Trump to Attend Al Smith Charity Dinner While Harris Campaigns in Battleground State

Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he could be the only real featured speaker at this 12 months's Al Smith charity dinner in New York, sometimes a good-humored and bipartisan political occasion that Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned she is skipping in favor of battleground state campaigning.

The former president and present Republican presidential nominee confirmed in a Truth Social put up on Monday that he would communicate on the Oct. 17 dinner, calling it “sad, but not surprising” that Harris had opted not to attend.

The gala benefiting Catholic Charities historically has been used to promote collegiality, with presidential candidates from each events showing on the identical evening and buying and selling barbs. But on Saturday, Harris’ marketing campaign mentioned the Democratic nominee wouldn't go to the occasion, breaking with presidential tradition so she may marketing campaign as an alternative in a battleground state lower than three weeks earlier than Election Day.

Harris’ crew needs her to spend as a lot time as attainable in the battleground states that may determine the election fairly than in closely Democratic New York, a marketing campaign official mentioned, talking on the situation of anonymity to talk about marketing campaign plans and confirming a choice first reported by CNN. Her crew informed organizers that she could be prepared to attend as president if she’s elected, the official mentioned.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who performs a distinguished function in the dinner, has been extremely crucial of Democrats, writing a 2018 Wall Street Journal op-ed that carried the headline, “The Democrats Abandon Catholics.” In his Truth Social put up, Trump mentioned Harris “certainly hasn't been very nice” to Catholics, saying that Catholic voters who help her “should have their head examined.”

A Harris marketing campaign official mentioned Catholics for Harris-Walz is working to register folks to vote and get entangled in outreach throughout the nation. Trump's put up stems in half from 2018 questions that then-Sen. Harris posed to a federal judicial nominee about his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a lay Catholic fraternal group. Harris requested the nominee if he agreed with the anti-abortion views of the group’s chief, views that broadly align with the church’s stance.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is known as for the previous New York governor, a Democrat and the primary Roman Catholic to be nominated for president by a significant get together. He was handily defeated by Herbert Hoover in 1928. The dinner raises tens of millions of {dollars} for Catholic charities and has historically proven that these vying to lead the nation can get alongside, or faux to, for one evening.

It's turn into a practice for presidential candidates ever since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appeared collectively in 1960. In 1996, the Archdiocese of New York determined not to invite then-President Bill Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, reportedly as a result of Clinton vetoed a late-term abortion ban.

Trump and Joe Biden, who's Catholic, each spoke on the fundraiser in 2020 when it was moved on-line due to COVID-19. Amid the pandemic and financial woes, there was no joking, and each candidates as an alternative used their speeches to attraction to Catholic voters.

Both Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton attended in 2016. Trump was booed after calling Clinton corrupt and claiming she hated Catholics.

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Meg Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and could be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP