There’s a massive new scandal that has political reporters buzzing. Vice President Kamala Harris won’t attend the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.

Seriously, there are dozens of articles framing this as a misstep by the Harris campaign. Every four years, the two presidential candidates show up for a fancy dinner in New York City where the men are expected to wear tuxedos and the women full-length dresses. The candidates are supposed to offer humorous remarks, telling good-natured jokes about themself and their opponent. All while the event, for which the cheap tickets are $5,000 each, raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities.

Harris’s campaign said she would instead be campaigning in a swing state that day. Cue the media outrage that Harris won’t show up to an elite dinner reporters likes to cover.

Conservative outlets insisted this proves Harris is scared of unscripted moments, even though it’s literally a highly scripted event! Also, that’s a weird claim given her dominance in the presidential debate — and the fact that she’s not the one refusing to engage in another debate.

For instance, the National Review

The last candidate to decline an invitation was Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984 at a time when he and especially his New York Catholic running mate, Geraldine Ferraro, clashed with the archbishop of New York and other Catholic leaders over abortion. However, it’s too simple to just say Harris is the first candidate not to appear in 40 years.

In both 1996 and 2004, the Archdiocese of New York decided to break precedent and not invite the presidential candidates. In 1996, the vice presidential candidates were instead invited after President Bill Clinton had vetoed an abortion bill. But in 2004, the tickets were left out as Catholic John Kerry sought the presidency. And then the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the dinner in 2020. They held a virtual event, but the videos submitted by the candidates didn’t follow the humorous format, which would’ve been hard given the lack of a live audience. So with three of the last seven presidential cycles not including the traditional Al Smith Dinner interaction between the two presidential candidates, Harris isn’t breaking a tradition that’s as established as the Archdiocese and media coverage now suggest.

There’s another Al Smith Dinner that also deviated from custom, but it wasn’t because of the Archdiocese or a pandemic. In 2016, Donald Trump violated the norms and expectations of the event.

Trump started off with a few jokes, which he called “corny stuff.” But then Trump steered off course and offered personal and mean-spirited attacks generally viewed as inappropriate for the occasion. He called Clinton deceptive, corrupt, and “a nasty woman.” Trump’s remarks were considered so out of place that the audience actually booed him on multiple occasions. But he didn’t take the hint. Instead, he turned into another attack as he declared about the booing: “I don’t know who they’re angry at, Hillary, you or I. For example, here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics.” He then made an attack on Clinton’s aid work in Haiti, which sparked more booing.

Hillary Clinton and Cardinal Timothy Dolan listen as Donald Trump speaks during the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City on Oct. 20, 2016. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)

After the 2016 Al Smith Dinner, numerous reports noted the awkwardness in the room during and after Trump’s remarks, as well as the unusual fact that neither candidate said anything nice about their opponent as is expected at the event. Alfred E. Smith V, a board member on the foundation honoring his namesake ancestor, afterward said it got “a little uncomfortable,” especially as Trump attacked Clinton on religious grounds. Smith added about Trump: “He crossed the line and took it a little too far.” Smith also said it impacted the feel in the room, with people laughing less for the rest of the night.

That was the last time the Al Smith Dinner in its traditional format was held. Why would Harris agree to participate with someone who has already proven himself unwilling to adhere to the rules for the night? An event based on encouraging civility doesn’t work when someone refuses to engage in civility. With Trump’s speeches at his rallies even less scripted and less disciplined than in his previous two campaigns, why would there be any expectation that he would behave this time? After all, in his statement this week criticizing Harris for planning to skip, Trump recounted his time in 2016 with “Crooked Hillary Clinton” and falsely claimed “the reviews of my remarks were TREMENDOUS.”

Even if Trump hadn’t violated the norms in 2016, on this side of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, there’s a serious question about whether Trump should be treated as a normal candidate. Is it actually wise or appropriate for Harris to show up, say nice things about Trump, and join in a spectacle humanizing him as a normal politician? It was one thing for Obama and Romney. Sure, they had significant and important policy disagreements, but they also both respected democratic norms, were willing to admit when they lost, understood elections have consequences, and pledged to win or lose peacefully. But to pretend that Trump is such a candidate is to ignore the last eight years. The media — and the Archdiocese of New York — might largely be engaged in a process of “sanewashing” Trump, but that doesn’t mean Harris should participate.

Another reason Harris might have bailed is the fact the event is a fundraiser for Catholic charities chosen by the Archdiocese of New York. The list includes groups whose sole purpose is anti-abortion work. At a time when Harris is campaigning to protect medical access as maternal mortality rates have risen in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, it’s hard to see her campaign wanting to prop up this event. In the waning weeks of the presidential campaign, spending time for a speech in a non-swing state that raises money for another group likely doesn’t make much sense to the campaign.

Trump’s behavior last time — as well as his behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, and his recent attacks on Haitian immigrants (that has sparked vitriol against a local Catholic charity) — should raise the question to the Archdiocese of New York: Why invite him? After all, twice in the last 28 years they didn’t invite the presidential candidates. Bill Clinton and John Kerry were unacceptable to even host, but Trump is fine?

Unlike Clinton and Kerry, Trump has weaponized religion. Not only did he attack Clinton on faith grounds during the 2016 dinner, he’s repeatedly attacked the Catholic faith of President Joe Biden, the second Catholic president and the president in the modern era who has attended worship services more than any other. And after Harris announced she would skip the dinner, Trump immediately leveled religion-based attacks on her. He called her “anti-Catholic” and falsely claimed “Catholics are literally being persecuted by this Administration.” He added, “Any Catholic that votes for Comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined.” This fits a pattern of attacking the faith of people who oppose him politically, including his attacks on the faith of Muslims and Jews. Trump even used the National Prayer Breakfast to attack the religiosity of Mitt Romney and Nancy Pelosi.

Trump is demonstrating today that if he’d had been around in 1928, he would’ve likely joined the attacks on the Catholic faith of the Democratic presidential hopeful. Fêting Trump at a dinner named for Al Smith would be a funny punchline if it wasn’t actually happening.

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor