Amber Ruffin is speaking out publicly for the first time since being dropped as this year's White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner's entertainer, mocking the media and saying she would have been "terrifically mean" in her remarks.
The 46-year-old "Have I Got News for You" personality made an appearance on "Late Night" on Monday, just days after the WHCA announced in an email to its members that its annual dinner would no longer be "featuring a comedic performance this year."
Ruffin was poised to headline the buzzy black-tie gala — which President Trump declined to attend throughout his first term in office — on April 26 in Washington.
“At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists,” WHCA President Eugene Daniels said.
"I'm a big fan of Amber Ruffin and I would've loved to hear what she had to say," said "Late Night" host Seth Meyers, before the comic appeared on the NBC show, where she works as a writer.
Ruffin skewered the decision by mocking a joke that Meyers was in the process of making about a burglar robbing and setting fire to a New York City bodega.
"Obviously I'm going to make a punchline and make fun of the guy who robbed the bodega," Meyers said.
"See, the problem is that's divisive. Take it from me: If there's one thing I learned from this weekend, it's you have to be fair to both sides," Ruffin quipped.
"Amber, when people are objectively terrible, we should be able to point it out on television," Meyers replied.
"I thought that too...on Friday," Ruffin said. "But today is Monday and Monday's Amber Ruffin knows that when bad people do bad things, you have to treat them fairly and respectfully."
"When you watch 'The Sound of Music,' you have to root for the singing children and the other people," Ruffin said.
"You mean the Nazis?" Meyers said.
"Calling them that is so one-sided," Ruffin responded.
"We have a free press so that we can be nice to Republicans at fancy dinners. That's what it says in the First Amendment," Ruffin jested.
"The point is that you're sowing the seeds of discord," she told Meyers.
"And I used to be the same way. I thought, when people take away your rights, erase your history and deport your friends, you're supposed to call it out. But I was wrong," Ruffin said.
"Glad to find that out now," she said, "because if they had let me give that speech, oh baby, I would have been so terrifically mean."
