Vice President Kamala Harris Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner Sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York, she will be the first Democratic candidate in 40 years to not attend the annual event that has raised millions of dollars to help New York City's most vulnerable women and children, including special needs children, foster children and low-income single mothers.
President Donald Trump Shown He noted that Bishop Harris' decision was “sad but not surprising” and said he did not intend to embarrass the archdiocese and associated charities alike.
While some critics have suggested Bishop Harris' decision was at the very least a strategic blunder and further confirmation of her hostility toward Catholics, the dinner's host, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, downplayed Harris's decision and suggested this could be history repeating itself.
“I am disappointed,” Cardinal Dolan says said “We looked forward to giving a warm welcome to the vice president,” said a news conference following the event Monday at the Elizabeth Seton Children's Center in Yonkers, a medical center for disabled children that receives funding for the dinner.
“I don't know what grudge she has against our Catholic friends, but I'm sure she harbors a lot of resentment.”
“You know, she talks so much about high ideals and how it's good to come out of division and come together. That's what the Al Smith dinner is about,” the cardinal continued. “We haven't given up yet. We're not used to this. We don't know how to deal with it.”
Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese, Confirmed He told Crooks that Harris had declined to attend the dinner.
Cardinal Dolan suggested that the election may ultimately prove that the decision is a common one for losers.
“Something like this hasn't happened in 40 years, since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation, and remember, he lost in 49 of the 50 states,” Cardinal Dolan said.
Ronald Reagan defeated the Democratic candidate, Walter F. Mondale. 1984 ElectionMondale received only 13 electoral votes from his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. Reagan retained the White House with 525 electoral votes and over 17 million votes.
As reporters and others choked up laughter, Dolan noted that Harris could still change her mind, especially with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and New York Gov. Kathy Hockle pressuring her to attend.
Brian Brown, vice president of university communications and public affairs at St. John's University, Suggested He told Crux that Harris' decision doesn't make sense, especially because it would eliminate the unscripted moments her campaign fears.
“Because she's the Democratic candidate, she has access to the best joke writers on the East and West Coast, and they're happy to write for her. This is a very scripted event,” Brown said. “She seems to rely a lot on the teleprompter, but this is a teleprompter-assisted event. Sure, there will be groans if a joke doesn't work, but she won't be booed off the stage or heckled. It's always a unifying moment like this.”
Brown added, “It was a missed opportunity to show a human side and come together for charity. If I were to advise her, I would tell her to reconsider.”
“Harris's hostility toward Catholics is not limited to her inquisition of Catholic nominees to federal courts.”
Trump Written At Monday's Truth Social, he said, “I am honored to be a part of the sold-out 79th Annual AL SMITH Dinner in New York on October 17th. It will be wonderful to see so many fine people, including Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan. We know that the spirit of Al Smith, the first Catholic candidate of a major political party, and the first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, will be in the room with us that night.”
Trump added, “I'm disappointed but not surprised that Kamala has decided not to attend. I don't know what grudge she has against her Catholic friends, but I'm sure there is something very real. She has never been nice to them, and in fact, Catholics are literally being persecuted by this administration. Any Catholics who vote for Comrade Kamala Harris should get their head checked.”
This is not the first time President Trump has highlighted Harris' apparent antipathy towards Catholics.
“The far-left ideology that Kamala espouses is truly militantly hostile to Americans of faith,” Trump told an audience at the Turning Point Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, in July, adding that Harris has personal issues with Catholics.
“Harris has violently attacked a highly qualified judicial nominee solely for being a member of the Knights of Columbus and suggested her Catholic faith makes her unfit to serve as a federal judge,” Trump said.
Kenneth Craycraft, James J. Gardner Professor of Moral Theology, Mount St. Mary's Seminary and School of Theology Underlined First Things magazine noted that “Harris's hostility toward Catholics is not limited to her inquisition of Catholic candidates for federal courts, but extends to harassment of public organizations whose missions align with Catholic moral theology.”
Mr. Craycraft was introduced by Mr. Harris. legislation She was a co-sponsor of the Equality Act, which aimed to “compel religious individuals and organizations to engage in activities that are in direct violation of their deeply held religious beliefs,” such as “forcing Catholic hospitals to perform sex-reassignment surgeries, to open women's restrooms to men, and to allow girls and women to compete against boys and men in athletic events.”
Similar hostility has grown at the FBI under the Biden-Harris administration in recent years.
The House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government found late last year that the FBI under the current administration has “misused counterterrorism tools to target Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists.”
According to According to CNN, Harris is scheduled to campaign in an unspecified battleground state on October 17.
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