White House correspondents' dinner returns after two-year hiatus
CBSN
The White House correspondents' dinner returned Saturday night after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. President Biden delivered remarks, marking the first time in six years the sitting president attended the event as former President Trump did not attend while he was in office.
"Just imagine if my predecessor came to this dinner this year, now that would have been a real coup if that occurred," Mr. Biden said during his remarks.
Mr. Biden concluded his remarks on a serious note, saying "With disinformation massively on the rise, where the truth is buried by lies and the lies live on as truth, what's clear, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, that you the free press, matter more than you ever did in the last century."
More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.