the Room. I will be in many rooms with Dylan this weekend. One thing I want to say about the parties, Dylan, is people can roll their eyes. But beyond the dinner itself, which is obviously the subject of annual consternation and heartburn for whatever reason du jour, certainly more in the Trump years. The parties themselves, like I used to kind of roll my eyes at them, but I think people need to understand they're sort of separate from the dinner. This weekend, everyone in media and politics is in one place. And so Puck is doing an event. Crooked Media is doing an event. You know, the Pod Save America guys are doing an event. Substack is doing an event. This is almost as much as a public affairs lobbying weekend outside of the dinner. as the dinner itself. And so I've come in my old age to admit that I kind of like going to the parties. The dinner is the dinner. It's fun. It's a shooting gallery for you especially, but I will see at the Crooked Media Party sources who work in democratic politics, like pollsters, and then I'll bounce over to this party and see some agents that are interesting and useful. And also just like friends. I don't live in DC anymore, so I get to see friends. So there's that. I have written some version of this story going back 15 years to my like early days at Politico, Washington, D.C. is the only town I know of in the world that spends so much time wringing its hands over just throwing a few parties. This doesn't happen in Hollywood. It doesn't happen in Silicon Valley. It certainly doesn't happen in New York City. Like, it's okay. It's okay. the only drag is that because Washington is the insular town that it is, there are now so many parties really starting like Wednesday and then Thursday in earnest. There are so many parties that by the time you arrive at like Tammy Haddad's garden brunch on Saturday morning before the dinner has even happened, you have had the same conversation with Sam Feist like 16 times. And it's just like, you can't, you know, at a certain point, You just like truly by Sunday, you're like at the All Britain brunch, you're just basically like, OK, I don't I have run out of things to say. Other than that, it is a hell of a lot of fun. There are worse things to do than to loosen up the collar and just like go out and open bar, eat some food, talk with people, hang out, let your guard down. And yes, from a sourcing perspective and a reporting perspective, it is a goldmine. So I think the sooner that look it different this year because Trump and the Trump of it all and the Barry Weiss of it all has given DC a focal point for those anxieties And I think it has sort of accentuated them I get that But like at the end of the day this weekend is going to come and go and it's okay. It's okay. It's okay to have fun. I also have an observation. Trump is a malignant force when it comes to the media eroding trust in the press. By the way, the press has also eroded trust in itself over the years, I will say. We can toast the fact that trump has sued reporters brendan carr has threatened the media but with rare exception he's losing these fights in the courts like he's not he's like like cash patel is suing the atlantic like that's going to get tossed good luck i'm sorry you know like so he talks a lot there are things he's done you know he has sided with dictators who have abused and jailed and murdered journalists. They're bad things, but he's not winning. A lot of the things that are happening in the press when it comes to audience and trust are due to technological forces, shifting habits, et cetera. Some of it is Trump that's sprinkled in there, but it's not all doom and gloom. He's losing all these fights. Well, there's one other observation I'll have too. the presidents before trump would come to these things obama in particular you know john lovett would write some jokes they'd hire comedians to help give them speech and they perform them trump is not a guy who takes written jokes and i'm just spending a lot of time lately watching his c-span appearances especially the older he gets he rambles and rambles and rambles and rambles and rambles i think this dinner could go pretty long i think it's gonna go restless i think he's going to, I think people are going to want to get out of there. So like, I think it'll just be a typical Trump ramble without the kind of punchy joshing jokes that presidents and politicians do at this thing, along with just being goddamn long dinner. You know, I might, John Kelly, I might sneak out. Don't get mad at me. I had a source who attended the Alfalfa Club dinner where that Trump gave remarks at. I was going to say black tie. I think it's a white tie event. And he was like, it was he was just terrible. He was just really, really bad. So, yes, he could benefit from his own stable of crooked media co-hosts to help like punch up those jokes. Here's the point I think I would leave you with, Peter, is like, imagine the alternative. Like, let's say you give all the people bemoaning Trump's appearance at the dinner what they want and you say, OK, Ouija and the White House Correspondents Association are going to disinvite Trump, disinvite Hegseth and Miller and get together in a room and do this without them. like is that better for the media industry is that better for the press score or is that ultimately better for trump what if they just didn't invite them in the first place but it's the same thing because you have this tradition of always inviting the president and we just in a tough spot but i would give and look that i have already been 86 from a couple parties this coming weekend so good use of 86 here come two more disinvitations But I commend Ouija and the WHCA for maintaining continuity with their standards for how they do this. And I champion engagement over disengagement. I think it is better to engage. I think part of the purpose of the dinner from its inception was to remind everyone that we're all human beings and that the more we talk to each other, the better this gets, ostensibly, hopefully. we'll see that was a pregnant pause on my part Dylan I will see you in a matter of hours I'm excited to share some Ubers with you be well my friend can't wait my friend alright thanks so much for listening to another episode of the powers that be as a reminder the powers that be is the official podcast of puck we'd like to thank Ben Landy Liz Goff and Alex Bigler for their editorial and production guidance if you like what you hear please share with a friend. It really helps us keep delivering the inside scoop that only Puck can offer. Follow us on Twitter at Puck News. I'm Ben Landy. See you tomorrow. This has been a presentation of Odyssey. Please listen, rate, review, and follow all episodes wherever you get your podcasts. The Powers That Be Daily is executive produced by John Kelly, co-founder of Puck, Bob Tabador, and Ben Landy, executive editor at Puck. you
