Comedian elicits boos and walk outs at White House reporters' dinner

"I love you as Aunt Lydia in the Handmaid's Tale," she began, to a stony-faced Sanders.

"I actually really like Sarah, I think she's very resourceful," Wolf continued. "Like, she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies. Probably lies."

After one crass joke drew groans in the Washington Hilton ballroom, Wolf, an alumnus of The Daily Show who has a Netflix talk show coming next month, laughed and said: "Yeah, shoulda done more research before you got me to do this".

Among Wolf's more printable one-liners were:

• "It's 2018 and I'm a woman, so you cannot shut me up, unless you have Michael Cohen wire me $130,000. Michael, you can find me on Venmo under my porn-star name: Reince Priebus."
• "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 kinda 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."
• "I'm 32 years old, which is an odd age: 10 years too young to host this event, and 20 years too old for Roy Moore."

Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, was among a handful of Trump supporters who walked out of the room in protest. The following morning, journalists had heated debates on Twitter over Wolf's address and the reaction to it.

Some said low-blow attacks were the "quintessential feature" of Trump and those complaining about Wolf's speech should have been more outraged by the incendiary rally speech the President gave in Michigan on the same night.

Others panned Wolf including CNN's Jeff Zeleny who said it was "an embarrassment in the room and surely to the audience at home".

The New York Times' chief White House reporter Peter Baker and White House correspondent Maggie Haberman were also uncomfortable.

Mike Allen, co-founder of news site Axios, said there would be "big debate whether to end the dinner as we know it, and whether some news organisations announce they will no longer attend".

As he did last year, Trump flew to a Republican-friendly district to rally supporters on the same night as the dinner. In Washington, Michigan, the President assured his audience he'd rather be there than in that other city by that name.

"Is this better than that phony Washington White House Correspondents' Dinner? Is this more fun?" Trump asked, sparking cheers.

"I could be up there tonight, smiling, like I love where they're hitting you, shot after shot. These people, they hate your guts... and you've got to smile."

Unlike last year, when Trump aides also declined to attend, the Trump White House had its contingent, including counsellor to the President Kellyanne Conway and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Former administration officials were on hand, such as onetime press secretary Sean Spicer, ex-chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and ex-political aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman.

At least one Trump antagonist attended, porn star Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti, who tweeted that he and Conway had a "spirited discussion". And there was comedian Kathy Griffin, who last year posted controversial video of herself holding what appeared to be Trump's bloody head; she later apologised.

with AP