“All great change in America begins at the dinner table,” President Ronald Reagan told the nation in his 1989 farewell address — and the 2024 Alfred E. Smith Dinner is no exception to the rule.
Politics, money, and religion were all at the table Thursday evening as a plethora of plutocrats gathered for the annual event in New York City, which comedian Jim Gaffigan called the “Catholic Met Gala” in his opening comments.
Traditionally, both Democrat and Republican presidential nominees speak before a room of hundreds of diners. They elicit laughs with lighthearted roasts as a testament to the humanity of larger-than-life politicians.
