Comedian Amber Ruffin is speaking out, just a couple of days after the White House Correspondents’ Association decided to cancel her planned performance at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which is set to be held next month.
Ruffin had been booked for the gig in February, with WHCA president Eugene Daniels saying at the time that “when I began to think about what entertainer would be a perfect fit for the dinner this year, Amber was immediately at the top of my list.”
On Saturday, he emailed WHCA members to say that her appearance was off, and that “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.”
Ruffin appeared on NBC‘s Late Night with Seth Meyers Monday, where she participated in a bit that tackled the cancelation head on. Meyers began with a joke about a burglary in a bodega, before Ruffin sat down next to him to jokingly take issue with his quips about the burglar.
“See, Seth. The problem is that’s divisive. Take it from me. If there’s one thing I learned from this weekend, it’s, you have to be fair to both sides,” Ruffin quipped.
“Amber, when people are objectively terrible, we should be able to point it out on television,” Meyers added.
“I thought that too… on Friday. But today is Monday, and Monday’s Amber Ruffin knows that when bad people do bad things, you have to treat them fairly and respectfully. When you watch The Sound of Music, you have to root for the singing children and the other people,” she replied.
“You mean the Nazis,” Meyers replied. “Calling them that is so one-sided,” Ruffin quipped.
“We have a free press so that we can be nice to Republicans at fancy dinners. That’s what it says in the First Amendment,” she continued in the bit. “But the point is that you’re sowing the seeds of discord. And I used to be the same way. I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history and deport your friends. You’re supposed to call it out. But I was wrong. Glad to find that out now, because if they had let me give that speech, oh baby, I would have been so terrifically mean.”
You can watch the segment below.