On Thursday night, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will attend the annual Al Smith Dinner in New York City.
His Democratic opponents won't do that.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced last month that she was declining an invitation to the event, breaking with tradition. The event raises money for Catholic Charities and, in presidential election years, usually features joint statements from candidates.
Its noble purpose is twofold. One is to support good causes and to remind Americans of their ability to come together even in high-stakes partisan competition.
Harris campaign officials proactively explained her absence by saying Harris would spend time campaigning in battleground states, and then later announced that she would spend Thursday crisscrossing Wisconsin. Announced.
However, her excuse for missing dinner is still insufficient.
Thanks to the modern miracle of air travel, it would be easy for Ms. Harris to spend most of her day hitting the campaign trail and showing up at dinner parties.
And remember. Harris recently took time out of her schedule to appear on the raunchy podcast “Call Her Daddy” and attend a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles.
Choosing to cancel an event is just that: a choice.
And while her campaign may be emphasizing the importance of winning the election and denying Trump the presidency, any reasonable person would know the real reason she's avoiding the dinner party. It shouldn't be difficult to sniff it out.
Ms. Harris is an adversary of devout Christians who neither enjoys spending time with them nor wants to alienate her far-left political base in doing so.
Her record on religious matters speaks for itself.
The vice president isn't just pro-choice, he's used his undercover journalism to expose the barbarity of family planning, and he's weaponized the government against pro-life activists who have provided alternatives to abortion to pregnant women in need. I've been to
Indeed, as California's attorney general, Harris described herself as a “proud” co-sponsor and zealous enforcer of a state law requiring pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to provide free advertising for abortion clinics. did.
After all, super lawyer Kamala Harris can't even understand the purpose behind the First Amendment. The law she was so proud of and used to harass her opponents was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Even after she left California and became a senator, her feelings persisted.
Harris said at a 2019 City Hall event that she could not even “tolerate” pro-life viewpoints before launching into a series of slurs unbecoming of a mature adult, much less commander-in-chief. Ta.
And during her confirmation hearing, she grilled Catholic judicial nominees about their membership in the Knights of Columbus, a fraternal organization dedicated to community service and other charitable causes.
No wonder Harris is hesitant to face a room full of Christians after performing the stunt.
is not it?
To win the White House and wield the formidable power of the executive branch, Kamala Harris has appointed herself as a unifying consensus builder.
In fact, this is how she has explained her failures in every embarrassing position she took during the last presidential campaign.
But Harris' refusal to attend the Al Smith dinner is yet another reminder that this is merely a political branding exercise, not a reflection of a genuine change of heart.
She remains one of the most progressive elected officials in all of America, but also one of the most regressive in her willingness to use state power to punish political opponents.
And that's the most plausible explanation for why she's not suitable for the role she's seeking.
