By NEW YORK — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump used his remarks at a Catholic charity banquet here on Thursday to skewer prominent Democrats, often in off-color terms.
He mispronounced Vice President Kamala Harris’s name and said she had “no intelligence whatsoever.” He made fun of her husband, Doug Emhoff, for an affair he acknowledged during a previous marriage.
He questioned the manhood of Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), at the same time belittling transgender people. He tendentiously emphasized former president Barack Obama’s middle name of Hussein, as he often does at his rallies, and used profanity to disparage former New York mayor Bill de Blasio.
The only person off limits for Trump was himself.
“Tradition holds that I’m supposed to tell a few self-deprecating jokes this evening,” he said. “So here it goes. … Nope. I’ve got nothing. I’ve got nothing. There’s nothing to say.”
Trump’s remarks at the Al Smith Dinner — a storied white-tie affair benefiting Catholic charities — closed to a mix of applause and boos, in a room that Trump estimated as evenly divided for and against him. One person in the crowd audibly corrected his mispronunciation of Harris’s name.
The dinner has historically featured good-natured ribbing by both parties’ presidential nominees after the third debate and is typically the last time the two presidential candidates appear together before the election.
But this year, Trump has refused another debate against Harris since their first faceoff on Sept. 10. And Harris did not attend, instead campaigning in Wisconsin and appearing at the banquet in a prerecorded video.
The three-minute clip featured comedian Molly Shannon playing her famous “Saturday Night Live” character Mary Katherine Gallagher.
“It’s time for a woman, bro,” Shannon yelled as she offered some advice to Harris: “Don’t lie.” To that, Harris responded, “Especially thy neighbor’s election results” — a reference to Trump’s false claims about the outcome of the 2020 presidential vote.
Shannon also urged Harris not to use the occasion to insult Catholics. Harris said she never would anywhere, adding, “That would be like criticizing Detroit in Detroit” — a swipe at Trump’s speech there last week.
Trump accused Harris of disrespecting Catholics by missing the dinner, receiving some applause. He pointed out that the last time a Republican nominee attended the dinner unopposed was 1984, when Ronald Reagan went on to win 49 states.
Disparaging both President Joe Biden and Harris, Trump said: “We have someone in the White House who can barely talk, barely put together two coherent sentences, who seems to have mental faculties of a child. … But enough about Kamala Harris.”
Trump did find one Democrat to make common cause with: the city’s indicted mayor, Eric Adams. Trump drew a connection between his own criminal prosecutions and Adams’s, suggesting they were both victims of criticizing the Biden administration. “Mayor Adams, good luck with everything,” Trump said.
Federal prosecutors charged Adams in September with bribery and campaign finance violations, accusing him of soliciting luxury perks and hiding foreign political contributions. He pleaded not guilty.
Trump has been charged in four separate criminal indictments, two from a federal special counsel and two from local prosecutors. There is no evidence of White House involvement in any of the cases. He was convicted in May of falsifying business records in a hush money scheme before the 2016 election. The special counsel is appealing a dismissal of charges of mishandling classified documents, with a sentencing scheduled for after the election. Two cases involving his interference in the 2020 election, one federal and one in Atlanta, were also delayed until after the election.
As he walked onto the dais, Trump was greeted with applause and a scattering of boos. Former first lady Melania Trump accompanied him, in a rare public appearance by his side.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York sat between Trump and Schumer.
In 2016, Trump and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended the dinner. He drew boos and heckling when he insulted Clinton, calling her “corrupt” and accusing her of “pretending not to hate Catholics.”
Trump referred to that speech Thursday night, observing: “Man, was the room angry!”
Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, said in a statement Thursday that Trump “struggled to read scripted notes written by his handlers, repeatedly complaining that he couldn’t use a teleprompter. … The rare moments he was off script, he went on long incomprehensible rambles, reminding Americans how unstable he’s become.”
The dinner, first held in 1946, is named for Smith, a four-time governor of New York and the first Catholic to win a major party’s nomination for president.
In 2020, Trump and Biden attended the dinner virtually, which took place as the coronavirus pandemic gripped the nation. But that event had a more serious tone as the candidates made their pitches. Biden, who won that November, is the nation’s second Catholic president.
Trump’s appearance at the Al Smith Dinner was, in some ways, a reminder of his previous life in the New York elite as a real estate developer. (Trump was previously a registered Democrat.) During his speech, Trump spoke with nostalgia about attending the dinner with his father before he became a presidential candidate. He also recalled giving a check to Schumer. “I gave him his first check … and I was very proud of it, I don’t know about lately,” he said to laughs. “He was running and I said he’s a good man.”
Jim Gaffigan, who has portrayed Walz on “Saturday Night Live,” emceed the event.
The event included an eclectic list of attendees: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Cheryl Hines; House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.); Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman; football team owners, past New York athletes and many others. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the civil fraud case against Trump, was also in attendance.