Cardinal Dolan On Sitting Between Clinton and Trump: They Were ‘Courteous’

Cardinal Dolan of New York was the poor soul tasked with sitting between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at the Al Smith Dinner in New York Thursday night. The Al Smith Dinner is a Catholic charity gala normally celebrated as a night of humor and civility, but given the current political climate, Thursday night’s dinner was far from keeping with tradition. Cardinal Dolan joined Today and said it wasn’t all bad. At one point, in private, the candidates even complimented each other.

“I was very moved by the obvious attempt on behalf of both Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump, to kind of be courteous, to get along, to say nice things privately to one another,” said Dolan. He added, “I was very moved by that. That was pleasant.”

Dolan was with the candidates while they were waiting to be introduced and asked them to say a prayer with him. It was after this prayer that Clinton and Trump exchanged pleasantries. According to Dolan, Trump called Clinton strong and talented, and Clinton told Trump that whatever happens in the election, they need to work together afterward.

Both Clinton and Trump used their opportunities to speak as a chance to take jabs at the other, though in this case those jabs were in the form of jokes, some hits and some misses. Trump, at one point, was even booed, a rarity at the gala. Using the platform as a thinly veiled political tool is not what the night is supposed to be about, yet that’s exactly what both candidates did.

“Last night, the butt of the joke was the other person. The characteristic of the evening is self deprecating, humble humor, and that seems to be a tougher and tougher goal to achieve,” Dolan said.

The ‘Today’ show says goodbye to Billy Bush:

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