All right, you've been watching the former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump addressing the Al Smith dinner. It's a charity event that gives the presidential candidates a chance to do some comedy in the middle of a heated and bitter political year. Donald Trump did get a lot of laughs. He also got some booze, and he used the stage to call Kamala Harris disrespectful for skipping the dinner. And then he cursed from the stage. He praised conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has endorsed him. He tried to flip the word weird against Democrats, and he made a transgender joke about Chuck Schumer, who was sitting right next to him. He joked about Doug Emhoff's infidelity in his first marriage. He winked at the assassination attempts against him, and much, much more. Good thing we've got our roundtable here to break it down. Brian Stelter, what did you make of this performance?
Oh, no, don't ask me first. I thought he was funny. I thought he actually got a few great he jokes in. I thought the best moment was we talked about the assassination attempts and made light of what he's experienced, because I think he's experiencing real trauma, real PTSD as a result of the shootings, but he's still able to have a light moment in this room, and he took advantage of the fact that Kamala Harris wasn't there.
Which is really the subtext of this whole thing.
Exactly.
That she didn't pretend. They're usually supposed to be in the same room.
It is frustrating, though, that he will not pronounce her name correctly. It's not difficult. And he goes out of his to insult her in a way that I think is racially tinged.
The fact that she's not there, Bamanie, smart move, not so smart move. She put out this video in it, and actually, they brought in a real comedian to do the bit with her. But she could have done exactly what Trump did and roast him from the stage.
Yes, but let us stop and imagine the moment where this dude makes jokes about your husband's infidelity with his first wife, and you're just sitting there I'm like, Oh, man, that was hilarious.
I have to say, if you were watching, Jim Gaffigan, who was on right before Trump, made a joke about grab them by their you know what with Melania Trump sitting right there. She was not amused.
I mean, the audacity of Trump to decide. You would think some game-recognized game would come up at that point. You're like, No, I think we're going to leave that joke out of here. I don't feel like I'm the person who could tell this. But it is difficult for me to listen to him joke right now because nothing feels funny. I could understand. If I were Kamala Harris, the signal I would want to give is, No, I really don't feel like sitting around and joking with this dude right now because I don't think he presents a lot to joke about at this point.
I also think that that event, it used to be a good-natured, humored way to take some levity into the campaign season, but I don't think it's like that anymore. And that would really be from the 2016 event with Hillary Clinton, where Donald Trump changed the whole tone of that event by attacking Hillary Clinton in that particular event. So I feel like he's the one that changed the tone of that to begin with. And then it's a Catholic event where Kamala Harris is running very distinctly on returning the rights of road to people. And this is a group that really, really loves that those rights were taken from women in the country. So it feels like, you know what? She only started her campaign in July. He's been running for President since he was inaugurated in 2017, so he can take a break to make some jokes. She's working.
She probably didn't think it mattered. I mean, most evangelicals, white Christian churchgoers voted for Donald Trump, 59% Biden, or 59% Trump, Biden, 40% in 2020. To your point, she's probably looking at this demographic and thinking, Based on all my policy positions, they're likely not going to vote for me anyway. It's more expedient for me to be in Wisconsin, a state where she may or may not win. For Trump, I think it's important because a larger % of Catholic don't vote. They're infrequent voters. So if he can turn out 4 or 5% of those voters in some of those swing states, that may make a difference for him in November.
But sure, Michael, this was not an event for evangelical Christians. It was an event for Catholics. Biden won the Catholic the vote in 2020, and Trump won the Catholic vote in 2016. So it is an immensely important population, especially in states like Pennsylvania. Huge Catholic population, huge ethnic Catholic population who respond to cultural Catholic things, like talking about Catholic schools. That is an enormous... I am Catholic. It is a very, very deep part of our culture is our Catholic schools. They're constantly under budgetary issues and a lot are closing. This was a perfect time. She could have a lot of smooth things, and no one would have noticed if she may have gone, but people noticed that she wasn't there.
I'm an old folk. I want these traditions to continue. I want our institutions to thrive. And yet I find myself agreeing that there's nothing funny right now. I thought he had some great one-liners, the line about he was talking... Now I'm going to forget them all, of course, on live TV.
The Eric Adams joke was very funny.
There were a couple Eric Adams.
There were a couple of jokes that were really good.
I want our politicians to roast each other. I want them to be able to be in the same room and find common ground. But I think to Lee's point, It does strike me that the Harris campaign is tacitly saying, Hey, this ain't normal.
Trump is not normal, and I'm not going to sit here and kiki with him.
The last thing I would want if I were Kamala Harris and Trump managed to win this election is that you got a bunch of video with me after the fact he keying it up with Donald Trump, when we have no idea what this man is capable of if he winds up winning this again. I would not want to be the person immortalized in that way, and the Internet does not ever, ever forget.
I feel like we keep normalizing him, right? So if you go to this event and you do this good nature back and forth thing, you're normalizing him.
But I don't know how much of that is a part of the calculation.
We didn't realize how abnormal he was eight years ago.
You guys were saying he was so normal.
No, but we got a whole different track.
You're back pedaling now. You're all calling him out of normal.
In 2016, I firmly believe myself, and I think a lot of other people were, How bad could it really be? Eight years later, we don't say that.
You believe in guardrails back then. You believe the guardrails would hold? Look, Trump was able to be self-aware tonight. He had self-deprecating jokes. He made a comment about, Okay, time for me to make jokes about myself. Okay, I have nothing to say. Can I ask you the- That's an acknowledgement of how- But did he I weren't impressed.
No, was he self-aware or did he have one good writer that got a bunch of excellent jokes in there? Because the man is not... There's one good writer. We were talking about that. There's one person that was joked. You went, That was a good joke. That was a good joke. Whoever wrote those jokes did a great job. But is he self-aware? No. Can he make fun of himself? No. Did he have one good joke and he read it off the telepompter?
The fact of the matter is, again, if I'm advising the vice president, I'm looking at this moment, I don't know if I necessarily agree about the laughter factor of it. I'm looking at how close this race is. And as a strategist, looking at the data, I'm thinking, Madam Vice President, it makes no sense for you to be in New York when you can be in front of an arena with thousands of voters trying to energize them and turn them out.
How many events did she have? She had three events today.
Absolutely. A ton of events today.
Pennsylvania is very Catholic. Tons of Catholic in Pennsylvania, and it is the largest swingstake.
I'm not negating that, Ron. No, I know. I'm just saying if I'm advising the vice president, I wouldn't be in New York.
As a Catholic, this wasn't a big thing, but this was shared all over social media for Catholic. Gretchen Whitmer being a Dorito as a Eucharist. She was talking about the chips.
Okay, guys.
She made it. I'm telling you what Catholic were sharing social media. You could sit there and say it wasn't intended. That's what people took it as. I agree with you. Then for that, from a few weeks ago to all of a sudden, skipping the big Catholic event for politics, the biggest one, and a long history of Democrats continuing to slip at the Catholic vote. It is an incredibly important vote.
I don't think that's your strategy. I think it was smart for Trump to be there. I absolutely agree. I think it was smart for her to be somewhere else just looking at the numbers.
I wonder, the gettable Catholics for Kamala Harris, are they really looking at the Al Smith dinner and saying, Oh, my God, she's not there. They're thinking, Does she like people like me?
That's a big That's the question for Kamala. Does she actually like people like me? Considering, take a Pennsylvania voter who heard Obama say they clinked their guns in their Bibles, who had Hillary Clinton feel like they were very far away. Joe Biden was Kaling in Pennsylvania.
Do you think abortion is the pivot issue You weren't those Catholic?
No, it's not.
Then what is it?
It's the Catholic schools. It is being good on your economy. It is understanding family economics, stuff like that, and also being relatable to working class issues and not putting them down.
It's basically the same issues that everybody.
Yes, but there is a cultural part of it that is specifically Catholic.
I've been in Pennsylvania all week, and we look at the billboards, most of the Trump billboards are just saying Trump. The Harris billboards are about policy. She supports raising minimum wage. She supports abortion rights. So there's this argument going on in Pennsylvania, where policy versus just the cult of personality. On policy, Harris has strong arguments to make.
Okay, quick last word.
I'm just going to say, but have those policies really moved the needle, Brian? I'm not convinced that they have. There's a relatability issue there for some of those working class Whites with the vice President and the former President.
CNN's Abby Phillip and her panel of analysts break down former President Donald Trump's comments at the annual Al Smith ...