Vice President Kamala Harris will reportedly skip the Al Smith charity dinner in New York on Oct. 17.
The Harris campaign informed organizers that the Democratic candidate will break tradition by ditching the annual event, which benefits Catholic Charities. Harris will avoid approximately 1,500 guests and lighthearted roasts in Midtown Manhattan and instead plans to campaign in a battleground state, according to CNN.
Comedian Jim Gaffigan is set to host the 2024 Al Smith Dinner. Gaffigan, who called former President Donald Trump “a liar and a criminal” following his 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC) speech, posted an invitation for the annual event to social media on Sept. 6 before Harris revealed she will not be attending.
“I’m so honored to be MC-ing this year’s Al Smith Memorial Dinner on October 17. Too bad I don’t recognize those two names in the middle of the invitation. Anyone ever heard of them?” Gaffigan wrote as the caption to a photo of an invitation featuring both presidential candidates’ names.
The Trump campaign confirmed the GOP nominee still plans to attend the 2024 Al Smith Dinner, Archdiocese spokesperson Joseph Zwilling told the New York Post.
Trump has a reputation for torching his opponents at the annual event, which was first held in 1945. In 2016, Trump famously blasted failed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — who was also in attendance — as corrupt. Trump took jabs at Clinton’s WikiLeaks scandal and “nasty woman” tagline as cameras captured Clinton’s reactions in real time.
“One of the things I noticed tonight — and I’ve known Hillary for a long time — that this is the first time ever, ever, that Hillary is sitting down and speaking to major corporate leaders and not getting paid for it,” Trump said at the 2016 dinner.
Then President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden delivered virtual remarks at the 2020 Al Smith Dinner, upholding the decades-long tradition despite COVID-19 restrictions. Both candidates used their remarks as a pitch to Catholic voters rather than an opportunity to trade jovial barbs.
Harris will be the first presidential candidate to turn down an invitation to the historic dinner since former Vice President Walter Mondale, former President Ronald Reagan’s unsuccessful Democratic challenger, declined to attend in 1984, according to the New York Post.
In 1996, the Archdiocese of New York refused to invite then-President Bill Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, reportedly over Clinton’s veto of a late-term abortion ban, the outlet noted.
“We are disappointed that she will not be with us, as this is an evening of unity and putting aside political differences in support of a good cause of helping women and children in need regardless of race, creed, or background,” Zwilling told the outlet. “We hope she reconsiders.”
This comes as Harris dodged a proposed second debate against Trump on Fox News by instead proposing a CNN debate on Oct. 23. Trump turned down the vice president’s counteroffer Saturday during a rally in North Carolina, calling her out for “losing badly” in the election.
Of course she’s going to skip the dinner… She is a racist and a godless heathen! She hates white people and Jews so much that she married one