Trump and NYC’s Cardinal Dolan react to Harris turning down renowned Catholic fundraiser dinner

Donald Trump has again been quick off the mark to accuse Kamala Harris of being anti-Catholic after the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee turned down the opportunity to attend this year’s Al Smith Dinner in New York City.

Established in 1946 and formally known as the Alfred Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, the society event is famed for being attended by leading politicians from the main US political parties who come together to poke fun at themselves and each other as they trade usually light-hearted barbs in the speeches they give during the dinner.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s absence will be the first time in 40 years a presidential candidate has declined the invitation to the Catholic fundraiser.

“It’s sad, but not surprising, that Kamala has decided not to attend,” former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, on 23 September. “I don’t know what she has against our Catholic friends, but it must be a lot, because she certainly hasn’t been very nice to them, in fact, Catholics are literally being persecuted by this Administration.”

He added: “Any Catholic that votes for Comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined…”

It’s a theme that the Republican nominee has not been shy of using while campaigning for a 5 November election that looks like being incredibly close and hinging on a handful of swing states. In July, Trump warned US Catholics against voting Democrat, saying “they’re after the Catholics almost as much as they’re after me”.

Given how tight this election is shaping up to be, the former president is clearly after as many votes as he can get. Based on a 2023 Gallup poll, a relatively whopping 22 per cent of the US population identify as Catholic – a more than sizeable and significant voting block.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, speaking during his podcast on 24 September, said that while he couldn’t know Harris’s motives, he felt her decision to not attend the prominent Catholic charity event taking place on 17 October was not a good move politically, as well as a missed opportunity for her.

“I don’t know who’s advising her but she’s not getting good advice,” the cardinal said. “She simply said she’s got to use [the time] for campaigning. This isn’t a campaign event, but it certainly is good visibility, you know, I mean it’s a national audience and everybody covers it; now the news is that she’s not there.

“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,” he added.

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In a post on social media platform X, the cardinal said: “I hope that Vice President Kamala Harris will reconsider joining us for the Al Smith Dinner, a joyful evening in support of women and children in need.”

Hosted by the Archdiocese of New York, the event raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities, and historically has served as an evening for the candidates to put politics aside and come together in a more light-hearted manner for a good cause, notes the Catholic News Agency (CAN).

This year’s dinner certainly would have been an obvious moment for Harris to potentially take the wind out of the sails of Trump’s claims about any anti-Catholic bias she might harbour.

Back in July, speaking at Turning Point Action’s Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump also suggested that US Catholics would face severe restrictions on their civil and religious liberties if Kamala Harris was confirmed as the Democrat nominee and went on to win the election.

Trump made his remarks in July after previous anti-Catholic rhetoric made by Vice-President Harris when she was a senator resurfaced in the US media.

“I don’t know how a Catholic can vote for the Democrats because they’re after the Catholics, almost as much as they’re after me,” Trump said. “I would say I top you, I’m proud to admit, but they’re really after the Catholics.”

He continued: “As everyone here understands, the radical left ideology Kamala supports is really militantly hostile toward Americans of faith.”

Jacob Smith, an assistant professor of political science at Fordham University, says multiple factors likely factored into Harris’s decision not to attend. He notes that Donald Trump in 2016 departed from the light-hearted-joking norms of the dinner to go on the attack against his opponent, Hillary Clinton, something Harris may well have been wary of when deciding not to attend.

There’s also the fact, Smith says, that Harris’s campaign is focused on the swing states and that campaigning in one of them could be viewed “as a better use of time than something [more at] national [level]”.

Brian Browne, an assistant vice president for government relations at St. John’s University, and who has attended multiple Al Smith Dinners, says the decision may also reflect and be a sign of the political times.

“Maybe the real take away from this story is that this real bastion of bipartisanship may have run its course,” Browne says.

“And maybe a unifying event like the Al Smith dinner and other events like it, maybe they’re now a thing of the past because the country is just so polarised and divided, and we exist in this echo chamber that just reflects our own point of view, which is a sobering type of thought.”

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Photo: US Vice President and Democratic nominee for President Kamala Harris speaks at an event hosted by The Economic Club of Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 25 September 2024. During the speech, Harris gave details about her economic platform, including ways to support small businesses and making home ownership more attainable, among other policy proposals. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images.)

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