Cardinal Dolan joked that he was fighting off a cold after sitting in the iciest place on the planet, and there’s no doubt that being the one man barrier between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had to be about as much fun as being the ump at a Yankees vs. Sox game seven. And that was before Donald Trump spoke.
The Al Smith dinner has a long-standing tradition of being about unity and gentle humor. The idea is to show that yes, we’re opponents in the campaign, but we’re all decent folks and there are higher goals than our personal ambitions. Only, Donald Trump never got that message.
Donald J. Trump began this quadrennial exercise in campaign humility and self-deprecation on Thursday by comparing himself to the son of God — just another “carpenter working for his father” in his youth.
Then, rather than moderate his position toward Clinton and try to find some semblance of a high road, Trump broke out lines better suited to his rallies.
Breaking with decades of tradition at the gathering once he took the microphone, Mr. Trump set off on a blistering, grievance-filled performance that translated poorly to the staid setting ...
Trump’s opening was so pretentious and un-funny, and his attacks on Clinton so out of the spirit of the occasion, that Donald Trump broke another tradition of the Al Smith Dinner.
By the end, facing cascading and uncomfortable jeers from a crowd full of white ties and gowns, he had called Hillary Clinton Catholic-hating, “so corrupt” and potentially jail-bound in a prospective Trump administration. …
Mr. Trump was being booed at a charity dinner.
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Trump’s opening did include one joke that drew laughs about how the media was biased against him.
“You want the proof? Michelle Obama gives a speech, and everyone loves it,” Mr. Trump said. “My wife, Melania, gives the exact same speech and people get on her case.”
But that was pretty well the end of anything not unacceptable to any audience not filled with T-shirts making crude remarks about Hillary.
Clinton’s opening to her brief routine was the opposite of Trump’s.
As for Mrs. Clinton, she began with some easy self-parody.
“I took a break from my rigorous nap schedule to be here,” she said, adding, “Usually, I charge a lot for speeches like this.”
But she did engage in some “zingers” including one that played off Trump’s most recent, and most serious, misstep.
Noting that she was speaking second, she riffed: “It’s amazing I’m up here after Donald. I didn’t think he’d be O.K. with a peaceful transition of power.”
Al Smith IV also got in a few nice lines.
“Before the dinner started, Trump went to Hillary and asked, ‘How are you?’” Mr. Smith said, waiting a beat. “She said, ‘I’m fine — now get out of the ladies’ dressing room.’”
But it’s not the few good jokes that stood out at this year’s Al Smith Dinner, it was Trump’s inability to play the role that so many candidates have taken over the years—nice guy—that left a lasting impression.
The results seemed clear enough: If you’re staging an event about civility, don’t invite Donald Trump, because Trump isn’t capable of putting his own ego on check or reining in his hatred for anyone who he feels has wronged him. Not for a single evening. Not even with a Cardinal on his shoulder.
Through most of the evening, Trump sat quietly, not joining in the laughter. However, there was one joke he liked.
Mr. Trump, Mrs. Clinton said, had chivalrously sent a car to ferry her to the dinner. “Actually, it was a hearse,” she said.
Finally, Mr. Trump laughed with real joy.