NEW YORK — Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for skipping out on Thursday’s Al Smith Dinner — saying she was sending “one of those Zooms” instead.
“I am a little nervous, obviously still disappointed because the vice president isn’t coming,” Dolan told the Good Newsroom website about the annual charity event, known for featuring the major parties’ presidential nominees every four years.
“I blew it yesterday on my [radio] show in announcing that she is sending one of those Zooms or something.”
Republican nominee Donald Trump will attend in person alongside his wife Melania, but Harris, the Democratic choice, announced late last month she would not attend.
The veep will instead appear via a pre-recorded video message, which the archdiocese only recently got the heads-up about.
Dolan, 74, has repeatedly stressed that the dinner, first held in 1946, is meant to bring politicians together in a spirit of bipartisan unity.
“I really thought and I tried to press this, Jim, with their people, this is literally up her alley,” Dolan told comedian Jim Gaffigan in The Good Newsroom interview. “I mean, here you got somebody talking about ‘Oh, can’t we bring amity and unity?’
“It’s not a campaign speech. It’s not a stump speech,” he added. “Now, some candidates might use it for that, but that’s not the nature or purpose of the evening, either. You know, Ronald Reagan’s line [was] the Al Smith dinner is the rare time where politicians act like statesmen.
“The Al Smith dinner is not red or blue. It’s red, white and blue. It’s all about patriotism, it’s all about the country and it’s all about humor,” the cardinal concluded.
The dinner is expected to raise $10 million for charities and other organizations supporting vulnerable women and children.
The event is named in honor of former New York Gov. Al Smith, who in 1928 became the first Roman Catholic to be nominated for president by a major party.
