The Wednesday edition of The Jim Acosta podcast saw the reunion of two of CNN’s most insufferable former hosts as Don Lemon joined the eponymous host to preview Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner. During their discussion, Lemon attacked “the freedom of speech” crowd for cancelling comedian Amber Ruffin and cited his own experience at being grilled by the dinner's comedian as proof they were being too soft, although such a diatribe required several omissions and half-truths about previous jokes about him and what Ruffin has said about the administration.
As part of their back-and-forth conversation, Lemon asked, “Are you, are you gonna be at the correspondents’ dinner? I am.”
Acosta answered, “I am not, no, I am fortunately going to be out of town. I’ve got another engagement, a previously scheduled engagement, so I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”
That wasn’t good enough for Acosta, because he then suggested that nobody should go, “which, by the way, they should not have a White House Correspondents’ Dinner if you’re inviting Trump administration officials who work for a president who would shut down the press in a heartbeat if he were allowed to do it. You just, I just don’t think it’s right, you know. As much as I love the dinner and love the people there, it’s not right.”
In that case it appears Acosta and Trump supporters finally found something they can agree on. As it was, Lemon turned to Ruffin, “It’s not right. And again for the freedom of speech crowd to cancel a comedian because you don’t—that’s what comedians do: they roast the administration.”
First of all, it was the WHCA itself that cancelled Ruffin after she refused to nominally commit to roasting all sides, not just Trump and Republicans.
Still, Lemon moved on to suggest that if he can take a ribbing, then the White House can too, “I don’t know if you have, I’ve been roasted at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner by the comedian, and, I mean, I even flipped Larry Wilmore off.”
A comparison between Wilmore and Ruffin is needed. The 2016 Wilmore joke Lemon referenced was, “Some of America’s finest black journalists are here tonight. Don Lemon is here too.” After Lemon waved back, Wilmore added, “Hey, Don! How’s it going, alleged journalist Don Lemon.” Lemon told Wilmore he was number one.
Lemon also conveniently omitted that he was grilled at later dinners for sexist comments he made about Nikki Haley and at what age a woman is in “her prime,” although Roy Wood Jr. still found a way to make it about Fox News.
Ruffin, by contrast, labeled the Trump Administration “kind of a bunch of murderers” who are not fit to be called human beings. That’s not roasting the administration; that is just old-fashioned political mudslinging with the possibility of therapeutic laughs for a sympathetic audience. Ruffin also has a history of making stuff up on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, where she is a writer. Acosta and Lemon sure did pick a convenient time to stop obsessing over their concerns about about fake news.
Here is a transcript for the April 23 show:
The Jim Acosta Show
4/23/2025
1 Hour, 17 Minutes, 16 Seconds
DON LEMON: Are you, are you gonna be at the correspondents’ dinner? I am.
JIM ACOSTA: I am not, no, I am fortunately going to be out of town. I’ve got another engagement, a previously scheduled engagement, so I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which, by the way, they should not have a White House Correspondents’ Dinner if you’re inviting Trump administration officials who work for a president who would shut down the press in a heartbeat if he were allowed to do it. You just, I just don’t think it’s right, you know. As much as I love the dinner—
LEMON: It’s not right.
ACOSTA: -- and love the people there, it’s not right.
LEMON: It’s not right. And again for the freedom of speech crowd to cancel a comedian because you don’t—that’s what comedians do: they roast the administration.
ACOSTA: Exactly.
LEMON: I don’t know if you have, I’ve been roasted at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner—
ACOSTA: Totally.
LEMON: -- by the comedian—
ACOSTA: Me too.
LEMON: And, I mean, I even flipped Larry Wilmore off—
ACOSTA: You got in so much trouble, Jeff was so pissed at you when you did that.
LEMON: No, he wasn’t mad, I don’t know, he said, I think he thought it was okay.
