Harris to skip Al Smith dinner appearance
September 23, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend the Al Smith dinner in New York on October 17, her campaign has announcement.
The annual dinner, a fundraiser for Catholic Charities, has become a regular feature of presidential campaigns since 1960, with the rival candidates delivering light-hearted roasts of their opponents. It has also been an opportunity for the candidates to court the Catholic vote.
Former President Trump has confirmed that he plans to attend the event, as he did in 2016. In 2020 the dinner was a “virtual” event because of the Covid lockdown, but both Trump and Joe Biden spoke.
The New York archdiocese has invited both Democratic and Republican presidential nominees to speak at each year’s dinner, except in 1996, when neither candidate was invited.
Vice President Harris becomes the first presidential candidate to decline an invitation since 1984, when then-Vice President Walter Mondale chose not to appear alongside President Ronald Reagan.
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