Trump cracks jokes at charity dinner, while Harris does video skit

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As we reported earlier, Harris was not at the charity dinner on Thursday, deciding instead to campaign in the swing state of Wisconsin.

Instead, she sent in a pre-recorded skit in which she her pokes fun at Donald Trump, alongside Saturday Night Live alumnus Molly Shannon.

You can watch a clip of her performance below.

Image source, Getty Images

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell privately criticised Donald Trump as “stupid”, “ill-tempered”, and “a despicable human being” after the 2020 election, according to excerpts from a new McConnell biography reported by the Associated Press (AP).

The Price of Power by Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief of AP, is set to be released later this month and draws on personal oral histories made available to him by McConnell.

Despite the reported remarks, the Kentucky lawmaker, 82, has endorsed Trump for re-election.

There is no love lost between the two, who shared an uneasy relationship when the latter was in office.

McConnell harshly criticised Trump’s denial of the 2020 election results and they did not speak after the US Capitol riot in January 2021. Trump went on to repeatedly savage McConnell online and his Taiwanese-born wife, Elaine Chao, who accused Trump of directing racist taunts at her.

But they appeared to mend ties this year, with McConnell – who is stepping down from his leadership post next month – saying he would support the Republican nominee. They shook hands in June at a meeting in the US Capitol.

In his speech at the annual Al Smith charity dinner in New York, Trump mocked Harris for failing to attend. Watch the moment here.

Fox News’s “Special Report with Bret Baier” weekday programme typically accrues between two and four million viewers on average.

But last evening’s edition of the show, which featured an exclusive sit-down with Kamala Harris, drew an estimated 7.1 million viewers, according to data from the Nielsen media analytics company.

Such figures would make the heated 25-minute interview one of the biggest audiences the vice-president has reached since she launched her campaign in July.

More than 67 million viewers are estimated to have watched Harris debate Donald Trump on ABC in September, while Nielsen reported that 5.7 million Americans tuned in for her recent appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes programme.

Wednesday’s interview also marked the first time Harris has ever appeared on Fox News, which is largely shunned nowadays by Democratic lawmakers but remains the top-rated cable news network ahead of CNN and MSNBC.

Trump and Harris charity dinner speeches a break from traditionpublished at 04:10 British Summer Time 18 October

04:10 BST 18 October

Rowan Bridge
North America correspondent, Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

The
tradition of the dinner is you poke fun at yourself and your opponent. In 2012 then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney joked about “dining with rich people” – a reference to his
wealth, and his opponent Barack Obama joked about having slept through their first presidential
debate – one he was seen to have performed poorly in.

At tonight’s dinner, Donald Trump made a few
jokes at his own expense and those in the audience, with lines like: “I guess I just don’t see
the point of taking shots at myself when other people have been shooting at me
for a hell of a long time”. But there were repeated barbs aimed at Kamala
Harris for not appearing herself and only sending in a video.

Harris in her video made a few light jabs at Trump, saying
at one point she wouldn’t criticise Catholics – “I would
never do that. That would be like criticising Detroit in Detroit” –
referring to an event last week in which Trump said the US would “end up”
like Detroit if Harris wins the election.

The
fact that Harris skipped the event – the first time a Democrat has done
so in 40 years – shows just how important her team felt campaigning in
Wisconsin instead was. It’s one of the states which will likely decide this
election, and polls there remain tight.

Sitting next to the podium, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer has vacillated from expressions of joy and good humour to those of anger and annoyance as Trump’s speech veers into political differences.

Trump jokes at one point that he is looking “very glum” and they exchange laughter. He also acknowledges that half of the people in the room “hate his guts”.

Reminiscing about the 2016 edition of the Al Smith Memorial Dinner, which he attended alongside then-rival Hillary Clinton, he “went overboard” and “was terrible”.

“Even my own son was angry at me,” he says. “It was too much but I did it anyway.”

Veering between campaign mode and comic mode, Trump makes jokes about various Democrats, both present and absent in the room, before adding that he did not want to make jokes tonight because “there’s nothing funny about what is happening to our country”, but says he was urged to honour the tradition.

As he wraps up his speech, he reiterates his belief that God saved him in the face of two attempted assassinations this year.

Trump says he is honoured to be at the dinner in New York and “wouldn’t have missed it for anything”, stating that Kamala Harris’s decision to skip the event was “deeply disrespectful”.

“Maybe she’s gone hunting with her running mate,” he jokes in reference to Tim Walz, who has made hunting part of his campaign activities.

He adds: “But if you really wanted Vice-President Harris to accept your invitation, I guess you should have told her the funds were going to bail out the looters and rioters in Minneapolis and she would’ve been here guaranteed” – making a reference to the unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd in 2020.

Trump goes on to say he “didn’t like Biden very much but now I like him” because they are no longer opponents, adding that the sitting president “was a much better candidate than her”.

“When we win, I’ll like her, but right now I don’t like her,” he adds.

“Catholics, you better vote for me. You better remember I’m here and she’s not.”

Image source, AFP

Donald Trump has taken the stage at the Al Smith dinner, starting by saying: “It is a true pleasure to be with you this evening… and these days, it’s really a pleasure anywhere in New York without a subpoena for my appearance.”

He acknowledges the dignitaries around him, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, seated next to the podium.

“Chuck Schumer is here looking very glum – but look on the bright side, Chuck, considering how woke your party has become, if Kamala loses, you still have a chance to become the first woman president.”

He also cracks a joke at the expense of Mayor Eric Adams, recently indicted on federal corruption and bribery charges.

“Good luck with everything,” he says to laughter, adding that he thinks Adams is “going to win”.

“I don’t like what they do,” Trump adds in reference to the federal government, joking that Adams’s charges are “peanuts” compared to what he has been charged with.

Image source, AFP

A pre-recorded video sent in by Kamala Harris, who has been campaigning in Wisconsin, just played at the dinner ahead of what comedian Jim Gaffigan called “the main event”.

Harris appears alongside Saturday Night Live alumnus Molly Shannon, playing her recurring character on the show, Mary Katherine Gallagher.

In the video, Harris pokes fun at Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged as well as comments he’s made on the 2024 campaign trail.

When she asks Shannon for advice on what to say to the dinner’s attendees, Shannon replies: “Maybe don’t say anything negative about Catholics” – the event takes place to raise funds for Catholic charities supporting children of various needs in the Archdiocese of New York.

In another light jab at Trump, Harris replies: “I would never do that. That would be like criticising Detroit in Detroit” – referring to an event last week in which Trump said the US would “end up” like Detroit if Harris wins the election.

Guests at the Al Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner have finished their dinner – and it’s time for jokes.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan, who currently plays Democratic vice-presidential hopeful Tim Walz on Saturday Night Live, is up at the podium, cracking jokes about the lack of middle class Americans at the event.

He jokes that he is nervous about the election – and the possibility of civil war post-election.

He also adds in a joke at the expense of President Joe Biden, the country’s second Catholic president after John F Kennedy.

“President Biden couldn’t be here tonight,” Gaffigan says. “The DNC [Democratic National Committee] made sure of that.”

Harris’s team will have thought hard about skipping charity dinnerpublished at 02:17 British Summer Time 18 October

02:17 BST 18 October

Rowan Bridge
North America correspondent, Washington DC

Appearing
at the Al Smith dinner and making jokes at your own expense in the name of
charity has become part of the presidential election tradition – as much a part
of the campaign season as attack ads and yard signs.

It’s 20 years since a
candidate hasn’t appeared – neither John Kerry nor George Bush were invited in
2004. Which makes it notable that Kamala Harris decided to send a video rather
than turn up in person. Instead she’s campaigning in the swing state of
Wisconsin.

Her team have clearly decided that was a more important use of their
candidate’s time in such a tight race.

They won’t have forgotten that in the
aftermath of the 2016 defeat there was a narrative around Hillary Clinton that
she lost the state because she didn’t visit there. Something they are making
sure Kamala Harris can’t be accused of this time around.

The last Democratic
candidate to skip the dinner was Walter Mondale in 1984. The Harris campaign
will be hoping history doesn’t go on to repeat itself. In the ’84 election
Mondale lost 49 out of 50 states, only carrying Minnesota, where he was
from.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington

Image source, Getty Images

Politics makes strange bedfellows and tonight, in Donald Trump’s former home state of New York, he will be dining and joking alongside some of his fiercest rivals.

One seat from him is Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, who represents New York state in Congress. Trump has recently adopted an attack line against America’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official: that he is “a proud member of Hamas”.

Sitting over his right shoulder is New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has spent much of her career in recent years as a Trump legal adversary. James won a lawsuit against the Trump Organisation earlier this year, with a judge blocking the company from doing business in the state for the next three years and ordering Trump to pay out nearly half a million dollars in damages.

Trump’s Democratic opponent Kamala Harris is skipping the annual affair, opting instead to hold a campaign rally in Wisconsin, her third of the day. A smattering of boos broke out a short while ago at the dinner when it was announced that Harris is not among the guests tonight. Trump’s introduction was met with applause.

Image source, Getty Images

Former US president Donald Trump is soon set to address the Al Smith dinner in New York City tonight – while Kamala Harris will be sending a pre-recorded message.

The annual white-tie dinner, which is hosted by the Archbishop of New York, takes place every year to raise money for charity.

It’s traditionally a stop for both major candidates during election years, and in recent years alone has hosted Republicans and Democrats including Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and the late John McCain.

This year, however, Harris is not attending, citing a scheduling issue with campaign events – a move that Trump described as “sad but not surprising”. Harris is instead hosting a rally in swing state Wisconsin.

A number of senior Democrats reportedly appealed to the Harris campaign to re-consider the decision, including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who is also in attendance.

Stay with us for more updates.

Image source, Reuters

With less than three weeks to go until election day, the Harris and Trump campaigns are getting help from some of their richest surrogates on Thursday.

Mark Cuban, best known as a long-time investor on the Shark Tank reality TV series, made an economic pitch on behalf of the Democratic candidate at a rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Firing up the crowd with a promise to pick on Donald Trump, Cuban hammered the former president over his tariff proposals.

He “thinks that China pays for them”, he said, adding that “this is the same guy that thought that Mexico would pay for the wall” back in 2016.

On the Republican side, another well-known billionaire – Elon Musk – stumped for Trump at a rally in Folsom, Pennsylvania, a state he said would be “the lynchpin” that decides this election.

Musk, who has so far spent $75m on the Republican’s bid for re-election, told supporters at the town hall style event that the US-Mexico border had become like the zombie film “World War Z” under the Biden-Harris administration.

“This election, I think, is going to decide the fate of America, and along with America, the fate of western civilisation,” he warned, to approving cheers from the audience.

Image source, Getty Images

Kamala Harris’s running mate has been campaigning in the swing state of North Carolina today and telling supporters there that the Donald Trump of 2024 was not the same man who ran for office in 2016.

“This is something much more deranged, something much more desperate – maybe to stay out of prison,” Walz said at the rally in Durham.

Walz was joined in Durham by former President Bill Clinton. The two-time president observed that he was only two months younger than Trump.

At 78, Donald Trump is the oldest candidate to run for US president and the Harris campaign has been attacking him as unfit for office.

Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance has dismissed concerns that his running mate, Donald Trump, would turn US military might on fellow Americans as “preposterous”.

Vance was taking questions at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, the second largest city in battleground Pennsylvania, earlier today when a reporter asked the sensitive question.

Trump has publicly described Democrats as “the enemy from within” in recent remarks, framing them as a greater threat to the country than foreign adversaries and openly speculating that either the National Guard or the military may need to be called in for a scenario in which Democrats lose the election.

But the crowd at Vance’s event could be heard loudly booing at the question.

Vance also said he did not like mail-in voting, but “it is now here”.

“So, let’s deal with that reality and make sure our voices count just as much as the other side.”

A warning on Trump’s trade proposal – but is anyone listening?published at 21:48 British Summer Time 17 October

21:48 BST 17 October

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen just offered sharp words on the proposal by Donald Trump’s campaign to impose a sweeping tariff, or tax, of at least 10% on all imports.

“Calls for walling America off with high tariffs on friends and competitors alike or by treating even our closest allies as transactional partners are deeply misguided,” she said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, adding the move would “make our businesses less competitive” and generate tension with allies.

Yellen, the former head of the US central bank, is voicing what has become the judgement of many mainstream economists, external.

But, the crucial question, is anyone listening?

Trump has clearly touched a nerve with his call for more production in the US – a Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found that 54% of likely voters favoured Trump’s tariff plans over Kamala Harris’s.

The White House has undercut its criticism of Trump’s plans by keeping in place most of the barriers from Trump’s first term, while adding to them in targeted areas – an approach Harris is expected to continue.

Tellingly, moments before Yellen’s remarks, another Biden administration official, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, appeared at a forum hosted by the Alliance for American Manufacturing – she was introduced by a speaker who called for an end to “old thinking” about free trade and free markets.

Vice-President Kamala Harris will break presidential tradition tonight by not attending this year’s Al Smith charity dinner.

The white-tie gala, hosted in aid of Catholic charities, has become famous for presidential candidates poking fun at one another.

The $5,000 (£3,800) a plate dinner has been attended by every major presidential candidate for decades.

Republican nominee Donald Trump is set to be there, but with just three weeks to go under election day, Harris has decided to campaign in the battleground state of Wisconsin and send a video message, instead.

In 2020, President Joe Biden and Trump attended virtually, although the pandemic-era event largely put jokes aside.

Image source, Getty Images

As we’ve been reporting, Kamala Harris is in Wisconsin – a swing state – today. She’s addressing business students as part of her visit.

On her way to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s campus, her motorcade passed protesters opposed to the Biden administration’s policy on Israel and its war in the Gaza Strip.

Journalists travelling with the Democratic candidate spotted a large Palestinian flag and a large Lebanese flag, and signs that read “funds off genocide” and “no genocide on our dime” – a reference to the large number of civilians killed during Israeli military operations in Gaza as well as during its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Harris has often said she’s aligned with President Joe Biden on US support for Israel, although she has spoken more about human suffering in Gaza.

Her campaign stop comes on a day during which Israel announced it had killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar – the man considered widely responsible for the 7 October 2023 attacks in southern Israel during which some 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage to Gaza.

“Justice has been served,” Harris said in a statement, adding it “gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza”.

• If you’re interested: We’re running a separate live page about Sinwar’s killing and developments in the Middle East