2016, Janney made an appearance at a White House Press Briefing in place of actual Press Secretary Josh Earnest to raise awareness of opioid use disorder. Janney made humorous references to her time on The West Wing, including a joke about "Josh [Earnest] getting a root canal", a reference to an episode in which Josh Lyman conducts a press briefing while C.J. recovers from an emergency root canal. In 2017, Janney reprised her role as C.J. for the pre-taped introduction of Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Appearing to brief the press, C.J. answers several bad-faith questions from reporters before going on a monologue, arguing that this kind of questioning detracts from real journalism and that these kinds of reporters should not be listened to. In 2021, C.J. Cregg became a "trending topic" on Twitter after the first press conference of Joe Biden's press secretary, Jen Psaki. Psaki was compared favorably to C.J. online for her dry wit, as well as her straightforward answers, Allison Janney commenting that she was "flattered" by the comparison. Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times criticized the comparison, commenting that although she loved C.J.'s character, the comparisons were indicative of the outgoing press secretary's constant battles with the press being over; not Psaki's objective merit. In 2022, Teen Vogue highlighted the comparison between C.J. and Psaki as a negative; the article criticized Psaki's style as glib and attention seeking, attitudes expected instead from television characters like C.J. References Works cited Articles and tweets Awards Books The West Wing characters Fictional characters from Ohio Fictional Democrats (United States) Fictional White House Chiefs of Staff Television characters introduced in 1999 Fictional White House Press Secretaries Articles containing video clips