James Corden took on the roll of a White House Press Secretary, calling on a variety of White House reporters and even referring to a Reuters reporter as a “whiny little b****.”
During the White House Correspondent’s Dinner Saturday night in Washington, D.C., a video played for the audience made up of celebrities, politicians and journalists — and featuring the host of the “The Late, Late Show with James Corden” standing outside the White House talking about how he was in town to see about “getting a job.”
Corden’s first stop was in the Oval Office where he met with President Joe Biden and told him how he’d “like to be of service” — and the president directed the TV host to head to the “press room.”
Biden then told Corden he “should go be with the press,” going on to tell him, “don’t come back.”
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Corden went to find White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Psaki then took down some notes for the host and they included answers to questions about President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the state of the U.S. economy and more.
“War with Russia, bad,” the press secretary shared. “Ahh, CDC [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] good. Economy, strong.”
The last one Corden didn’t seem to be on board with and responded, “is it?”
“Iran, diplomacy good,” Psaki continued, before the late-night host asked what he should say if he gets asked about Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson’s relationship.
Jen said “we love love around here, so I think that’s a safe place to be.”
Corden then stepped into the White House Press room and got hit with a host of hard hitting questions that definitely appeared to be tougher than the normal ones the media throws at Psaki. The questions ranged from asking about the president’s plans to stave off a recession to why Biden spends every weekend away from the WH in Delaware.
One question even touched on tapping the strategic petroleum reserve to deal with rising gas prices and Corden came back with a joke about it not being anybody’s business who the “president is tapping.”
“I don’t think it’s for me or you, Jenny [Kelly O’Donnell], to talk about who or what the President is tapping,” Corden replied.
It was the first time laughter could be heard from the audience gathered at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner were they were watching the video.
Corden then calls on Reuters reporter Jeff Mason who asked about “what is the president’s plan for deficit reduction?”
“Do you know what?” the late-night host shared. “They warned me about you. They warned me about you. What’s your name. Jeff. ‘You’re right, Jeff’s a whiny little b****.”
There was then a bit of laughter from the dinner but not nearly as much as after Corden cracked the joke about the president.
In January, Biden snapped at Fox News’s White House reporter Peter Doocy after the reporter asked the president if he thought “inflation is a political liability for midterms.”
“It’s a great asset, more inflation,” Biden responded. “What a stupid son of a b****.”