Harris' Catholic dinner snub is just the latest in career full of swipes at the faithful, critics charge
Catholics are a significant portion of the population in a handful of battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Arizona, with experts weighing in that Vice President Kamala Harris' history of anti-Catholic political rhetoric could be a factor against her in the voting booth.
Former President Donald Trump is increasingly making a play for the voting bloc in the form of supportive pro-Catholic messages on X and Truth Social, while Harris has come under increasing scrutiny from the Catholic community for a series of questionable remarks and snubs stretching back to her Senate days.
"While President Trump fiercely defended religious freedom in his first term, the Harris-Biden administration is the most anti-Catholic administration in history. Kamala Harris has weaponized institutions against Americans of faith, and now, her disrespect and hostility has continued to her campaign for president with her most prominent surrogates mocking Catholic Americans," RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital.
Last Thursday, in New York City, Trump took the dais at the 79th Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, where hundreds gathered to raise donations for Catholic charities amid the election cycle. The Al Smith dinner began in 1946 and was named after the first Catholic presidential candidate who also served as the 42nd governor of New York. The dinner has grown to become a political and cultural hallmark of election seasons, with candidates from both political parties historically joining the dinner to take light-hearted jabs at one another, adding a bit of levity in the midst of heated campaigns.
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This election year, however, Harris snubbed the event in favor of sending a pre-recorded video of herself and former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Molly Shannon, who reprised her comedic role of a Catholic school student named Mary Katherine Gallagher.
The video was panned by critics as "cringe," while even the emcee of the dinner, comedian Jim Gaffigan, called out Harris for her absence.
"You know, this event has been referred to as the Catholic Met Gala. Twenty-two percent of Americans identify as Catholic. Catholics will be a key demographic in every battleground state," Gaffigan said during the event.
"I'm sorry. Why is Vice President Harris not here?" he continued, with some of the audience jeering. "I mean, consider this. This is a room full of Catholics and Jews in New York City. This is a layup for the Democratic nominee. I mean, in her defense, I mean, she did find time to appear on "The View," Howard Stern, Colbert and the long-time staple of campaigning, the "Call Her Daddy" podcast. You know what I think it is? I think she doesn't like me."
Trump said Harris’ snub of the event "surprised" him and others at the dinner. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York and host of the Al Smith dinner, called Harris’ snub of the dinner a "shame" in the lead-up to the big night.
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"The last time a major presidential nominee skipped the Al Smith dinner, they lost in a landslide — and alongside Catholics for Trump, we look forward to delivering another historic victory for President Trump in November," Kelly added in comment to Fox Digital, referring to 1984 Democratic nominee Walter Mondale and his historic blowout loss to President Ronald Reagan that year.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue told Fox News Digital on Monday that Harris’ snub of the Al Smith dinner sent "an unmistakable message to Catholics." The campaign previously told the media that Harris would not attend the dinner in order to campaign in a battleground state.
Simultaneously to skipping the Al Smith dinner, Harris held a campaign rally in Wisconsin, where she told two pro-life student protesters that they were "at the wrong rally" when they yelled, "Jesus is Lord," and, "Christ is King" last Thursday.
"Just before the Dinner, Harris revealed her true colors, which weren’t pretty, when she mocked two young people at a Wisconsin rally after they yelled ‘Christ is King,’" Donohue told Fox News Digital. "Instead of treating them the way she treats left-wing activists who interrupt her—she insists on having the right to talk—she berated them, saying, ‘You guys are at the wrong rally,’" he said.
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"Ironically, Harris was right. Christians are not welcome at her rallies," he continued, adding that the vice president is "much more at home with Hollywood celebrities, most of whom are secularists, than she is with Christians."
A handful of key battleground states this election cycle have huge Catholic populations, with the voting bloc potentially helping determine the outcome of the election. About 24% of the Pennsylvania population, which has been touted as the state that will likely determine the overall outcome of the election, identifies as Catholic; about 25% of the population in Nevada identifies as Catholic; 18% in Michigan; 21% in Arizona; and 25% in Wisconsin. Other notable battleground states have a smaller Catholic population, including Georgia and North Carolina, both of which have a roughly 9% population of Catholics.
The Catholic vote was historically blue until the 1960s and early 1970s, when crime and cultural issues came to the fore alongside economic concerns, most notably in 1972 when President Richard Nixon's campaign slammed Democratic opponent Sen. George McGovern as a candidate who supported "amnesty, abortion and acid."
Now, the Catholic vote is seen as split down the middle, with Republican strategist Ryan Girdusky, a Catholic, pointing to four key subsets that fall under the Catholic umbrella: weekly Catholic mass goers; occasional/seldom mass goers; White Catholics; and Hispanic Catholics.
"[Harris is] not going to win over weekly mass goers," Girdusky said in a phone interview on Monday. "They're more likely to be pro-life and care about social issues. But she's going to have to sit there and win over seldom Catholic mass goers and Hispanic Catholic mass goers. And keep her losses with White mass goers down to Biden levels."
President Biden, the second Catholic president in the nation’s history, won the Catholic vote over Trump in 2020 by about five percentage points. In 2016, Trump won the voting bloc at 52% support compared to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 44% Catholic support. Former President Barack Obama won the Catholic vote in both 2008 and 2012, as did former President George W. Bush in his 2004 election against John Kerry, Pew Research data shows. In 2000, however, former Vice President Al Gore won the Catholic vote by two points over Bush, despite losing the presidential election overall.
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"The fact that she hasn't done a tour of Catholic schools, she hasn't talked about the importance of Catholic institutions, that says quite a bit, and that does quite a bit. … Even Nancy Pelosi, who is Catholic, did a lot of – when she was passing Obamacare – did a lot of outreach to Catholic priests to try to get some support within religious institutions. [Harris has] completely ignored that entirely. I think that the brazen level of disrespect could irritate some people who otherwise would maybe be ambivalent to her or open to her," Girdusky said.
"And I think that the question for a lot of Catholics is: Does she like somebody like me?"
Stretching back to her years in the Senate, Harris came under fire from Catholics for her grilling of judicial nominees in 2018 for their membership in a Catholic fraternal organization, the Knights of Columbus, which has more than 2 million members worldwide. Catholic news network EWTN found Harris had grilled three Trump nominees that year, Paul Matey, Brian Buescher, and Peter Phipps, over their memberships with the organization.
"Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?" Harris asked Buescher in one of the hearings. "Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality when you joined the organization?"
"Do you believe that a fetus is entitled to any protection under the U.S. Constitution?" she asked Matey in another hearing.
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The Catholic Church has viewed abortion as a moral evil and grave sin since the first century, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and only acknowledges marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The three nominees were ultimately confirmed despite the grilling from Harris and other Democrats.
Donohue said that following Harris’ grilling of Buescher, which was held in December 2018, he was so alarmed by the line of questioning, he spent the day after Christmas issuing a news release condemning it.
"In questioning the nominee, Harris noted his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a large Catholic fraternal organization. ‘Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?’ That was a red herring. Harris’ real target was the Catholic Church. She knew the Knights were loyal Catholics and as such they oppose child abuse in the womb," Donohue told Fox Digital.
"Harris was also upset that the Knights ban women. I asked at the time whether she has a problem with Hadassah, the National Council of Jewish Women, or Women of Reform Judaism? They ban men. What about the Catholic Daughters of the Americas? Or the League of Women Voters? Is it proper that the American Association of University Women bans men?" he continued.
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"Or is it only Catholic men’s groups that are a problem?"
Harris’ campaign also notably came under fire earlier this month when a supporter, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, donned a Harris-Walz campaign hat in a video where she was seen feeding Doritos to a kneeling podcast host. The video was slammed as an attack on and mockery of the Holy Eucharist, the most important sacrament in the Catholic Church.
Whitmer later apologized and said the video was intended to be "about the importance of the CHIPS Act to Michigan jobs," which Biden signed into law in 2022.
Harris has also fervently campaigned on abortion access, including visiting a Planned Parenthood ahead of her presidential campaign this year in what was seen as the first time a sitting U.S. vice president has ever visited an abortion provider. Girdusky said Harris holds an "overzealous support for abortion" that is "almost celebratory," which could rub Catholics the wrong way. He argued that a pro-choice politician such as Biden is able to show voters he supports abortion access, while also respecting the church’s views and traditions, which can win over Catholic voters.
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"There are a lot of people who, whether they are daily, weekly or seldom mass goers, who really take offense to the people who just trash religion every day," Girdusky said of Harris’ abortion stances.
When asked for comment on the recent comments and snub viewed critically by some Catholics, a Harris campaign official only addressed Harris skipping the Al Smith dinner.
"The VP was not at the Al Smith dinner because she was campaigning in Wisconsin. The campaign wants to maximize her time in the battlegrounds this close to the election. The Vice President told the organizers that she is committed to attending the Al Smith dinner as President. This would make her one of the first sitting Presidents to attend," the campaign official said.
Trump has meanwhile amplified his support of the Catholic faith, including wishing the Virgin Mary a happy birthday last month on social media, playing the Ave Maria during different rallies and notably posting a prayer calling on St. Michael the Archangel to "defend us in battle."
"A Pew Research Center survey of Catholics reveals her losing to Trump 52-47 (over 60% of White Catholics prefer Trump). Given her voting record, and the decisions she has been making lately, that is hardly surprising," Donohue concluded.