The closest Al Smith attendees came to Vice President Kamala Harris was a cardboard cut-out of the Democratic nominee, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
Harris was the first presidential candidate in decades to not attend the Catholic charity event, instead opting to submit a pre-recorded video, as first reported by the DCNF. The event featured cardboard cut-outs of Former President Donald Trump, Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Harris in the reception area, and a Harris cut-out was also spotted in the women’s bathroom, two female attendees told the DCNF.
“I was surprised to enter the ladies room and be greeted by a life-size cardboard Kamala,” an attendee told the DCNF.
Life-size cut-out of Vice President Kamala Harris in women’s restroom at Oct. 17 Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner (Photo obtained by DCNF)
The Archdiocese of New York neither confirmed nor denied the report, with archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling telling the DCNF, “I was not in the women’s room, but to the best of my knowledge there were no cut-outs of any sort in there.”
Former President Donald Trump slammed Harris’ absence in his speech Thursday — the first instance of a presidential candidate skipping the event since Democratic nominee Walter Mondale in 1984. Mondale went on to lose to former President Ronald Reagan in a landslide, only winning his home state of Minnesota.
“It’s been a long tradition for both Democrat and Republican candidates for President of the United States to attend this dinner,” Trump said. “My opponent feels like she does not have to be here. Which is deeply, deeply disrespectful to the event, and in particular to our great Catholic community.”
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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