WHCA president declares press is not 'the opposition' while taking aim at Trump

MSNBC host and White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) president Eugene Daniels declared that the press was not the opposition nor the enemy of the people, taking aim at President Donald Trump during a speech at the association's annual dinner on Saturday. 

"We care deeply about accuracy and take seriously the heavy responsibility of being stewards of the public’s trust," Daniels said at the event. "What we are not is the opposition. What we are not is the enemy of the people. And what we are not is the enemy of the state."

Saturday’s event marked another year without Trump, who opted to skip the dinner throughout his first term as well. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also declined to attend.

Daniels opened the event by saying it had been an "extremely difficult" year for the press. "We've been tested, attacked, but every single day our members get up, they run to the White House, plane, train, automobile with one mission, holding the powerful accountable," he said. 

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Daniels also took time to defend the Associated Press, which has clashed with the Trump administration on multiple occasions. The White House barred the AP from certain events over its refusal to use "Gulf of America" terminology after Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

"To our friends at the Associated Press, you have taken on more than you should have to, but what you have held firm to from the very beginning is that your fight is not about you," Daniels said, according to Mediaite. 

"It’s about the ability of every single person in this room to make free and independent editorial decisions without government interference. To Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP, on behalf of everyone in this room, all of the journalists yet to come. I want to thank you for never wavering or compromising. This board, this association, are forever in your debt," he added.

Axios journalist Alex Thompson called out the press for failing to properly report on former President Joe Biden’s declining health after accepting the Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage at the dinner. 

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"Being truth tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story," Thompson said.

He continued, "President Biden's decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception." 

Thompson said the media’s failure to investigate and report more aggressively on Biden’s condition contributed to growing public distrust of journalism.  

He concluded by saying, "We should have done better." 

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Fox News' Madison Colombo contributed to this report.