President Trump on Thursday accused the Democratic Party of anti-Catholicism while speaking at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner, an annual Catholic event that brings together the two opposing presidential candidates.
Speaking directly after former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump listed a series of victories that his administration has delivered for Catholics, including support for the Little Sisters of the Poor in the long-running Supreme Court battle over Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate, anti-abortion executive orders, and his nomination of the Catholic Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The president contrasted his administration with the “anti-Catholic prejudice coming out of the Democrat Party,” especially following the Barrett nomination.
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“We will not stand for any attacks against Judge Barrett’s faith,” Trump said via video link. “Anti-Catholic bigotry has absolutely no place in the United States of America. It predominates in the Democrat Party, and we must do something immediately about it — like a Republican win. Let’s make it a really big one.”
The dinner, which is famous for its levity, was short on jokes this year, with neither Trump nor Biden, both of whom spoke virtually, opting for humor. Instead, the two focused on their 2020 message and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, also delivering remarks remotely, spoke about his personal faith, his relationship with Pope Francis as vice president, and said that both give him hope for the future.
“The American people don’t give up,” Biden said of recovery after the pandemic. “There is no quit in America.”
Trump, meanwhile, praised the Catholic Church and the dinner’s host, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, for his role in handling the virus in New York. Trump also lashed out at China for allowing the virus to spread worldwide before declaring that “the end of the pandemic is in sight.”
Dolan, who, in years past, has addressed both Republican and Democratic conventions, praised the two candidates for refraining from personal attacks, in contrast to Trump and Biden’s performance at the Tuesday debate.
“Did we just see a peaceful transition, a transition of the microphone?” Dolan joked after both candidates finished speaking, “that wasn’t so bad, was it, Mr. President?”
