The Alfred P. Smith Foundation dinner in New York City is a rite of passage for all presidential aspirants going back through the decades. Both candidates show up and generally – or this had been the pattern – telling self-deprecating jokes to demonstrate a critical character trait – the ability to also laugh at oneself. Through all the seriousness and bashing in a campaign it is important that someone maintain the ability to let their guard down to demonstrate a higher plane. It is made better by being surrounded by priests for a foundation that goes beyond politics to the ultimate higher plane. This year should have been the same and yet, like so much else, couldn’t have been more different. Kamala Harris didn’t show up, while Donald Trump might now wish that he hadn’t, either.
Trump bombed. He was his normal self – which is fine and expected in any other context. But taking to the podium in front of people who are divided at least 50-50 and then attacking everyone opposed to him left the audience stone-faced, perhaps embarrassed, seemingly uncomfortable – at least if reports are to be believed. We will get to Harris’s mistake below. But take in the reports on Trump’s speech. (Video below report)
As per usual, Trump simply couldn’t poke fun at himself, and – according to Rawstory, said: “Nope, I’ve got nothing – I’ve got nothing. I guess I just do not see the point in taking shots at myself when other people have been shooting at me for a long time.” And yet that is also partly the point? Show that one can take those constant shots (Not the violent type and thank God for that) while also taking a few of their own? He then swore during the white-tie dinner, again – in front of priests, saying ““I don’t give a s— if this is comedy or not.” Well, it’s not comedy, for sure – and attendees might certainly give a sh*t.
He went on the attack of someone who isn’t running, nor there to respond, President Joe Biden, and through him, Harris. Joe My God reports that Trump said, ““We have someone in the White House who can barely talk, barely put together two coherent sentences, who seems to have mental faculties of a child. It’s a person that has nothing going, no intelligence whatsoever. But enough about Kamala Harris.”
It left the audience in dead silence, at least uncomfortable according to reports. Perhaps it was also because of “jokes” that were just plain weird and out of place. From Mediaite:
There’s a group called White Dudes for Harris. Have you seen this? White Dudes For Harris. Anybody know it? Are some of here, White Dudes for Harris? Doesn’t sound like it. But I’m not worried about them at all because their wives and their wives’ lovers are all voting for me. Every one of those people are voting for me.
If the point hasn’t been made it won’t. Trump also went after “Barack Hussein Obama,” used a transphobic slur with Sen. Chuck Schumer, and instead of joking about himself, knocked Harris’s intelligence while mispronouncing her name.
So, that’s that. Kamala Harris should have gone. She should have gone and provided the juxtaposition – her ability to laugh at herself, while also keeping the audience laughing. True, she can absolutely say that she wouldn’t dignify the proceeding. Yet she could have been dignified anyway. The highlights would have been great.
Do not take the criticism of Kamala Harris too far. Trump made the biggest mistakes. But it also takes supreme confidence to stand up at such a formal setting and actually make the audience comfortable by reserving the “shots” for oneself. The video presentation she sent by definition couldn’t succeed because it hints at an inability to put herself in the extreme pressure cooker. Less a mistake, it was a lost opportunity. She didn’t need to dignify the context but she absolutely could’ve dignified herself – more.
Sadly, this election’s context and consequences left tradition wanting. The country could have used a night to breathe in some normality. It didn’t happen, some might say it just couldn’t happen. Not now, not during dinner with a mixed audience, and definitely not this dinner with a mixed audience. Harris lost an opportunity, perhaps Trump is well beyond such a place. Video:
"I don't give a shhhhhhit" pic.twitter.com/f3JyLTmSDr
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 18, 2024
Harris Video:
Wow, this video of Kamala and Molly Shannon made for the Al Smith Dinner is gold! pic.twitter.com/VReTdjrE2T
— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) October 18, 2024
Trump roasts Schumer – who was at least there to laugh at himself. Harris might be right to not dignify the comments but when someone is sitting right there, at least that person can laugh at jokes on himself:
Trump to Schumer: "Considering how woke your party has become, if Kamala loses you have a chance to become the first woman president." pic.twitter.com/dvhjlJexwf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 18, 2024
I am not sure why this report says the audience is laughing at Trump’s performance given the many other reports that they were silent. Judge for yourself:
Trump is basically just doing his rally speech but the Al Smith dinner audience is laughing at his lines like it's supposed to be comedy pic.twitter.com/w0P29v0pQC
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 18, 2024
I guess this is now the norm and to be expected. No question, Trump utterly failed at the entire point, the joke is supposed to be about himself. Harris failed in not showing up, though the point about not dignifying the comments may be enough to consider it a victory in and of itself.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak
“Trump is basically just doing his rally speech but the Al Smith dinner audience is laughing at his lines like it’s supposed to be comedy”
Just what I was going to write ^^^. How stupid can he be? Yes, it’s an open-ended question… 🙂
Did they even laugh? I heard/read the whole thing made trump look like a bigger mess than he already does.
Sorry Jason, but Kamala put herself in the crosshairs on Faux. I don’t think she has anything to prove at this point. You’ve been nitpicking her all week.
I agree. A catholic dinner where the pope has already the goddamn nerve to compare her to Trump? Good to see the institution that stood with Hitler, helped nazis escape after the war, has a pedophile priests problem they keep throwing money at, and has a checkered history with evil, is having a ‘dinner’. It isn’t ‘normal’ by any means. Kamala…you do YOU and phuck the boys club. Having the rapist, nazi traitor there with the power brokers is sickening. Why didn’t they get John Gacey to crack jokes when he was alive? He killed less people than Trump and was into boys just like the church. Hypocrisy…the true religion of America!
Wow…”Hypocrisy…the true religion of America!”
I got chills while reading this. It says is just five words what I’ve felt for over 70yrs
Thanks so much
It is absolutely true that I have been somewhat critical all week. I wouldn’t call it nitpicking, more just trying to maintain some sort of clarity. I cannot let myself succomb to simply backing everything she does and all “good news” – I will lose the ability to see much of anything at a critical point.
Having said that, I could easily be wrong. But I’m going to try to keep a neutral eye while also maintaining the strongest hopes. But I”m not helping anyone by standing around cheering.
It is not an easy call and I think that I’m right about this one. I don’t know if I’m right, but that’s where it stands.
It isn’t an easy call Jason but V.P. Harris has a team behind her weighing all the pros and cons including those we probably don’t even think about. I figure they know more about it than we do. Hell, for all we know she has a panel of off-the-street folks for actual yea/nay percentages. lol
True. But that doesn’t make the team right, nor does it mean that there was a good answer either way. Indeed, that’s probably it – the dynamic is such that anything “traditional” is frought with peril right now.
It probably doesn’t matter at all. Things are set, it will come down to turnout and then probably Congress.
Look would u show up to a Cardinal dinner after the archdiocese just settled $800 million dollars for sexual assaulting over 157 survivors, yesterday leaving the total to over $1.5 billion dollars? It’s the ped perv party. Wise move Harris!!
Kamala Harris didn’t lose a single vote by not showing up. OTOH, she probably picked up a cartload of votes out campaigning.
First things first. She doesn’t need to be among politicians talking to each other. She needs to be out talking to voters.
The opp Harris missed was to dunk on Trump to his face in front of a live audience he didn’t hand pick.
Look…after 40,000 plus lies, destroying the lives of 5500 children leaving 1400 without THEIR GODDAMN FAMILY SIX Years later, RAPING GIRLS AGE 13, standing with evil dictators, trying to overthrow our democracy of 248 years, grifting every chance he gets, STEALING AND SELLING NATIONAL DEFENSE SECRETS TO OUR ENEMIES, and pissing on the graves of military veterans…PHUCK HIM AND ALL YOU PHUCKING CHILD KILLING NAZIS VOTING FOR HIM!!!! SHE OWES HIM OR THIS EVIL COUNTRY NOTHING! NOTHING! NOTHING. In all honesty this country deserves every evil that comes our way. The children don’t but we dont care if they’re murdered at school. We vote the murderers back into power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go ahead and LIE to make the case we are a moral country.
WE ARE NOT!
It sounds like fun and all that until you think about it a bit. She can either sit and take it (weak) or act like he does when others are speaking (rude and uncouth). There was no possible way to come out of that shit show smelling like a rose.
It’s my understanding the Cardinal pissed off a lot of people by choosing to fete Trump at the dinner. Yes, it’s a tradition but traditions like that don’t hold when you know at least one of the participants will show up with a “f**k the norms” attitude and not put the charities first by adhering to the style/norms the event was known for. However Trump got rid of Roe and would do worse in a second term which is EXACTLY what the Cardinal wanted and wants.
Personally if I were Harris and the host literally considered me a lesser being (Harris is of course a woman and we know the Catholic Church as an institution considers women secondary to men) who he prays will burn in hell (for her positions on abortion and other reproductive rights) I wouldn’t show up and kiss his fooking ring. Hell, he might not even have allowed that for fear she’d get cooties on it.
IF it was certain Trump’s time would be spent saying stuff largely in keeping with the traditions of the event then I think Harris would have accepted the invitation. But we all knew we would see exactly what we saw from Trump so I agree with her decision to be out on the trail meeting and wooing average voters.
There is no requirement nor any reason for V.P. Harris to kiss that dirty ring. She is not papist. That ritual is for papists so they can bow and scrape. It is actually highly inappropriate for non-papists to do that. I’m pretty sure the pedo harborers don’t stop anyone stupid enough to do it when they don’t have to but it certainly is not a faux pas to refuse to do anything more than a hand shake or inclining one’s head. When V.P. Harris becomes President Harris, it would be even more inappropriate behavior-even to the pope. Both of them would be greeting as heads of state. Bowing over one HoS’s ring would be very bad optics quite frankly.
When Trump Dumps, he has somehow forgotten how awful he smells, maybe by now, his own nostrils are so abused he cannot discern the fact his diaper has to be changed, along with an overdue junk cleanup …
I’m wondering if this last bash of released, “Trump does STUPID”, evidence, notice; this is evidence, not HE-said She said, but rather NAMES/DATES/FACTS, already fact checked as info for legal entry in any one of his next court naps … As much as he would rather be the man he adores, his composure is falling short, almost by the minute, now, not hours and days, he has actually announced in court, he just does NOT CARE …
The exact opposite of what President Biden is doing and saying now days …
I’m finding it very difficult to believe that Trump really has any honest support by anyone, in his tiny little world of MAKE_BELIEVE … Back in the day, when we still had paper lunch bags, trained experts on the football team could pop those hummers so loud, the cheerleader’s click would ALL jump and swear at the boso during their lunch period, hardly enough time to eat and tell little secrets as well …
Trump is so low now, always late to his active rants, etc.,. coming through the doors clapping like a trained seal, then pumping his fist like a sign to his rabid moron’s to fight the Dems where and when they can …
I think one of those popped bags somewhere near that door where he enters like the King he is NOT, could be just the trigger for complete collapse …
You think V.P. Harris made a mistake by not attending but I disagree. Had she been there she would have had to either sit quietly while trump all but physically assaulted her (and maybe that too-the man is mentally unstable) or get down in the gutter and do what he would have done when she was speaking-interrupt, get belligerent, etc. There was no way trump was going to be civil, self-deprecating, or even a little bit amusing. There was a 100% chance he was going to be a horse’s patoot. And so he was. Having V.P. Harris there would have made the whole thing more of a sh*t show than it already was.
She and/or her team made the correct call on that one. Pity trump’s team didn’t do the same-they would have save him a lot of embarrassment.
The picture of this evil POS standing next to the cardinal with his fist raised makes me want to kick BOTH of their sorry asses. Why not invite the DEVIL himself there preacher? This is why we are here. The cardinal, Schumer, and the rest gave legitimacy to this phucking nazi. And we wonder how tens of millions end up as deluded child killing nazi supporters? THIS THIS IS HOW!