Kamla Harris BLASTED For Her Cringe-Worthy Pre-Recorded Speech For Al Smith Dinner

Every time Kamala Harris speaks, I either want to laugh because of how ridiculous she sounds/is, or cringe in embarrassment. Her speech at the Al Smith Dinner on Thursday night made me want to do a bit of both.

A disclaimer, you must know that I use the term “speech” loosely. You see, politicians attend this dinner as a fundraiser for Catholic charities in New York City to joke about themselves and their political opponents. It’s a great time that often yields some funny moments and dialogue, while raising money for worthwhile causes.

However, Harris didn’t feel like she needed to show up last night in favor of campaigning in Wisconsin. In one sense, that makes sense; in another, it seems like a missed opportunity for her. After all, there hasn’t been a lot of positive publicity for her since she started her campaign, and you would think that a lighthearted event like this would be the perfect chance for her to correct course. Apparently, she didn’t think so.

Instead, she got former Saturday Night Live actress Molly Shannon to revive her Saturday Night Live character of Catholic school girl Mary Katherine Gallagher in a pre-recorded message that was played for all the guests. Here it is.

To be honest, I had no idea that Shannon or her Catholic schoolgirl alter ego existed, but I have it on good word from some of my co-workers that her recurring appearances on SNL were not that funny (how can you not be funny on the world’s most famous comedy show?). I do think she deserves credit for saying that the fact-checker at the event would be Jesus and for jokingly claiming Catholics are forgiving people. Both of those were phenomenal one-liners that genuinely made me laugh (everything else, however, made my skin crawl. Smelling the armpits, really?).

But Harris herself detracted from the overall thrust of the video. Most Catholic people with even a small amount of common sense should know that her attempt to appeal to the religious audience was nothing short of hypocritical. She supports the LGBT worldview, abortion, communism, all things people of faith staunchly oppose. Quoting one or two lines of scripture and giving a blessing doesn’t make up for any of that.

The big takeaway from this for me is that even when everything is scripted for her, she’s still not able to be funny. I guess that’s the point, because if she tried to do this in person without prompting, it would have been an absolute nightmare.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan was the emcee of the evening (an excellent choice, he’s my favorite comedian), and he absolutely torched Harris for not showing up.

“This is a room full of Catholics and Jews in NYC, this should be a layup for the Democratic nominee,” he joked. “In her defense, she did find time to appear on The View, Howard Stern, Colbert, and the longtime staple of campaigning – the Call Her Daddy podcast.”

While those jokes were scripted (and downright hilarious), this one-liner was impromptu: “As I watched that I couldn’t help but think of, now I know how my kids felt when I FaceTime into a piano recital they were at,” he said.

If you hear someone laughing as you read this, it’s probably me. This hardly (if ever) misses, and he certainly didn’t here.

But Gaffigan was not the only one who blasted Harris for an awful speech, social media got to work picking apart this horrible “bit.”

You always know what you’ll get when Harris speaks: something dumb, meme-worthy, or cringe. This sham of a skit was no different.