Kamala Harris to skip Al Smith dinner, a traditional event for major presidential candidates

PHOENIX (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will skip this year's Al Smith charity dinner in New York, breaking with presidential tradition so she can campaign instead in a battleground state less than three weeks before Election Day.

The dinner benefitting Catholic Charities traditionally has been used to promote collegiality and good humor, with presidential candidates from both parties appearing on the same night and trading barbs.

Harris' team wants her to spend as much time as possible in the battleground states that will decide the election rather than heavily Democratic New York, a campaign official said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss campaign plans and confirming a decision first reported by CNN. Her team told organizers that she would be willing to attend as president if she's elected, the official said.

Donald Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a question about whether he would attend the dinner. His 2016 appearance at the dinner invited boos when many in the audience felt he crossed a line when he called Democrat Hillary Clinton corrupt and claimed she hated Catholics.

This year’s white-tie gala is scheduled for Oct. 17.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who plays a prominent role in the dinner, has been highly critical of Democrats, writing a 2018 Wall Street Journal op-ed that carried the headline, “The Democrats Abandon Catholics.”

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is named for the former New York governor, a Democrat and the first Roman Catholic to be nominated for president by a major party in 1928. He was handily defeated by Herbert Hoover. It raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities and has traditionally shown that those vying to lead the nation can get along, or pretend to, for one night.

The event has become a tradition for presidential candidates since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appeared together in 1960. In 1996, the Archdiocese of New York decided not to invite then-President Bill Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, reportedly because Clinton vetoed a late-term abortion ban.

Trump and Joe Biden, who is Catholic, both spoke at the fundraiser in 2020, when it was moved online due to concerns about large gatherings spreading COVID-19. Amid the pandemic and economic woes, there was no joking and both candidates instead used their speeches to appeal to Catholic voters.

In 2016, Trump began innocently enough. He joked that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., used to love Trump when he was a Democrat. He poked fun at plagiarism involving the Clinton. But Trump’s remarks soon devolved into bitterness and insults.

FILE - Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shakes hands with Al Smith as he prepares to speak during the Alfred E. Smith Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on Oct. 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - From left, Alfred E. Smith IV, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stand to applaud during the 71st annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a rally, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

FILE - Former President George H.W. Bush, left, is applauded by Archbishop of New York Cardinal Edward Egan and former Governor of the State of New York Hugh L. Carey, right, after Bush spoke at the 59th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, Thursday, Oct 21, 2004. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson, File)

FILE - President Jimmy Carter shakes hands with his rival, Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan, at the Al Smith Foundation dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, Oct. 16, 1980. Archbishop John J. Maguire, center, looks on. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Kenya's President William Ruto arrived in Haiti on Saturday, claiming that because of a Kenyan police force battling gangs “the country's security has significantly improved.”

Ruto's claim was contradicted by a United Nations security expert, who just days earlier warned that violence in the country was worsening as gangs expand their control over the Caribbean nation.

Ruto stepped off the plane, walking passed armed officers on a small patch of red carpet flanked by other officials. He headed to a Kenyan base at the airport where he met with police tasked with battling the gangs and a number of high-ranking Haitian and Canadian officials.

“You have represented the people of Kenya with courage, professionalism, selflessness, compassion and sufficiency,” Ruto told Kenyan police surrounding him as he stood at a podium.

He claimed that Kenyan forces have boosted security infrastructure and allowed displaced Haitians to return home after fleeing violence, though many Haitians say violence is just as bad, if not worse, than it was when the police were deployed in June.

Ruto said he hoped to listen to members of the Kenyan forces deployed and hear about their progress before he heads to New York to meet with U.N. leaders. They are grappling with how to best support resource-strapped Kenyan and Jamaican forces who have struggled to contain the gangs terrorizing the Caribbean nation.

Kenya was the first nation to send forces as part of a larger effort by the U.N. to offer international support to Haiti, which has spiraled into conflict and political turmoil since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

About 400 Kenyan police are in Haiti. Earlier this month, about two dozen police and soldiers from Jamaica arrived in the country. But the United States and other countries have said that the forces aren't enough and lack resources to take on gangs, which control about 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Meanwhile, U.N. human rights expert William O’Neill, who visited Haiti this week, warned Friday that gang violence is only spreading across Haiti and that Haiti’s National Police still lack the “logistical and technical capacity” to fight gangs, which continue to encroach on new territory.

“Humanitarian consequences are dramatic,” he said, and warned of galloping inflation, a lack of basic goods and ”internally displaced people further increasing the vulnerability of the population, particularly children and women.”

The security mission is expected to reach a total of 2,500 personnel, with the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin and Chad also pledging to send police and soldiers, although it wasn’t clear when that would happen.

While the U.S. has floated the idea of a U.N. peacekeeping force, the idea would be far-fetched and controversial given the introduction of cholera and sexual abuse cases that occurred the last time U.N. troops were in Haiti.

Ruto's visit also comes days after Haiti created a provisional electoral council long sought by the international community to facilitate the first general election held in the country since 2016.

In the power vacuum left by Moïse’s assassination, gangs have only seized more power. Many hope a general election will help restore order to Haiti alongside the peacekeeping mission.

Police from Jamaica stand on the tarmac of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport after landing in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)