Pressure is building on Vice President Kamala Harris to attend the annual Al Smith charity dinner in New York, a political tradition for presidential candidates that they shun at their peril.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan said that Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul have been trying to convince her to attend the white-tie gala hosted by the Archdiocese of New York, while political commentators decried the brush-off.
“For the love of God, Madam Vice President, reverse your decision and come to the Archdiocese of New York’s Al Smith dinner,” Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, said Thursday in her Wall Street Journal column.
“Why would she snub the famous, ancestral, bipartisan dinner, which has taken place every third Thursday in October since 1945 (virtually in 2020), that [historian] Theodore White lauded as an irreplaceable ritual of every presidential year?” Ms. Noonan asked.
No presidential candidate has turned down an invitation to speak at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in 40 years, when Democratic nominee Walter Mondale took a pass.
Everyone knows what happened next. A month later, he lost the 1984 presidential race in a historic landslide to President Ronald Reagan.
“We’re not used to this. We don’t know how to handle it,” Cardinal Dolan said at a Monday press briefing. “This hasn’t happened in 40 years since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation, and remember, he lost 49 out of 50 states. I don’t want to say there’s a direct connection there.”
An unnamed Harris campaign staffer informed some news outlets that Ms. Harris would be campaigning in a swing state on Oct. 17, the date of the fundraiser for Catholic charities, “to maximize her time in the battlegrounds this close to the election,” according to The Hill.
Former President Donald Trump, who plans to attend the sold-out dinner, promptly took a swipe at Ms. Harris, posting on Truth Social, “I don’t know what she has against our Catholic friends, but it must be a lot.”
Cardinal Dolan reacts to Kamala Harris snubbing the Al Smith Dinner, a Catholic charity event historically attended by presidential candidates from both parties to help disadvantaged children.
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) September 24, 2024
“It hasn’t happened in 40 years since Walter Mondale—and he lost 49 states.” pic.twitter.com/gX9QrZbH4Y
The dinner has long been celebrated as a light-hearted, convivial break from the campaign grind. Candidates traditionally give humorous, good-natured speeches at the event, poking fun at themselves and their opponents.
“It’s a missed opportunity to demonstrate a human side and come together for a charitable cause, and you know, if I was advising her, I would tell her to reconsider this,” Brian Browne, St. John’s University assistant vice president, told the Catholic publication Crux.
J.D. Long Garcia, senior editor of the Jesuit magazine America, also urged her to attend, saying that in “this short and unpredictable election, many Catholics are truly torn about their vote and are watching everything.”
Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt said the problem may be that Ms. Harris “doesn’t do ‘light humor,’” arguing that her comedic timing is “awful.”
He noted that she stumbled in recent appearances with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle and celebrity interviewer Oprah Winfrey, both Harris fans.
“Kamala drafted Hollywood superstars and the country’s most successful communicator for that event and still stumbled her way into a fiasco,” Mr. Hewitt said in a Fox News op-ed. “The chances of an even worse performance with Donald Trump two seats down probably seemed too great, and accepting the invite just too risky when she made her initial decision to reject the invite.”
Even so, he urged her to attend, saying she should “cross this very low hurdle.”
Speculation has it that Ms. Harris would feel uncomfortable at the Catholic dinner, given her stance in favor of no-limits abortion, but other pro-choice Democrats have made successful appearances at the event, including former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
One prominent Catholic who thinks Ms. Harris made the right call is William Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
“Her persona is the problem,” he said in an op-ed in the American Spectator. “The event is known for allowing the candidates to ‘roast’ each other. This is right up Trump’s alley — he is lightning fast and loves to roast his foes on a regular basis. But for Harris, this kind of setting would be a disaster.”
The 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, named for the former New York governor and first Catholic to be nominated for president by a major party, will be held at the New York Hilton Midtown. The emcee is comedian Jim Gaffigan.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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