--- title: Cardinal Dolan Witnessed "Touching Moments" Between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton description: Cardinal Dolan, who sat between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the Al Smith dinner, said the candidates shared some "touching moments." canonical: https://time.com/4540422/cardinal-dolan-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-al-smith/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-21T14:32:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:26.158Z article:section: Politics og:title: Cardinal Dolan Witnessed "Touching Moments" Between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton og:description: Cardinal Dolan, who sat between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the Al Smith dinner, said the candidates shared some "touching moments." og:url: https://time.com/4540422/cardinal-dolan-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-al-smith/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt671c4f94741840b3/6988aafea988ca2ce56b9d82/clinton-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3706 og:image:height: 2085 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Timonthy Dolan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cardinal Dolan Witnessed "Touching Moments" Between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton twitter:description: Cardinal Dolan, who sat between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the Al Smith dinner, said the candidates shared some "touching moments." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt671c4f94741840b3/6988aafea988ca2ce56b9d82/clinton-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump and Clinton Said 'Nice Things Privately' at Dinner, Cardinal Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 21, 2016 2:32 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Donald Trump, and his wife Melania Trump at a charity gala organized by the Archdiocese of New York, on Oct. 20, 2016. Hillary Clinton, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Donald Trump, and his wife Melania Trump at a charity gala organized by the Archdiocese of New York, on Oct. 20, 2016. Andrew Harnik—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 21, 2016 2:32 PM UTC Cardinal Dolan was admittedly “nervous” about his seating at Thursday night’s [Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner](http://time.com/4540173/alfred-smith-roast-clinton-trump-insults/?xid=homepage): he was placed directly between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But he said despite the evening’s occasionally [biting punchlines](http://time.com/4540289/al-smith-dinner-trump-clinton-zingers/), the two candidates shared some companionable time. “I was very moved by the obvious attempt on behalf of both Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump to both be courteous, to get along to say nice things privately to one another,” Dolan [said on the Today Show](http://www.today.com/video/cardinal-dolan-reveals-touching-moments-between-trump-and-clinton-at-al-smith-dinner-790757955551) Friday. While Dolan admitted Trump and Clinton could be “kind of awkward” together, he shared an interaction between them that he found “very touching.” Before the dinner began, he asked to pray with the two candidates. After the prayer, he said, “Mr. Trump turned to Secretary Clinton and said, ‘You know you are one tough and talented woman.’ And he said, ‘This has been a good experience in this whole campaign, as tough as it’s been.’ And she said to him, ‘Donald, whatever happens, we need to work together afterwards.'” But Dolan acknowledged that things weren’t so friendly once each candidate took the stage. “That amity that I just described maybe wasn’t as present during both addresses,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4540422/cardinal-dolan-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-al-smith/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4540422/cardinal-dolan-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-al-smith/"},"headline":"Trump and Clinton Said 'Nice Things Privately' at Dinner, Cardinal Says","datePublished":"2016-10-21T14:32:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:26.158Z","description":"Cardinal Dolan, who sat between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the Al Smith dinner, said the candidates shared some \"touching moments.\"","url":"https://time.com/4540422/cardinal-dolan-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-al-smith/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt671c4f94741840b3/6988aafea988ca2ce56b9d82/clinton-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt671c4f94741840b3/6988aafea988ca2ce56b9d82/clinton-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Timonthy Dolan","caption":"Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Timonthy Dolan","creditText":"Andrew Harnik—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4540422/cardinal-dolan-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-al-smith/","name":"Trump and Clinton Said 'Nice Things Privately' at Dinner, Cardinal Says"}}]}] ```