Vice President Kamala Harris plans to skip the historic 79th Al Smith dinner despite it being a tradition for presidential candidates to attend.
The Harris campaign claimed the vice president would be too busy campaigning in battleground states to attend the dinner, the same event former President Donald Trump roasted twice-failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2016.
During the Catholic fundraiser, which usually gathers more than 1,000 people, Trump "stunned attendees," per CNN, when he attacked Clinton and other Democrats. However, the 45th president drew massive applause from the audience.
“I wasn’t really sure if Hillary was going to be here tonight because, I guess, you didn’t send her invitation by email. Or maybe you did, and she just found out about it through the wonder of WikiLeaks,” Trump said at the 2016 dinner. He also mocked plagiarism involving the Clintons.
NEW: Kamala Harris announces she will skip the Al Smith Dinner in New York, the same event where Trump roasted Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer in 2016.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 21, 2024
The Catholic fundraiser is expected to have 1500 guests in attendance.
As reported by CNN, Trump "stunned attendees" in… pic.twitter.com/KzYZ8wZJZL
Clinton fired back, saying, “translating from the original Russian…Donald really is as healthy as a horse — you know, the one Vladimir Putin rides around on.”
The event is known to be a place where Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are invited as headliners and then roast each other. Some believe this is part of why Harris won’t be in attendance—to avoid a run-in with Trump and duck a potential confrontation.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who plays a vital role at the event, has previously been critical of Democrats, writing in a 2018 Wall Street Journal op-ed that “Democrats abandon Catholics.”
The tradition began during the 1960 election cycle between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. However, in 1996, the Archdiocese of New York did not invite then-President Bill Clinton and his GOP challenger, Bob Dole, because, according to reports, Clinton vetoed a late-term abortion ban.
This year’s dinner, held on Oct. 17 in New York City, is a foundation dinner benefiting Catholic Charities.