US President Barack Obama takes aim at Hillary Clinton and John Boehner during Correspondents' Dinner
Speech at White House Correspondents' Dinner includes punchlines about Clinton and Boehner
At the gathering he jokingly called "a night when Washington celebrates itself," US President Barack Obama took light-hearted aim on Saturday at a range of political allies and opponents, including the people running to succeed him.
Obama's comedy routine at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner included a sly dig at Hillary Clinton, the current frontrunner to be the Democratic candidate in the 2016 presidential election.
Noting that some Americans are living in a time of uncertainty, Obama said: "For example, I have one friend just a few weeks ago, she was making millions of dollars a year and she's now living out of a van in Iowa."
Clinton travelled around in a van this month in a deliberately low-key trip to the state that holds an early contest in the election primary season.
Obama, now in office for six years, is a polished performer at an event that draws journalists, politicians and celebrities to a cavernous ballroom in the Washington Hilton.
Some of his jokes are stock, including a reference to how much his time as president has visibly aged him.
"I look so old," he said this year, "that John Boehner has already invited Netanyahu to speak at my funeral."
Obama was angered when Boehner, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress last month against a nuclear deal with Iran that the Obama administration was negotiating with other world powers.
The comedian at the dinner, Cecily Strong of NBC show , also fired freely around the audience. Taking a jab at some media coverage of women politicians, she had the audience repeat after her: "I solemnly swear not to talk about Hillary's appearance, because that is not journalism."