dinner later tonight as i have been doing for many years. it s an important cause and we re bringing journalism students this year as our guests. stand by for president trump s 100 day rally. it s about to get underway. also starting soon the annual white house correspondence association dinner. the president as you know is skipping it launching new attacks on the news media instead. we re going to update you right after this. i love kiwis. i ve always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. super poligrip free. it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. try super poligrip free.
going back to his anti-establishment roots and everyone in washington, what he would say, are the purveyors of fake news, the people of the swamp are wallowing in their dinner jackets at this big washington establishment dinner. the message is very obvious and clear. he s doing i think he s doing us a great favor. we ve all been to that dinner. he ain t funny. his comedic timing ain t is not exactly the best. something that frankly hillary clinton would have been great at. isn t this a missed opportunity, isn t it a missed opportunity because most presidents get an opportunity to say the longest time self-deprecating, humorous. people complain about the chumminess of the washington press and president. i think the benefit of this happening is that the focus goes back on journalism. this dinner raises funds for journalism scholarships. cnn will have their tables filled with guests who are journalism students punt the focus back on on journalism.
may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime. chris: that s pretty strong language coming from somebody who has seen the threats you have seen. greater threat than the soviet union and radical islam? those threats brought us together. when you look at the strikes from 9/11 and the threat from the soviet union. this brought us together. when i talk about the media, when the media is referred to as the enemy of the american people, both myself and the president and others swore an oath to the constitution of the united states. and the first amendment of that constitution is freedom of the press. so the reason i expressed concern is when the president of the united states says the press is the enemy of the american people, to dee me that undermines a bit of the constitution. i think it s a tremendous threat to our democracy. but there is a second part of that clip you should run where i told the journalism students
told the journalism students that they also have an obligation. so for the media to be seen as more truthful, the journalists have to check their facts and leave your bias at the door. so yes, i do think anybody that says the media is the enemy of the american people is not right. i have been raked over the coals by the media, but i ll tell you i think it s the single most important thing for this democracy. chris: i want to ask you about your job as chancellor of u.t., and you laid out a path for change that you called nine quantum leaps. you want to start a mandatory course for every one of those quarter million students on american leadership. what do you want to accomplish? the fundamentals of leadership are ethics. how do you insure you are you have to be moral, legal and ethical. in all of our decisions we must be moral, legal and ethical.
he would not be visiting the association dinner this year. please wish everybody well and have a great evening. joining us now, jeff mason, he is the president of the white house correspondents association. he is also white house correspondent. it is my understanding that you had no clue that the boycotts of your big events was coming. we did not have a warning, no. it came out of the blue on saturday nights. and that is fine. it is the president s decision whether or not he wants to attend. he is invited to come. and if he continues just decides to stick with that decision, than it does not have an impact on our dinner. as long as we are still having that dinner, we will be celebrating the first amendment on april 29th. we will be talking about the good work that our members have done over the last year. and we will be celebrating the next generation of our administration by giving scholarships out to terrific journalism students. jon: but you would prefer to have the president