President Joe Biden meets with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar within the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, March 15, 2024 in Washington.

Evan Vucci/AP

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Evan Vucci/AP

President Joe Biden meets with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar within the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, March 15, 2024 in Washington.

Evan Vucci/AP

WASHINGTON — The large information this week, President Joe Biden mentioned at a weekend Washington roast, was that two candidates had clinched their occasion’s nomination for president. But one was too previous, too mentally unfit for the job, he mentioned.

“The other’s me,” Bidden quipped.

The digs in opposition to Republican Donald Trump saved coming from the president on the annual Gridiron Club and Foundation Dinner, as Biden deflected ongoing criticism that his reminiscence is hazy and he seems confused, as an alternative highlighting moments when the 77-year-old Trump has slipped up, too.

“Don’t tell him, he thinks he’s running against Barack Obama, that’s what he said,” mentioned Biden, 81, who additionally quipped that he was staying up well past his bedtime.

It was the primary time Biden has attended the dinner throughout his presidency, and comes because the 2024 election looms and the rematch between Biden and Trump heats up. The annual bacchanalia, now in its 139th yr, traces its historical past to 1885 — that was the yr President Grover Cleveland refused to attend. Every president since has come to no less than one Gridiron.

Biden veered shortly into the somber, although, highlighting what he sees as an actual risk to democracy ought to Trump — who continues to falsely declare the 2020 election was stolen — return to the White House. The speech had echoes of Biden’s marketing campaign remarks, criticizing Trump in addition to too smooth on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We live in an unprecedented moment in democracy,” he mentioned. “An unprecedented moment for history. Democracy and freedom are literally under attack. Putin’s on the march in Europe. My predecessor bows down to him and says to him, ‘do whatever the hell you want.'”

Biden then launched the Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.

“We will not bow down. They will not bow down, and I will not bow down,” he mentioned.

Biden, wearing white-tie apparel as is the customized, introduced his daughter Ashley.

The dinner has a fame as an evening of bipartisan mirth, and was jam-packed with politicians and who’s-who of Washington, together with Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff, no less than eight different Cabinet members, no less than 5 members of Congress, 5 governors and no less than 5 ambassadors. Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who’s on the town for St. Patrick’s Day, additionally attended.

Also talking on the dinner had been Harris, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican.

Biden closed out the dinner, talking additionally concerning the significance of a free press. Although he could not agree with every part the information media prints, he mentioned, he understands the need of journalism and mentioned he was nonetheless working to deliver dwelling journalists Evan Gershovich and Austin Tice, one held in Russia, the opposite who disappeared throughout a reporting journey in Syria.

“Good journalism holds a mirror up to society,” he mentioned. “We need you.”

Biden and Harris had been seated on the head desk together with different administration officers and the overseas leaders, plus Gridiron president Dan Balz of the Washington Post. Seated additionally on the desk had been Balz’s bosses, the Post’s Executive Editor Sally Buzbee and the newspaper’s proprietor, Jeff Bezos.

The dinner was held on the Grand Hyatt. No pictures or TV had been allowed.