Comedian Michelle Wolf doesn’t regret anything she said during the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday, despite widespread backlash.
“I mean, I’m honestly — I wouldn’t change a single word that I said,” Wolf said in an interview with NPR that is set to air Tuesday. “I’m very happy with what I said, and I’m glad I stuck to my guns.”
Wolf, a correspondent for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” has received pushback for her performance, prompting the White House Correspondents’ Association president Margaret Talev to say the performance wasn’t “in the spirit” of the event.
President Trump, who did not attend the dinner, also weighed in and said, “The so-called comedian really ‘bombed.’”
Included in Wolf’s controversial performance were jabs at White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, who Wolf argued “burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye.” Wolf also called Sanders an “Uncle Tom” for white women, and compared her to a character in the dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale.
But in the interview with NPR, Wolf argued that her comments on Sanders were not sexist because she herself is a woman.
“I think one of the things about being a comic is getting to actually, as a woman, I have access to hit women in a way that men might not be able to hit them with jokes. I don’t mean physically hit. But you know, because I’m a woman, I can say things about women because I know what it’s like to be a woman, if that makes any sense,” Wolf said.
Republicans weren’t the only ones Wolf targeted in her performance. Wolf also took aim at various Democrats and members of the media.
Wolf also noted former President Barack Obama laughed at jokes made at him at the event while he was president, and added it’s important to be able to laugh at oneself.
“There’s plenty where you could look back and the camera was on Obama when people were making pretty aggressive jokes about Obama, and he was laughing,” Wolf said. “And I think having the ability to laugh at yourself is important.”
