Morning Glory: Why is Kamala Harris skipping the Al Smith Dinner in New York City?

Vice President Kamala Harris should reverse her decision to skip the biggest Catholic-sponsored fund-raiser for the poor and the vulnerable in the country’s biggest city and not just for her own political benefit. She should do so stat. The event is October 17, so there is plenty of time to change her mind but it should not be a poll-driven choice. It’s the right thing to do.  

Cardinal Francis Spellman founded and hosted the the first Al Smith dinner honoring New York’s legendary political figure, the first ever Catholic nominated to be president by either major party. Smith was nominated by Democrats to become president in 1928 and lost in spectacular fashion to Herbert Hoover. Hoover garnered 444 Electoral College votes by winning 40 states to Smith’s 87 votes and 8 states.

Smith had been elected governor of New York four times before his second presidential run in 1928 which got him the Democratic nomination that year. Smith had been turned back in 1924 in his first run for the nomination and his quest for a second Democratic nomination was blunted by FDR who got the Democratic nod in 1932 and blew out Hoover as Hoover had blown out Smith four years earlier. After leaving politics, Smith oversaw the construction of the Empire State Building, helped lead the early anti-Nazi movement in the states, and overcame his personal enmity for FDR to help with the war effort. This great figure in American political history died in 1944.

Cardinal Spellman inaugurated a dinner honoring Smith in 1946 as a fundraiser to benefit New York’s most vulnerable women and children. Since 1960, the nominees of both major parties have attended the dinner with one exception: Walter Mondale skipped the dinner in 1984. The dinners are jovial, light-hearted affairs and, during the presidential campaigns, both major party candidates gently mock themselves and their opponents. Is it a surprise that Mondale declined to try and entertain opposite President Ronald Reagan? Taking on an incumbent president is a tall order even when there is a Cardinal serving as de facto referee, especially when that president is "the Great Communicator."

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Kamala Harris has said "No." As of this writing she won’t go to the Al Smith dinner. The ever-available "scheduling conflicts" has been cited as her reason. Think on it a bit. Why wouldn’t she go?

It’s a capital "C" Catholic and a small "c" catholic affair. Like all giant fundraisers it begins late and often goes on too long and getting home can be a problem, but the national media turns out in great numbers as does New York’s business and Catholic elite. It’s the Metropolitan Museum Gala minus the Hollywood and Broadway celebrities and a red carpet. The Al Smith dinner is held in midtown and has already sold out. White tails are expected for the men on the dais. 

Every four years the "earned media" for the candidate who can be funny about themselves along with a deft light jab or two at their opponent is immense. And there we have the first of the hurdles preventing Vice President Harris’s from attending. 

There is a major reason and two minor reasons for Harris to skip this ritual. 

First, Kamala Harris doesn’t do "light humor." She doesn’t actually "do" humor at all. Her timing is awful and even with Oprah as her wingman she crashed in last week’s special event. At one point Oprah turned directly toward camera during the seemingly endless closing soliloquy by the Vice President and appeared to be giving a stoney-faced glare at the stage manager in the hope that he or she would do the big wrap motion for the Veep. Kamala drafted Hollywood superstars and the country’s most successful communicator for that event and still stumbled her way into a fiasco. The chances of an even worse performance with Donald Trump two seats down probably seemed too great and accepting the invite just too risky when she made her initial decision to reject the invite.

She may also be leery of an overtly Catholic celebration that would have her seated next to Cardinal Timothy Dolan.  Given Harris’s extreme views on abortion—no limits at all on abortion and opposition to "Born Alive" acts at the state and federal level— Harris has got to be afraid of her hard-left supporters’ objections to appearing in public with a "Prince of the Church," a church that is as pro-life as any organization or faith. The left wing of the Democrats are busy demonizing Israel right now, but the Catholic Church is their second favorite target. 

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"We’re disappointed," Cardinal Dolan commented on Harris’s rebuff. "We’re not used to this. We don’t know how to handle it.

"This hasn’t happened in 40 years, since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation, and remember he lost 49 out of 50 states," the Cardinal added, and noted that both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and New York Governor Kathy Hochul were trying to get the Vice President to change her mind. 

Don’t count on it. Because of reason three: Kamala Harris cannot afford one more face plant. The ice is already breaking under her, forcing her into the MSNBC studios for a taped and almost certainly heavily edited "interview" with Stephanie Ruhle.

That’s a safe place for the Veep but it won’t register on any electoral scoreboard. It is MSNBC for goodness sakes. The last real center-right much less conservative host on that network left long ago. Harris is so insecure about her ability to field questions she’s only going to talk to Oprah and MSNBC hosts. She’s fears live extemporaneous remarks, (and even a teleprompter wouldn’t make her into what she isn’t.)

But she should try. If she can’t show up for a fundraiser in Manhattan, how does she expect people to believe she can deal with the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping much less Russia’s Putin or Iran’s Khamenei?

Change your mind Madame Vice President. Cross this very low hurdle even though you won’t have two moderators to help you over it. 

Hugh Hewitt is host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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