Amber Ruffin reflected on being axed from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on a new episode of The Late Show.
The comedian was originally slated to perform at the annual event, but was disinvited several weeks out after a White House deputy chief of staff raised concerns about Ruffin’s critical comments about Donald Trump. Host Stephen Colbert asked Ruffin what happened and she replied, “You ain’t never going to believe this.”
“I had said that it would be impossible to make jokes about both sides,” Ruffin explained to Colbert. “Because we are at a point now where one side is snatching people up off the street and putting them on a plane, and the other side is, you know, not doing that. So I just thought it would be impossible to make jokes about both sides. And, also, a little dangerous.”
She acknowledged that she was “really, really sad for like two hours, but then I had a brunch and then I felt great.” She added, “But I thought if they didn’t want me doing that show before I had even opened my mouth, then they would have been really, really sad with what they got. And then, also, after they fired me, I looked back at my Google Doc and was like, ‘This would have been bad.’ They would not have liked it.”
Colbert then invited her to tell any of the jokes she didn’t get to say at the event. “Absolutely not,” she replied. “But I was going to end it with, ‘This administration is trying to get you to hate other people and that’s not your natural state.’ Human beings are made to love one another, blah, blah, blah. And they got you by convincing you that you are filled with hate and you absolutely aren’t. It’s the opposite of what you’re made for and saying that out loud now makes me glad that I got canceled.”
Elsewhere during her appearance, Ruffin recounted past challenging performances and discussed her news-themed CNN comedy show, Have I Got News For You, which she co-hosts with Roy Wood Jr. and Michael Ian Black.
Ruffin was dropped from the White House Correspondents Association back in March after she spoke out about Trump on a podcast, calling the administration “kind of a bunch of murderers.”
WHCA President Eugene Daniels announced the cancelation, writing in a letter to members that “the WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year. At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.”
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