At several points during the white-tie dinner in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, Donald Trump drew boos.
Trump draws boos at Catholic dinner
The presidential nominees trade barbs at a Manhattan charity event, but some say Trump crossed line.
NEW YORK — A Manhattan society crowd on Thursday night turned on Donald Trump as he used his appearance at an annual roast-style fundraiser for Catholic charities to jab Hillary Clinton, seated just a few feet away, as “corrupt,” and to crack that she hates Catholics and profiteered from her foundation’s charity work in Haiti.
At several points during the white-tie dinner in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, Trump drew boos, and when he made his crack about Catholics, someone yelled from the crowd of 1,500 “finish.”
A night after a fiery debate between the two presidential candidates in Las Vegas, raw feelings crept into an event — the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner — typically known for light-hearted political jabs.
Clinton also drew some groans with shots at Trump over his comments about women and questions about his net worth, but her routine was far more hokey and self-deprecating, and much better received.
As attendees filed out of the white-tie affair, several could be overheard remarking that Trump’s speech seemed badly off-key.
"He didn't quite understand the audience,” said the veteran GOP operative Ed Rollins, who is running a super PAC supporting Trump. “To be funny, you have to understand the audience."
Trump had the audience laughing early, including with a crack about his wife Melania’s much-critiqued convention speech, which was quickly revealed to have cribbed heavily from First Lady Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech.
"Michelle Obama gives a speech and everyone loves it, they think it’s great,” he said. “My wife Melania gives the exact same speech and people get on her case, and I don’t get it!” he said to raucous applause. “And it wasn’t her fault! Stand up, Melania, come on. She took a lot of abuse,” Trump said, adding, “oh, I’m in trouble when I go home tonight. She didn’t know about that one.”
But that was by far the high point for Trump, who then veered into a riff that was part stump speech and part uncomfortable stand-up.
“Hillary is so corrupt,” Trump said to boos, “she got kicked of the Watergate Commission. How corrupt do you have to be to get kicked off the Watergate commission? Pretty corrupt.”
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Echoing one of main talking points, he continued, “Hillary is, and has been, in politics since the ‘70s. What’s her pitch? The economy is busted, the government is corrupt. Washington has failed. Vote for me, I have been working on these problems for 30 years, I can fix it, she says.”
Trump then launched into a riff about the damaging emails hacked from her campaign chairman John Podesta’s gmail account, and released by WikiLeaks. It was poorly received.
"We’ve learned so much from WikiLeaks,” he said. “For example, Hillary believes it is vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private.”
As boos rained down, Trump interrupted the routine: “That’s OK, Hillary, I don’t know who they’re angry at: you or I.”
“You,” several members of the audience shouted back.
Undeterred, Trump continued, “Here she is tonight in public pretending not to hate Catholics,” a line that was met with perhaps the loudest boos of the night, and that prompted one man to yell “finish.”
The loud jeers for Trump continued when, referencing the pay-to-play allegations that have dogged the Clintons, Trump suggested they padded their pockets from their foundation’s earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.
“Everyone knows of course Hillary’s belief that it takes a village, as in Haiti where she’s taken a number of them,” Trump said, as Clinton maintained a forced smile.
In election years, the Al Smith dinner, as it’s known, typically attracts both major presidential candidates. But veteran New York political journalists, for whom the dinner is an annual routine, remarked that they’d never seen any past speakers booed quite so aggressively.
Clinton spoke after Trump, and began by poking fun at some of the controversies that have dogged her campaign, including questions about her health and paid speeches, as well as her assertion — for which she quickly apologized — that half of Trump’s supporters belong in a “basket of deplorables.”
“I took a break from my rigorous nap schedule to be here,” she said, adding that the audience should be grateful. “Usually I charge a lot for speeches like this.”
Remarking that she has personal relationships with many in attendance, she said, “I just want to put you all in basket of adorables.” And praising the spiffy attire of the men in attendance, she said, “you all look so good in your tuxes… or, as I call, them formal pantsuits.”
The dinner and the charity that sponsors it are named for former New York Gov. Al Smith, the first Catholic presidential nominee.
Before the main-event speeches, it seemed like the dinner might offer a respite from the bitter campaign.
Clinton and Trump, who had refused to shake hands at Wednesday’s debate, did so off-stage before being introduced, according to Joseph Zwilling, the communications director for the Archdiocese of New York.
And during an introduction, Al Smith IV talked about the importance of civility in the event, though in joke about the civil tone, he swiped Trump for allegations about his behavior at beauty pageants he owns.
“Before the dinner started”, Smith said, “Donald went up to Hillary and asked her how she was doing. And she replied 'I'm fine, now get out of the ladies dressing room,’” Smith said, evoking a laugh from Trump.
And Smith referred repeatedly to the bitter tone of the election, saying "In less than a month, one of these two will be elected president of the United Stares; well that was a real buzz kill."
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