Kamala Harris to skip historic Al Smith Dinner in New York before election, campaign official says

Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend next month’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York City, her campaign has told organizers, opting instead to stump in a battleground state on October 17, less than three weeks before the election.

Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend next month’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York City, her campaign has told organizers, opting instead to stump in a battleground state on October 17, less than three weeks before the election. The historic Catholic fundraiser traditionally features light roasts by the two major-party nominees – aimed at one another and others – in presidential election years. This fall’s gathering is already sold out and poised to welcome an estimated 1,500 guests to a gala ballroom in Midtown Manhattan, Donald Trump stunned attendees in 2016 when he abandoned the collegial banter and launched a series of personal attacks on Hillary Clinton, who in her own remarks had offered the expected round of self-deprecating humor. The affair – black-tie for attendees, white-tie for the headliners – is named after the first major-party Catholic presidential nominee, four-term New York Gov. Al Smith, the Democratic standard-bearer in 1928. Smith lost to Republican Herbert Hoover, and it would be more than three decades before another Catholic candidate, Democrat John F. Kennedy, was nominated by a major party – on his way to the White House in 1960. Eight years ago, with New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan seated nearby, Trump ambushed Clinton, calling her a liar and mocking her over hacked emails. When the audience booed, Trump went further, saying, “I don’t know who they’re angry at, Hillary, you or I. For example, here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics.”