Nominees crack jokes for charity
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump appeared together Thursday night for a ritzy gathering, delivering remarks at the white-tie Al Smith charity dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan for their final face-to-face showdown before Election Day.
Just 24 hours after their third and final debate — and hours after the Republican nominee insisted that he would not cede the right to contest the outcome of the presidential election — they sat one seat apart for the evening, with New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan acting as the only buffer.
In most presidential campaigns, the dinner, which benefits Roman Catholic charities, functions as a welcome respite, a forum for levity and self-
deprecation in the throes of a heated election.
This year, it just so happens that two New Yorkers can also be found at the top of the ballot.
Just like in the last two debates, Ms. Clinton and Mr. Trump did not shake hands. Instead they beamed and ignored one another, until the evening’s emcee, Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York, performed a veritable act of God — inserting himself between the two rivals, with no physical altercation.
Both presidential nominees laughed at each other’s jokes at first, but as their roasts progressed, they turned more biting.
At the podium, Mr. Trump seemed to miss the self-deprecation memo, but he hit his stride when he turned his attention to his Democratic rival. He joked that this intimate dinner with friends was, “as Hillary calls it, her largest crowd of the season.” And he teased that Thursday evening marked the “first time Hillary is sitting down and speaking to major corporate leaders and not getting paid for it.”
At least one of Mr. Trump’s usual rivals got a reprieve — Rosie O’Donnell — if only by comparison.
“Last night I called Hillary ‘a nasty woman,’” Mr. Trump said, reprising a line from Wednesday’s debate — which was the third mostwatched presidential match ever — that many found sexist and offensive. “But this stuff is all relative. After listening to Hillary rattle on and on and on, I don’t think so badly of Rosie O’Donnell anymore. In fact, I’m actually starting to like Rosie a lot.”
When he said of Ms. Clinton, “Here she is in public pretending not to hate Catholics,” several in the crowd booed.
Ms. Clinton began with the traditional self-deprecating joke: “I took a break from my rigorous nap schedule to be here.” The audience, she added, should be grateful: “Usually I charge a lot for speeches like this.”
Ms. Clinton later turned cutting, with a biting edge of hard truth.
“It’s amazing I’m up here after Donald,” she said. “I didn’t think he’d be OK with a peaceful transition of power.”
Then, she spoke of the Statue of Liberty, recounting how for most Americans, the green lady of freedom represents a shining beacon and welcome for immigrants arriving on the nation’s shores. But Mr. Trump, she added with a glint of steel, “sees the Statue of Liberty and sees a 4.”
Mr. Trump, the Democratic nominee also said, had chivalrously sent a car to ferry her to the dinner. “Actually, it was a hearse,” Ms. Clinton said.
At that, Mr. Trump laughed with real joy.
None of Ms. Clinton’s remarks elicited booing. Afterward, she reached out and shook hands with Mr. Trump.
Just hours earlier, Mr. Trump was seen as mocking his critics when he pledged to fully accept the outcome of next month’s presidential election — if he wins. The Republican said he reserved the right to contest questionable results, deepening his unsubstantiated assertions that the race against Ms. Clinton could be rigged against him.
Mr. Trump’s comments came a day after his stunning refusal in the final presidential debate to say whether he would concede to Ms.Clinton if he loses. His resistance, threatening to undermine the essence of American democracy, was roundly rejected by fellow Republicans, including Arizona Sen. John McCain and Maine Gov. Paul LePage.
Ms. Clinton slammed Mr. Trump’s comments as “horrifying,” and fellow Democrats piled on Thursday, including President Barack Obama and his wife.
Mr. Trump’s campaign pointed to Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000 as an example of why it would be premature for Mr. Trump to say he’d acquiesce Nov. 8.
That election, which played out for weeks until the Supreme Court weighed in, didn’t center on allegations of fraud, but on proper vote-counting after an extremely close outcome in Florida led to a mandatory recount.
After the debate, Mr. Trump’s utterance of “bad hombres” offended some of the millions of people watching, who called it racially divisive, and his “nasty woman” reference inspired reactions ranging from disgust to mockery.
A snap poll conducted immediately after the debate by CNN found 52 percent of registered voters who watched thought Ms. Clinton won, compared with 39 percent who said Mr. Trump was the winner.
Also on Thursday, another woman — Karena Virginia, who was 27 at the time — came forward Thursday to accuse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of inappropriate physical contact, alleging that Trump unexpectedly put his arm around her and touched her breast while attending the U.S. Open tennis tournament in 1998.
That development comes after Leslie Millwee emerged in recent days to accuse former President Bill Clinton of sexually assaulting her more than three decades ago.
At the same time Thursday, more of the emails purportedly hacked from the account of Ms. Clinton’s campaign chairman show that a top official at the Clinton Foundation, Doug Band, could name “500 different examples” of conflicts of interest, including some involving Mr. Clinton.
Another email posted Thursday reveal internal disagreement among top Clinton aides about her determination to hold a foundation summit in Morocco that later drew attention over its reliance on large financial pledges from foreign governments.
Also on Thursday, Mr. Trump mentioned an email that surfaced on WikiLeaks in which interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile seemed to suggest to the Clinton team that she had knowledge of a question that would come up in a primary forum earlier this year. While Ms. Brazile has denied that CNN provided any questions in advance, Mr. Trump called her actions “cheating at the highest level.”