Kamala Harris to skip Al Smith’s traditional dinner, first time since 1984 a presidential candidate has skipped a charity event

This is not a joke

Vice President Kamala Harris has decided to dodge former President Trump and skip this year’s Al Smith Dinner — a major election-year event attended by generations of candidates — becoming the first presidential candidate to duck out since presidential nominee Walter Mondale failed in 1984.

While Trump has agreed to attend the 79th Archdiocese of New York dinner on Oct. 17, Harris’ camp says she will instead campaign in key swing states in the final stretch before Election Day, her campaign told The Post.

It has been a tradition for both presidential candidates to attend the dinner – during which the contenders take turns giving speeches insulting each other – since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appeared together in 1960.

Archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling told the Post they learned Harris would not be there Saturday.

“We are disappointed that she is not with us because this is a night of unity and putting aside political differences to support a good cause that is helping women and children in need, regardless of race, creed or background,” he said.

“We hope she will reconsider her decision.”

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has since contacted the archdiocese and confirmed that he would attend, according to Zwilling.

Harris’ team has told organizers she would be willing to attend the dinner as president of the United States, if elected.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, first held in 1946, raises millions of dollars each year to support those in need in the Big Apple.

Although these events take place every year, presidential candidates regularly appear during election years, where they typically exchange light-hearted banter in the name of charity.

Harris will be the first to decline an invitation since Jimmy Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, declined in 1984, when he was running a losing campaign against President Ronald Reagan, Zwilling said.

In 1996, the Archdiocese of New York decided not to invite then-President Bill Clinton and his Republican opponent, Bob Dole, apparently because Clinton vetoed a ban on late-term abortion, according to the Associated Press.

Trump made a high-profile appearance at the 2016 dinner, where he was booed when audience members felt he had crossed the line when he called his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton corrupt and said she hated Catholics.

Trump and President Biden both delivered pre-recorded video addresses at the first-ever virtual Al Smith Dinner in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but few jokes were made as they made last-minute pitches to Catholic voters.

In his speech, Trump lambasted Democrats as “anti-Catholic” and emphasized his position on the key issue of abortion for Catholics, calling himself a “defender of the sacred right to life.”

Biden, a practicing Catholic, took a lighter approach at the time and spoke of how his faith “helped him through the darkness” at times in his life.

The dinner is named for the former New York governor, who was the first Roman Catholic to be nominated for president by a major party in 1928. This year’s event will be held at the New York Hilton Midtown.