Kamala decided to skip traditional Al Smith dinner to avoid a face-to-face with Trump

Kamala Harris declined Cardinal Timothy Dolan's invitation to the annual Al Smith dinner, to be held Thursday, Oct. 17, at the New York Hilton in Manhattan. The vice president confirmed this week that she will not attend the event, which traditionally brings together presidential candidates from both parties, days before the election.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner was named in honor of the New York governor and first presidential candidate of a majority Catholic party. It was the brainchild of Cardinal Francis Spellman. The event included both presidential candidates for the first time in 1960, when Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy attended.

But Harris' team said she would be busy campaigning on the day of the event this year. Trump, meanwhile, will be making his third appearance at the dinner. Thus, Harris will be the second candidate to turn down the invitation, the first being Walter Mondale in 1984. According to what transpired, the vice president will address the benefit dinner by video, breaking with the tradition of the presidential campaign. In doing so, she will avoid confronting her opponent and, above all, she will have to improvise and go off script, after her unfortunate interview Wednesday on Fox News.

The Al Smith dinner has always served as one of the last opportunities for candidates who, at this stage of the campaigns are usually very much at odds (and the electorate very polarized), to appear together, exchanging friendly conversations that demonstrate their civic quality.

At this event, candidates often joke and make famous remarks that go down in history. At the 2012 dinner, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney delivered speeches full of humor and self-deprecation. In 2016, Donald Trump's comments about Hillary Clinton left a mix of laughter and anger, but at the end of the dinner, the two shook hands. Four years later, the celebration was virtual, but both Biden and Trump attended.

It is nonetheless surprising that Harris declined to attend this Thursday, even though Trump posted on Truth Social that he was not surprised she opted not to participate, implying that the Democrat has not been kind to Catholics, and added that Catholic voters who support her should look into it, a similar line he used when addressing Jewish voters.

For his part, Cardinal Dolan said he was disappointed by Kamala Harris' choice to skip the 79th dinner but said he has not given up hope that she will attend. He said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul were trying to convince her.