CNN —
Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend next month’s Al Smith Benefit Dinner in New York City, her campaign told organizers, opting instead to campaign in battleground states on Oct. 17, less than three weeks before the election.
The historic Catholic fundraiser traditionally sees candidates from both major parties lightly roast each other and the other candidates during a presidential election year. This fall’s event is already sold out and is set to host about 1,500 guests at a gala ballroom in midtown Manhattan.
In 2016, Donald Trump surprised attendees with a colleague-style joke and a string of personal attacks on Hillary Clinton, who predictably displayed self-deprecating humor in her remarks. The event, black-tie for attendees and white-tie for main event, was named for Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic standard-bearer and four-term governor of New York who was the first Catholic major party presidential candidate.
Smith was defeated by Republican Herbert Hoover, and it took more than 30 years for another Catholic candidate, Democrat John F. Kennedy, to win the major party nomination and take office in the White House in 1960.
Eight years ago, with New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan sitting nearby, Trump ambushed Clinton, calling her a liar and mocking her about hacked emails.
As the audience booed, Trump added, “I don’t know who they’re mad at – Hillary, you or me. For example, she’s pretending in public tonight that she doesn’t hate Catholics.”
Dolan, who likely would have sat between the two candidates this year, came under fire in 2017 for his ties to Trump. He also delivered the invocation at Trump’s inauguration. Campaign officials said Harris told dinner hosts she would like to attend the event as president in the future.
In 2020, President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden struck a more solemn tone during a virtual celebration because of the coronavirus pandemic. Both men appealed to Catholic voters but refrained from jokes and sarcasm. Biden was elected the following month as the second Catholic president of the United States.
Neither Harris nor Trump have formally committed to attending this year, but comedian and host Jim Gaffigan said both plan to attend.
Gaffigan promoted the dinner on social media on September 12 after President Trump announced he would not be debating Harris again.
“The next and last time we will see these two children together will be at the 79th Annual Al Smith Memorial Dinner on October 17th,” Gaffigan wrote of Trump and Harris.
That didn’t happen.
Harris announced Saturday that she had accepted a CNN invitation to debate Trump on Oct. 23, less than a week after the dinner, challenging the former president to another major one-on-one showdown less than two weeks before Election Day.
“Vice President Harris looks forward to another opportunity to share the stage with Donald Trump,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement. “We are sure that Donald Trump would have no problem agreeing to the debate.”
Trump, who at times sounded positive about the second debate with Harris, argued on Saturday that it was “too late” for them to face each other again in the presidential election.
“The problem with another debate is that the voting has already started and it’s too late,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.
This story has been updated with additional information.
