Grindr’s first-ever foray into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) weekend party circuit drew mixed reviews from attendees and observers, and filled a void of gossip after a would-be assassin shut down the Saturday night dinner before it even started.

After the Washington Hilton turned into a crime scene, Grindr’s lavish party scene moved up the ranks of most-talked-about WHCD-adjacent events.

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Monday night on Jimmy Kimmel, Pod Save America’s gay co-host and former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett shared his impressions of the packed party at a mansion in stylish Georgetown.

“I’m trying to get my boys to the Grindr party, and then we get to the Grindr party, and [South Carolina Republican U.S. Sen.] Lindsay Graham is there,” Lovett told a wide-eyed Kimmel, before adding, “No, he’s not!”

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“Wouldn’t that be nice for him, though?” Kimmel asked.

“Boy, he’s there in his mind,” Lovett agreed.  

While Graham was a no-show, there were plenty of other Republicans in attendance to support Grindr CEO George Arison, a self-described conservative currying favor, like so many tech executives with the Trump administration. Also in attendance was Arison’s chief lobbyist, Joe Hack, a longtime Republican operative charged with loosening restrictions on social media in service of Grindr’s “global gayborhood” mission.

One attendee was Republican Sen. Deb Fischer from Nebraska, who voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, as well as her former chief of staff, Joe Hack.

Fischer is a supporter of social media age-verification laws, as is Grindr. “Keeping underage users [out] is one of the top priorities we have,” gay CEO Arison told Politico. “I’m a dad of six-year-olds. I do not want my children anywhere near Grindr.”

Fischer’s appearance confirmed that the Grindr party wasn’t the libertine bacchanal of a scrappy hook-up app that many guests may have hoped for — a line of 200 to 300 people on the sidewalk outside testified to the buzz preceding the party. Instead, the fete was the gay-themed lobbying effort of a $2.8 billion publicly traded company aimed at Washington’s political class.

And it wasn’t even very gay, one attendee told Queerty, despite the truffle ice cream dessert topped with caviar and the rainbow of gummy bears on offer near an ice sculpture of Grinder’s ubiquitous yellow mask logo.

Straight men and women probably outnumbered the gays, the source said.

“Your audience is still White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend politicos,” they added. “It’s kind of stuffy. This is not a queer party in Brooklyn.”

The event was packed, according to attendees, with high-profile guests including Don Lemon and his former colleague CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, who both posed for pictures with Arison and Hack. Lovett’s boys Tommy Vietor and Jon Favreau of Pod Save America were there, along with Bronwyn Newport of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, former New York Times tech correspondent Taylor Lorenz, and Florida Dem Rep. Jared Moskowitz with Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. It was the same mix of press, pols, and celebrities that populate every WHCD and all the weekend parties in its orbit.

As with other WHCD events in the Trump era, the Hollywood wattage was low at the Grindr party, like the dim red lights glamorizing the rest of the guests in their absence. The ambiance might have resembled the backroom at a bar, where Grindr’s glow is banished to back pockets — except, just hours into this party, Grindr’s bar was dry.

“Marsha P. Johnson threw a brick at the Stonewall riots, and now the gays are running out of alcohol,” Lovett told Kimmel, exasperated.

“It’s like you’re at this thing, and you’re like, ‘Who do I gotta blow to get a Martini?’ There was no one,” he added.

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