Comedian Jim Gaffigan roasted Vice President Kamala Harris for skipping the traditional Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner in New York City on Thursday.
Gaffigan — the Master of Ceremonies at the 79th annual dinner — took turns taking jabs at Harris and former President Donald Trump at the white-tie Catholic charity event. Traditionally, presidential candidates appear together at the event, taking turns lightly poking fun at each other ahead of the election.
Harris recently announced that she would not be there — after her team said last month that she would skip it — and revealed that she would send a pre-recorded message instead.
Kamala gets roasted for being the first presidential nominee since 1984 to skip the Al Smith charity dinner:
“She did find time to appear on The View, Howard Stern, Colbert — and the longtime staple of campaigning, the Call Her Daddy podcast…” pic.twitter.com/gVBxTcv6ou
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 18, 2024
“You know, this event has been referred to as the Catholic Met Gala,” Gaffigan told the room. “Twenty-two percent of Americans identify as Catholics. Catholics will be a key demographic in every battleground state. I’m sorry, why is Vice President Harris not here?”
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“I mean, consider this: this is a room full of Catholics and Jews in New York City, this is a lay-up for the Democratic nominee,” he added. “I mean, in her defense, she did find time to appear on ‘The View,’ Howard Stern, Colbert — and the longtime staple of campaigning, the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast…”
Gaffigan then made fun of the claims we’ve heard from Harris and her supporters who have labeled Trump a “threat to democracy.”
“This has been an interesting presidential campaign. The Democrats have been telling us Trump’s reelection is a threat to democracy. In fact, they were so concerned of this threat, they staged a coup, ousted their democratically elected incumbent, and installed Kamala Harris,” Gaffigan said. “In other words, all her dreams have come true.”
Later, he cracked a joke around what he said the media’s called the “secret Trump voter.”
“The media has begun discussing the phenomena of ‘secret Trump voters’ — people who publicly say they’d never vote for Trump, but then when they go in the voting booth, they do. It’s a small group,” Gaffigan said. “They’re called the ‘Biden family.'”
In September, Harris’ campaign told CNN that she would rather be on the campaign trail than attend the event, becoming the first presidential candidate to skip it in years, as previously reported. In 2020, both Trump and then-Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden did not attend because of the COVID pandemic, but they both made video statements for the event.
