Donald
Trump booed for calling Clinton 'corrupt' as bipartisan dinner turns
sour
Audience
not amused at annual Alfred E Smith fundraiser in New York where
presidential candidates usually trade lighthearted barbs, to the
enjoyment of all
Sabrina Siddiqui in
New York
@SabrinaSiddiqui
Friday 21 October
2016 07.32 BST
If Donald Trump’s
campaign has been defined by going where no candidate has gone
before, on Thursday the real estate mogul went even further: getting
himself roundly booed at a Catholic charity dinner that is usually a
moment of bipartisan good cheer in the presidential race.
The Republican
nominee encountered a chilly reception at the Alfred E Smith dinner,
an annual Catholic fundraiser for needy children in New York City,
where Hillary Clinton was also in attendance.
Presidential
candidates have long traditionally addressed the white-tie affair,
roasting themselves while throwing in a few good-humoured jabs at
their opponents.
At first Trump did
earn some laughs with his speech inside the famed Waldorf Astoria
Hotel. But it quickly deterioriated into an attack on Clinton that
prompted jeers from the audience and shouts for him to stop speaking.
“Hillary believes
it’s vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a
totally different policy in private,” Trump said, invoking the
emails of her campaign chairman John Podesta that were illegally
hacked and published on the website WikiLeaks.
“That’s okay,”
Trump responded to the audible boos that followed.
“I don’t know
who they’re angry at, Hillary, you or I?”
“You!” a voice
cried out from the crowd.
Trump pressed on,
standing at a podium a few feet away from the Archbishop of New York,
Timothy Dolan, who served as the evening’s host.
“For example, here
she is tonight in public, pretending not to hate Catholics,” Trump
said.
While the charity
event is known for self-deprecating jokes, the genuine contempt
between the two nominees overshadowed proceedings.
Upon being
introduced Trump and Clinton settled into their seats on a dais
without so much as an acknowledgement of each other’s presence.
Clinton shook the
hand of Trump’s wife, Melania, but only later were she and Trump
spotted leaning across Dolan, who sat between them, to have a chat
that appeared to last all of 30 seconds.
Trump was the first
to speak and initially seemed to embrace the spirit of the evening.
“Some people think
this would be tough for me,” he said, “but the truth is … I’m
actually a modest person, very modest.
“Many people tell
me that modesty is perhaps my best quality, even better than my
temperament.”
In a riff on what he
has dubbed bias within the media, Trump brought the house down by
poking fun at his wife’s partly plagiarised speech during the
Republican National Convention in July.
“Michelle Obama
gives a speech and everyone loves it, it’s fantastic,” Trump
said. “My wife Melania gives the exact same speech and people get
on her case. I don’t get it.”
But the barbs he
subsequently threw at Clinton – delivered as though at a Trump
campaign rally – fell flat.
“This is the first
time that Hillary is sitting down and speaking to major corporate
donors and not getting paid for it,” Trump said.
“Hillary is so
corrupt she got kicked off the Watergate commission.”
The audience of
roughly 1,500 clad in tuxedos and ballroom gowns were not laughing.
Nor were they amused when Trump made light of his assertion in the
final presidential debate, held less than 24 hours earlier in Las
Vegas, that Clinton was “a nasty woman”.
“This stuff is all
relative,” he said. “After listening to Hillary rattle on and on
and on, I don’t think so badly of Rosie O’Donnell any more. In
fact I’m actually starting to like Rosie a lot.”
Clinton’s speech
was less bitter in its tone but also included a series of jokes not
far removed from the attack lines she has employed against Trump on
the stump.
The Democratic
nominee needled her opponent over his admiration for Russia and its
president, remarking of Trump’s refusal to disclose his health
records: “Donald Trump really is as healthy as a horse – you
know, the one Vladimir Putin rides around on.”
Of his inability to
stick to teleprompters, Clinton quipped: “I’m sure it’s even
harder when you’re translating from the original Russian.”
Both candidates
laughed along for parts of one another’s remarks, but in other
moments sat stoney-faced. The frostiness was uncharacteristic of
previous election cycles but then so has been the tenor of the 2016
contest.
As Trump focused on
Clinton’s trustworthiness, the former secretary of state honed in
on his behavior toward women.
“Donald looks at
the Statue of Liberty and sees a four,” Clinton said, “maybe a
five, if she loses the torch and tablet and changes her hair.”
“You know what
would be a good number for a woman? 45,” she added, in reference to
the number marking the next president’s place in US history.
Her roast also
nodded to the previous night’s debate, in which Trump refused to
endorse the US democratic process, leaving open whether he would
accept the outcome of the 8 November election.
“It’s amazing
I’m up here after Donald. I didn’t think he’d be OK with a
peaceful transition of power,” Clinton said, before tossing in a
dig at Trump’s running mate: “After listening to your speech I
will also enjoy listening to Mike Pence deny you ever gave it.”
Clinton’s remarks
were met with occasional groans but not the open show of distaste
that greeted Trump. Relishing her standing with less than three weeks
remaining until election day, Clinton made sure to capitalize on the
moment by calling out her opponent for saying she should be drug
tested prior to the final debate.
“I am so flattered
that Donald thought I use some sort of performance enhancer,” she
said. “Actually I did – it’s called preparation.”
Throughout the
evening the collective toll of an election distinct in its ugliness
separated the event from previous years’.
Even Nicholas
DiMarzio, the reverend who conducted the invocation at the start of
the ceremony, deadpanned: “I think most of us, including Secretary
Clinton and Mr Trump, are praying for this election to be over soon.
So let us pray.”
Al Smith IV, the
great-grandson of the late Al Smith in whose memory the dinner earned
its name, cautioned the candidates in his own introduction: “Tonight
we’re all friends.”
But even Smith
couldn’t help himself when commenting on a race that with each
passing day has never ceased to shock the public.
“Donald went up to
Hillary and asked her how she was doing,” Smith joked.
“Hillary replied:
‘I’m fine. Now get out of the ladies’ dressing room.’”
Just a few breaths
later he skewered Trump again over the allegations of sexual assault
and a lewd tape in which the former reality TV star bragged of
kissing and groping women without their consent.
“Don, even though
there’s a man sitting next to you in a robe, you’re not in a
locker room,” Smith told the New York developer in his hometown.
“So please watch your language.”
.webp)
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