Comedian taunts White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckerbee-Sanders

Comedian sparks outrage with taunts at Donald Trump’s press secretary at the White House Correspondents’ dinner | WATCH

Donald Trump has joined a chorus of outrage over a comedian who took the roasting of his chief spokeswoman and others in his team too far.

Michelle Wolf’s off-colour routine mocked the US President, as expected, but it was her barbs at White House press secretary Sarah Huckerbee-Sanders, who was sitting just feet away, that left guests in stony silence, with one storming out in protest.

The assocation’s president said she regretted that Wolf’s routine may end up defining an evening that was designed to rally around journalism, while Ms Huckerbee-Sanders’ predecessor Sean Spicer slammed it as a “disgrace.”

Mr Trump joined in, tweeting: “Everyone is talking about the fact that the White House Correspondents Dinner was a very big, boring bust ... the so-called comedian really “bombed”.

The president had declined to attend the journalism awards dinner for the second consecutive year. He instead held a campaign rally in Michigan.

While Washington, Michigan, was a big success, Washington, D.C., just didn’t work. Everyone is talking about the fact that the White House Correspondents Dinner was a very big, boring bust...the so-called comedian really “bombed.” @greggutfeld should host next year! @PeteHegseth

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 29, 2018

Sarah Huckabee Sanders listens to Michelle Wolf in silence. Picture: Getty Images.

Wolf is known as a contributor on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Trevor Noah.

But guests weren’t impressed with her routine this time. Ed Henry, chief national correspondent for Fox News and a former association president, and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, called on the association to apologise to Sanders. Brzezinski has been the subject of personal attacks by Trump. Henry also called on Wolf to apologise. Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, tweeted that he and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, director of strategic communications at the White House, walked out of the dinner.

“Enough of elites mocking all of us,” he said.

Tonight’s #WHCD was a disgrace

— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) April 29, 2018

Mr Spicer demanded answers from the WHCA, tweeting: “If it had not been one of your own you would be demanding answers but you sweep under the rug.”

Any comments from the leadership of #WHCD2018 ?? @margarettalev @jonkarl @OKnox If it had not been one of your own you would be demanding answers but you sweep under the rug https://t.co/e1PO2fldSf

— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) April 29, 2018

Margaret Talev, the association’s president and Bloomberg News’ senior White House correspondent, said she didn’t want a dinner celebrating the constitutional right to free speech to be overshadowed by the ensuing uproar over Wolf’s jokes.

“My only regret is that to some extent those 15 minutes are now defining four hours of what was a really wonderful unifying night and I don’t want the cause of unity to be undercut,” Ms Talev told on CNN’s Reliable Sources.

Ms Talev said she spoke to Ms Sanders after Wolf’s routine and “I told her that I knew that this was a big decision whether or not to attend the dinner, whether to sit at the head table and that I really appreciated her being there.

“I thought it sent an important message about the role of government and the press and being able to communicate with one another and work together,” Ms Talev added.

No Trump administration officials attended the dinner last year after Mr Trump decided to skip it.

This year however, many were in the audience Saturday night, including adviser Kellyanne Conway, herself a target of Wolf, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Ms Sanders sat at the head table with association board members.

Ms Talev said that, by tradition, the association does not review the comedian’s monologue before it is delivered.

“We don’t censor it. We don’t even see it,” she said.

Wolf tweeted “thank you” to Spicer.

As he did last year, Mr Trump flew to a Republican-friendly district to rally supporters in an attempt to counter the dinner. He assured the audience in Washington Township, Michigan, a state he won in 2016, that he’d rather be there than at “that phony Washington White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”

Wolf’s act, which also included abortion jokes, had some in the audience laughing. Others sat in stony silence.

Among Wolf’s less off-colour one-liners: ”Just a reminder to everyone, I’m here to make jokes, I have no agenda, I’m not trying to get anything accomplished, so everyone that’s here from Congress you should feel right at home ... It is kinds crazy that the Trump campaign was in contact with Russia when the Hillary campaign wasn’t even in contact with Michigan ... He wants to give teachers guns, and I support that because then they can sell them for things they need, like supplies.”

Wolf closed by saying, “Flint still doesn’t have clean water,” a reference to the Michigan city where lead-tainted tap water flowed into homes for 18 months before a disaster was declared in 2015.

The state recently decided to end distribution of free bottled water in Flint, saying the tap water was now as “good or better” than in many communities.