The Al Smith dinner is famously held in October to raise funds for Catholic charities. It’s a Catholic event, named after the first Catholic presidential candidate. Every four years, they invite the presidential candidates to make speeches and the event is extremely politicized, especially as it comes so close to the election. This year, VP Kamala Harris decided to skip. I don’t blame her. Instead of hammering the Church, VP Harris merely begged off because of a “scheduling conflict.” But she sent in a video, featuring Molly Shannon doing her famous Mary Catherine Gallagher character.
I adore Kamala Harris, but I found this a bit cringe. Like, the wrong tone? Maybe the disrespect was the point – she doesn’t take this event seriously, nor should she. Just hours before the Al Smith dinner, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles “agreed to pay $880 million to 1,353 people who say they were sexually abused as children by Catholic clergy.” This was the largest single payout in the years since the Church’s widespread child abuse crime ring was outed. In just the Archdiocese of LA alone, the settlements from lawsuits have crossed the $1.5 billion threshold. Why would a former prosecutor and advocate for women and children cozy up to these people? Why would she toast them?
All of which to say, Donald Trump did go to the event and he cozied up with Cardinal Dolan. Cardinal Dolan blasted VP Harris’s absence from the event, saying: “This year will be imbalanced because, sadly, Kamala Harris isn’t coming. It’s a shame because the nature of the evening is to bring people together. The nature of the evening is civility, patriotism, humor. It’s not a campaign speech. It’s not a campaign stop.” It is a campaign stop, be for real.
A photo that should bring shame to @CardinalDolan & the @USCCB. Dolan yucking it up with a man who has terrorized Haitian immigrants, many of them Catholic. And who has lied about so many other things, including hurricane relief. Shame on Timothy Dolan.https://t.co/w5lGQnwBNJ
— David Darmofal (@david_darmofal) October 18, 2024
The L.A. Archdiocese paying out nearly a billion (with a b) for sexual abuse on the same day Cardinal Dolan yucks it up sitting next to Trump is really the American Catholic heirarchy in a nutshell these days
— Patrick Dillon (@mpdillon) October 18, 2024
Kamala Harris made the right call by skipping tonight’s annual Al Smith dinner.
You don’t joke around with and normalize a deranged madman who wants to annihilate the Constitution. The DC/NYC elites may not get it, but we do—and we stand with her. pic.twitter.com/hhv5blAxnn
— Shea Jordan Smith (@shea_jordan) October 18, 2024
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.