WILL THERE BE AN APOLOGY?
by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 30, 2017) — At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, comedian Hasan Minhaj was the “celebrity” invited to entertain the masses as they dined at the Washington Hilton Hotel without the customary appearance by the President of the United States.
In February, Trump had announced that he would not attend the annual event. Instead, Trump held a rally marking the first 100 days of his presidency in Harrisburg, PA, where he said he preferred to be.
On Twitter on Sunday, a remark Minhaj made at the dinner during his “roasting” of Trump and his administration referred to Energy Secretary Rick Perry as “sitting in a room full of plutonium waiting to become Spider-Man.”
Another of Minhaj’s references to Perry was, ““Hey, has anyone seen Rick Perry since he became energy secretary?”
In response to the Fox News tweet containing the comment, The Daily Mail’s White House correspondent, David Martosko, tweeted, “Actually, Sec. Perry was making funeral arrangements for his father. Nice job.”
The Post & Email then checked to verify that Martosko was accurate and found that Perry’s father, Joseph Ray Perry, died on Friday at the age of 92.
The elder Perry was a veteran of World War to and was active in politics as a county commissioner. Both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued statements on Perry’s passing.
Minhaj’s attempted joke and the news of Perry’s father’s death did not go unnoticed as evidenced by some of the comments in his Twitter feed on Sunday, while others expressed their approval of Minhaj’s soliloquy.
One of those cheering Minhaj was the publication Business Insider.
An article from Vox.com published on Saturday summarizing Minhaj’s performance states, without apology, “Everyone from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to Energy Secretary Rick Perry to Ivanka Trump to Sean Spicer was the butt of a joke or two or seven.”
Tweets continued to fill Minhaj’s timeline at the rate of approximately 20 per minute, but as of press time, The Post & Email notes no apology issued by “The Daily Show” comedian to Perry or his family, including on his website and Facebook page.
In addition to Trump administration officials, Minhaj provided comedic caricatures of various mainstream media outlets called out by this publication for their duplicity earlier on Sunday.
Minhaj has additionally called Trump the “White ISIS.”
