--- title: Al Smith V: Donald Trump 'Took It a Little Too Far' at Roast description: Tensions were high the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner after Donald Trump took the mic, a foundation family member said canonical: https://time.com/4540681/donald-trump-alfred-smith-roast/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-21T17:03:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:26.149Z article:section: Politics og:title: Al Smith V: Donald Trump 'Took It a Little Too Far' at Charity Roast og:description: "The room did get a little uncomfortable" og:url: https://time.com/4540681/donald-trump-alfred-smith-roast/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt108e4d7fa71ca501/6988ab0b428a9e3df8cd4b93/alfred-smith.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-POLITICS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Al Smith V: Donald Trump 'Took It a Little Too Far' at Charity Roast twitter:description: "The room did get a little uncomfortable" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt108e4d7fa71ca501/6988ab0b428a9e3df8cd4b93/alfred-smith.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Al Smith V Says Donald Trump 'Took It a Little Too Far' at Catholic Charity Roast > 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 [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 21, 2016 5:03 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton speaks with Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at Waldorf Astoria in NYC, on Oct. 20, 2016\. in New York, New York. Hillary Clinton speaks with Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at Waldorf Astoria in NYC, on Oct. 20, 2016\. in New York, New York. Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 21, 2016 5:03 PM UTC Tensions were high the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner on Thursday evening after Donald Trump took the microphone and went “a little too far,” a foundation family member said. The Republican presidential nominee was repeatedly booed at the Catholic fundraiser, including when he fired shots at Hillary Clinton over information [released by WikiLeaks](http://time.com/4528532/hillary-clinton-campaign-pushes-back-on-anti-catholic-charge/). Trump said Clinton “is tonight in public pretending not to hate Catholics,” referring to a batch of hacked emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s account that [offered some critique of Catholic conservatives](http://time.com/4528532/hillary-clinton-campaign-pushes-back-on-anti-catholic-charge/). “The room did get a little uncomfortable, yeah,” Smith [said on CNN’s _New Day_](http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/21/politics/al-smith-v-rates-trump-clinton-performances-at-dinner/index.html) Friday. “Like I said, you know, that line in a room full of predominantly Catholics, that didn’t go over very well.” Before the dinner, Cardinal Timothy Dolan requested that Clinton apologize for what he said was “extraordinarily patronizing and insulting to Catholics,” according to [Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/clinton-trump-alfred-e-smith-dinner-230140). The dinner came just a day after the [final presidential debate](http://time.com/4539855/third-final-presidential-debate-ratings/) between the two, where Trump referred to Clinton as a [“nasty woman,”](http://time.com/4538271/donald-trump-nasty-woman-interruption-presidential-debate/) and the two reportedly [did not shake hands](http://time.com/4539888/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-al-smith-dinner/) before the dinner. “I think what we saw in the last debate a couple nights ago, we saw last night,” Smith said. “You know, Donald had some very solid minutes early on and eventually he crossed the line and took it a little too far.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4540681/donald-trump-alfred-smith-roast/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4540681/donald-trump-alfred-smith-roast/"},"headline":"Al Smith V Says Donald Trump 'Took It a Little Too Far' at Catholic Charity Roast","datePublished":"2016-10-21T17:03:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:26.149Z","description":"\"The room did get a little uncomfortable\"","url":"https://time.com/4540681/donald-trump-alfred-smith-roast/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Religion","Catholics","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt108e4d7fa71ca501/6988ab0b428a9e3df8cd4b93/alfred-smith.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt108e4d7fa71ca501/6988ab0b428a9e3df8cd4b93/alfred-smith.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-POLITICS","caption":"US-VOTE-POLITICS","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images","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/4540681/donald-trump-alfred-smith-roast/","name":"Al Smith V Says Donald Trump 'Took It a Little Too Far' at Catholic Charity Roast"}}]}] ```