Eugene Daniels and Donald Trump.

The president of the White House Correspondents’ Association gave a vehement speech in defense of the organisation and free press during Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ dinner.

The annual event was snubbed by President Trump yet again this year.

“We journalists are a lot of things. We are competitive and pushy. We are impatient and sometimes we think we know everything, but we’re also human,” WHCA President Eugene Daniels said on stage at the event at the Washington Hilton hotel. “We miss our families and significant life moments in service to this job.”

He went on to tell the crowd that “we care deeply about accuracy and take seriously the heavy responsibility of being stewards of the public’s trust.”

“What we are not is the opposition, what we are not is the enemy of the people and what we are not is the enemy of the state,” Daniels added as the crowd erupted in applause.

His comments were apparently aimed at Trump, who has

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