2024-10-18 10:27:10
At the Al Smith Memorial Dinner in New York, former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took the stage as the featured speaker, delivering a series of humorous jabs aimed at Democrats, including her rival Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The event, a white-tie affair benefiting Catholic Charities, has a long-standing tradition of presidential candidates attending and exchanging light-hearted barbs ahead of the election. The 2024 US presidential election is scheduled for November 5.
The Al Smith Memorial Dinner in New York was held on October 17. Trump’s rival Harris did not show up for the event, but sent across a pre-recorded message.
As Trump took the podium, Chuck Schumer, who was seated nearby, became one of the targets of Trump’s sharp humour.
“Chuck Schumer is here looking very glum — but look on the bright side, Chuck, considering how woke your party has become, if Kamala loses, you still have a chance to become the first woman president,” Trump said to loud laughter from the audience.
Trump also took the opportunity to criticise Kamala Harris for not attending the dinner, which has historically seen participation from both Democratic and Republican candidates.
Harris skipped the event so that she could focus on campaigning in key battleground states.
“My opponent feels like she does not have to be here, which is deeply disrespectful to the event and, in particular, to our great Catholic community. The last Democrat not to attend this important event was Walter Mondale, and it did not go very well for him,” Trump said, referencing Mondale’s landslide loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1984 election.
Kamala Harris, however, didn’t stay silent.
She responded to Trump’s remarks with a jab of her own, taking to X (formerly Twitter).
“Trump, who is struggling to read his handler-written jokes, complains about not being allowed to use a teleprompter,” she posted.
“Trump complains about the audience not laughing at his attempts at jokes: ‘Does anybody understand that? Do you understand that? Nobody got that one’,” Kamala Harris wrote in a subsequent post.
The Al Smith dinner, named after former New York governor Al Smith, the first Roman Catholic to run for president, has traditionally served as a platform for good-natured political banter.
Attendees and social media users alike found Trump’s remarks entertaining.
As the event concluded, reactions on social media poured in, with many users taking to X to share their thoughts.
“I mean, he [Trump] isn’t wrong. He could say he is a woman now and be just as qualified as Kamala,” one user joked.
“Something tells me Chuck Schumer already spends a lot of time hanging out in girls’ locker rooms,” another user chimed in.
“Poor Chuck, he had to sit there and take it. He’s probably got indigestion now. Cracked me up!” wrote another.
However, some social media users were critical of Harris’s decision to skip the event, with one user posting, “Classless Kamala broke a 40-year streak of Christian traditionâæ pathetic.”
Despite Harris’s absence, the event was filled with laughter and humour, as the Al Smith Dinner once again lived up to its reputation as a light-hearted, bipartisan political gathering.
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