ROUND TWO

Fired WH Dinner Comedian Gets Second Chance to Roast Trump

Amber Ruffin said it’s a “good thing” she lost the WHCD gig because “I wasn’t going to show up there and act all the way out.”

The comedian who got abruptly fired by the White House Correspondents’ Association for speaking out against President Donald Trump on The Daily Beast Podcast has lined up her next gig. PEN America announced Monday that comedian Amber Ruffin would host its May 15 gala. Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, the PEN co-interim CEO, said that Ruffin was “truly emblematic of the talented creators who we need on stages and in writers’ rooms during a time of unprecedented censorship in this country.” Ruffin was dropped from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner after calling the Trump administration “a bunch of murderers” on an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast. WHCA President Eugene Daniels said in a statement regarding Ruffin’s firing that he wanted to “ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work.” Ruffin will be stepping into the shoes of her former employer Seth Meyers, who was last year’s PEN gala host. “I lost the gig because I was out here talking s--t,” Ruffin said on her CNN show Have I Got News for You over the weekend. “And I think it’s a good thing that I lost the gig because I was going to show up there and act all the way out.” PEN also announced that Wesleyan University President (and avid Trump critic) Michael Roth will be receiving an award for his “unwavering commitment to defending academic freedom, protecting protest rights, and resisting attempts to silence dissent in higher education.”