White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Ukraine hits Russian Retailer, India Protests

**Ayesha Rascoe** (0:02)
Last night in Washington, at a rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner.

**Charles Maynes** (0:06)
What do we do here?

**Scott Simon** (0:07)
Is this supposed to be fun?

**Ayesha Rascoe** (0:09)
Am I supposed to be serious?

**Scott Simon** (0:10)
Am I supposed to be a comedian?

**Ayesha Rascoe** (0:12)
I'm Ayesha Rascoe.

**Scott Simon** (0:14)
And I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News. Yesterday, the White House said the president's remarks would be, quote, unifying yet vicious.

**Ayesha Rascoe** (0:24)
Well, just how unifying and how vicious we'll have a recap.

**Scott Simon** (0:30)
Also, Ukrainian drones have hit Russian oil refineries and airfields, and now a new target, Russia's version of Amazon.

**Ayesha Rascoe** (0:37)
Also, a young people's protest movement in India, which began with frustration over entrance exams. What are their demands?

**Scott Simon** (0:46)
So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. In April, after the White House Correspondents' Dinner came to an abrupt end, President Trump characterized his aborted speech as, quote, a doozy.

**Ayesha Rascoe** (1:08)
That dinner was interrupted when a gunman fired shots in the hotel lobby, and the president and other attendees had to be evacuated.

**Scott Simon** (1:17)
The dinner was rescheduled for last night, and President Trump made jokes about bulletproof vests and said he was taking a softer tone with the media than he'd planned in his original speech. Oh, that was going to be a doozy.

**Ayesha Rascoe** (1:32)
I was so psyched.

**Scott Simon** (1:33)
I was going to rip people. And I don't know, just something changed, really for the better, but I just wouldn't want to do that.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:43)
But we'll do a little ripping, if you don't mind.

**Scott Simon** (1:45)
Ripping did the president get? NPR's media correspondent, David Falkenfleck, joins us. David, thanks so much for being with us.

**David Falkenflick** (1:52)
Pleasure.

**Scott Simon** (1:55)
Let's just say there's often a rift, seemingly, between the White House and the media. Did they have a civil dinner?

**David Falkenflick** (2:03)
Well, I would say it was civil, but it was pretty surreal.

**Scott Simon** (2:08)
You heard the president's speech. What do you take from it?

**David Falkenflick** (2:11)
Well, first, let me say, there were folks from NPR at the dinner, and I don't speak for NPR on this. I'm talking to you, Scott, as your media critic this morning. I would say, from a Trump standpoint, he was there at the lectern for over an hour, giving a fair amount of one-liners, going after his critics, the people who are his political opponents, Democrats, potential replacements for the next presidential race, people he sees as enemies, people in the press. Any time the guy's in front of a microphone, he's gonna indulge in these instincts.
From my perspective, somebody who thinks about comedy, he sounded a lot like Don Rickles channeled by Christopher Walken. But these were jokes by and large that weren't landing. I mean, people were sitting stone-faced in front of it. There wasn't a lot of mirth and laughter that night, even though it's supposed to be a night where, yes, he pokes fun at everybody else, but a president, any president, goes after himself as well in the spirit of acknowledging the press' job is to hold him accountable.

**Scott Simon** (3:11)
And we should remind ourselves that it wasn't just an occasion for comedy, or maybe we should phrase that attempts at comedy, because journalism awards were given at the dinner, often for tough coverage of the president and the administration. How did that go?

**David Falkenflick** (3:27)
Well, look, you know, it was, as I said, surreal. You saw The Wall Street Journal being honored for stories breaking revelations of Trump's contribution to a birthday book for the disgraced late financier, Jeffrey Epstein, two decades ago.
You know, that was the occasion for Trump to personally sue The Wall Street Journal in a multi-billion dollar suit. Over that story, he kind of grimaced and smirked and nonetheless shook the hands of the reporters. Tyler Pager of The New York Times was honored for his reporting. The Department of Justice was just forced to withdraw subpoena to him and to colleagues for their testimony in front of a grand jury over a story that outraged the White House about security concerns within the government over the new Air Force One aircraft that was gifted to the president by the Qatari government. You know, this was an extraordinary juxtaposition of these incredible clash between these two institutions, The New York Times, just having prevailed in court and the president's administration.

**Scott Simon** (4:29)
David, how would you characterize relations between Trump and the media?