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President Donald Trump slammed his opponent “Lyin’ Kamala” Harris for refusing to attend the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner on Thursday, making her the first presidential candidate to skip the event in four decades.
The light-hearted bipartisan event has served as a charity dinner attended by both major party presidential nominees since 1960, adding humorous vivacity to the campaign trail while raising money for Catholic charities supporting children in need, Fox News reported.
Although Trump attended the charity dinner on Thursday, Harris skipped the event and shared a pre-recorded video message for the audience instead.
As Fox News reported, Harris is the only major presidential nominee since Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984 to duck the event, who ultimately lost all but his home state of Minnesota during the ensuing election.
“Just found out that Lyin’ Kamala is doing a video message tonight instead of being at the Al Smith Dinner. She shouldn’t be allowed to do a video message,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday evening.
The 45th president further wrote, “Kamala should be there like almost every other Presidential Candidate in their History, except Walter Mondale, who lost 49-1. They didn’t give me the option of a video message, nor would I have done it. This is very disrespectful to everyone involved. She should be here, or lose the Catholic Vote!”
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York and host of the dinner, said that he was “upset” that Harris decided to skip the charity dinner, saying earlier this week in his podcast “Conversation with Cardinal Dolan” how this year would be “imbalanced” because she was not attending, Fox News reported.
“It’s a shame because the nature of the evening is to bring people together,” Dolan explained. “The nature of the evening is civility, patriotism, humor. It’s not a campaign speech. It’s not a campaign stop.”
Dolan added, “We’re upset that she didn’t come because we missed an evening to access something sorely needed now that even she articulates rather eloquently: that we’ve got to turn the page on bitterness.”
This year’s dinner highlighted Trump’s in-person speech, along with Harris’ video, rather than the typical jabs candidates humorously throw at each other.
As Fox News outlined, the Al Smith dinner began as a charity function in 1946. Named after the first Catholic presidential candidate Gov. Al Smith, D-N.Y., who ran for president in 1928 against Herbert Hoover, the dinner has raked in millions of dollars to support both women and children in-need.
Trump also attended the dinner during his previous two presidential bids, although 2020 had a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
