White House Correspondents' Celebration of Themselves Looks Like it Was a Weekend-Long Superspreader

The White House Correspondents’ celebration appears to have been a superspreader event. The weekend was filled with at least 19 separate parties devoted to fêting Washington’s most self-important Biden transcriptionists in a gluttonous display of how wonderful and devoted to the First Amendment they are.

All participants were required to be tested and vaxxed.

Nonetheless, CNN’s media reporter, Oliver Darcy, noted on Tuesday that “in the days since WHCD weekend, reporters and staffers from CNN, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Politico, and other participating news orgs have tested positive for Covid.”

In the days since WHCD weekend, reporters and staffers from CNN, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Politico, and other participating news orgs have tested positive for Covid. More in the @ReliableSources newsletter. https://t.co/Fg9FPbasc0

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 4, 2022

Darcy wrote, “There is no exact data to indicate precisely how many people have caught the virus from the weekend. But, anecdotally speaking, much of Tuesday afternoon seemed to consist of attendees trading text messages and emails about colleagues and friends and people they had seen who had tested positive. That’s almost certainly going to continue in the days ahead …”

Jonathan Karl of ABC News tested positive for COVID-19 and reportedly developed symptoms. He was seen shaking hands with President Biden, and he sat next to reality “star” Kim Kardashian at the dinner.

📍BREAKING—here it comes—Jonathan Karl tests positive for #COVID19 on Monday after attending the @WHCA’s dinner—sitting next to Kim Kardashian and talking one on one with Biden at #WHCD—yes that dinner we epidemiologists all warned about.

By @maxwelltani https://t.co/ksNUWrkTTP pic.twitter.com/3rHAtEzOJM

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 3, 2022

The New York Post reported Karl tested positive for COVID on Monday night but “tested negative on Saturday afternoon before the White House Correspondents Dinner by medically-supervised staff. He had no symptoms on Saturday. Jon is currently isolating and participating in contact tracing. He is fully vaccinated, boosted and tested regularly.” Well, thank God for that “vaccine.”

Kardashian, meanwhile, went from the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday to the Met Gala in New York City on Monday night, where she consorted with hundreds of other celebrities, including Hillary Clinton.

Celebs and politicians played dress-up at the #MetGala
to "change the world" through fashion while forcing the working class to still MASK UP!?!@HillaryClinton @KimKardashian @ericadamsfornyc

Rick & Bubba Review: Met Gala 2022
⬇⬇WATCH VIDEO⬇⬇https://t.co/bC10toAWBA pic.twitter.com/XNMWFhqP5H

— Rick & Bubba Show (@rickandbubba) May 3, 2022

This epidemiologist brought a carbon dioxide-measuring device to the correspondent’s dinner and pointed out that the ventilation system at the event was subpar. He sounds like he’s fun at parties.

Wow—a CO2 concentration reading at the @WHCA dinner tonight… at 8:20pm. A CO2 of 2233 is over *5.5x higher* than outdoors, and is a sign of VERY poor ventilation. They should have added more air disinfection at #whitehousecorrespondentsdinner.

From @nalticx. #COVIDisAirborne pic.twitter.com/XCkHRgzMwa

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 1, 2022

White House reporters are so enamored of themselves and their social lives that, as reporter Byron York noted in a recent podcast, their festivities dominated inside-the-beltway attention in a week that saw the U.S. economy shrink.

The dinner was not the only superspreader event. White House Correspondents’ Weekend is filled with lavish events, with the dinner being the highlight.

Politico provided a list of most of the weekend parties and events, which reads like Oscar week in Hollywood. You can see why so many reporters from multiple news outlets came up COVID-positive.

NBCUniversal News Group held a reception Friday afternoon to formally toast the opening of its new Washington bureau, which serves as home base for NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and Noticias Telemundo. CEO Jeff Shell, Chair Cesar Conde and SVP/Washington bureau chief Ken Strickland offered remarks and a toast with colleagues at 400 North Capitol St. to kick off the weekend.

Guests were greeted with a red-carpet entrance and an electric cellist. Sangria infusion cocktails and passed hors d’oeuvres were served along with a global slider station.

Notably, Jonathan Karl was “spotted” at this event.

Politico covered many more shindigs.

There was a fancy dinner at David and Katherine Bradley’s home attended by a couple of dozen people, including “Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Cabinet Secretary Evan Ryan” as well as the reporters covering them, such as “Jeffrey Goldberg, Anne Applebaum, David Frum, Mark Leibovich” and “Judy Woodruff, Jake Tapper, Wolf Blitzer, Jonathan Capehart, Katty Kay, Steve and Jean Case, John Dickerson and Jen Palmieri.”

CNN reporter Abby Phillip co-hosted an event laughably called “Politics & Inclusion,” which featured “more than 50 people of color,” one-percenters such as “Gayle King, Sunny Hostin, Symone Sanders, Ana Navarro, Tiffany Cross, Suzanne Malveaux, Kirsten Allen, Yamiche Alcindor, Don Lemon, Weija Jiang, Tiffany Cross, Alicia Menendez, Yvette Miley, Laura Coates, Jim Acosta, Geoff Bennett, Laura Barrón-López, Amna Nawaz, Eugene Scott, Astead Herndon, Jennifer Molina, Erica Loewe, Jasmine Wright and Averi Harper.”

Hollywood lobbyist group the Motion Picture Association held an “indoor/outdoor” reception at its D.C. headquarters, where guests partied alongside members of Congress and Hollywood stars, and got to view movie memorabilia such as a “glass slipper from the live-action ‘Cinderella.'”

The Creative Artists Agency, which reps some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, hosted a cocktail party at Viceroy, a posh hotel, at which Jonathan Karl, Andrea Mitchell, and Katie Hunt rubbed elbows.

Not to be outdone, Hollywood’s other huge firm, United Talent Agency, held their event at a fancy spot, attracting Howard Fineman, Sophia Bush, Brooke Shields, Bill Nye, Pat Sajak, Molly Jong-Fast, Stephanie Ruhl, Don Lemon, and DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Elle magazine, People Magazine, and the political non-profit Voto Latino hosted receptions in the lead-up to the weekend. And on Saturday itself, there were nine separate events, an official brunch, and multiple pre- and post-White House Correspondents Dinner receptions.

And those are only the superspreader events we know about.

Dr. Lockdown himself, Anthony Fauci, told his fans he would not be attending the White House Correspondents Dinner because he’s an octogenarian and is afraid of COVID, but he was seen at one of the multitudes of receptions.

Fauci missed the WHCA Dinner saying it was a pandemic risk but appeared as a weekend party without a mask and no social distancing.

Fauci has begun advocating for restrictions such as mask-wearing again. pic.twitter.com/PTsRnEazX4

— Apex World News (@apexworldnews) May 3, 2022

Let’s hope the White House reporters testing positive for COVID don’t develop any symptoms. But don’t be surprised if the important White House correspondents use this as an opportunity to scold America for gathering in the backyard and pressure President Biden for more lockdown measures.

You can do your own contact tracing by watching the video (below).