Kamala Harris Snubs Catholics By Skipping Al Smith Dinner

Kamala Harris is skipping the Al Smith dinner, a Catholic Charities fundraising event hosted by the archbishop of New York at which the two presidential candidates traditionally attend (the dinner’s namesake, of course, is the first Catholic presidential nominee). Noah and Michael have hit two of the lessons to take from this: that Harris is contributing to the decay of civil discourse in our campaigns, and that she is afraid to appear in a venue that requires wit, warmth, and the possibility of going off-script.

But it should also not be overlooked that Harris is sending a message by boycotting a high-profile Catholic event, during a season of the campaign when past candidates eagerly pursued the opportunity to break bread with the most prominent Catholic cleric in the nation. The Associated Press suggests that Harris may be motivated by the fact that “Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who plays a prominent role in the dinner, has been highly critical of Democrats, writing a 2018 Wall Street Journal op-ed that carried the headline, ‘The Democrats Abandon Catholics.’” She’s rather making his point, isn’t she? Cardinal Dolan responded that he’d have liked to have Harris there, and noted, “This hasn’t happened in 40 years since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation. And remember, he lost 49 out of 50 states.”

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Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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Kamala Harris is skipping the Al Smith dinner, a Catholic Charities fundraising event hosted by the archbishop of New York at which the two presidential candidates traditionally attend (the dinner’s namesake, of course, is the first Catholic presidential nominee). Noah and Michael have hit two of the lessons to take from this: that Harris is contributing to the decay of civil discourse in our campaigns, and that she is afraid to appear in a venue that requires wit, warmth, and the possibility of going off-script.

But it should also not be overlooked that Harris is sending a message by boycotting a high-profile Catholic event, during a season of the campaign when past candidates eagerly pursued the opportunity to break bread with the most prominent Catholic cleric in the nation. The Associated Press suggests that Harris may be motivated by the fact that “Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who plays a prominent role in the dinner, has been highly critical of Democrats, writing a 2018 Wall Street Journal op-ed that carried the headline, ‘The Democrats Abandon Catholics.’” She’s rather making his point, isn’t she? Cardinal Dolan responded that he’d have liked to have Harris there, and noted, “This hasn’t happened in 40 years since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation. And remember, he lost 49 out of 50 states.”