Leading members of the campaign group ‘White Dudes for Harris’ have responded to Donald Trump’s joke about their wives at the Al Smith dinner.

The former president headlined the annual white-tie event that raises money for Catholic causes in New York City on Thursday evening. Trump gave a speech that made a series of jokes at the expense of Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic figures.

One of the one-liners Trump delivered was an attack mocking the people behind the White Dudes for Harris movement.

“There’s a group called ‘White Dudes for Harris,’ but I don’t worry about them at all because their wives and their wives’ lovers are all voting for me,” Trump said.

Tim Fullerton, an organizer with White Dudes for Harris, responded with his own attack on the former president.

“I’m one of the organizers of White Dudes for Harris. My wife would rather eat a month’s worth of glass than vote for that man,” Fullerton wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Ross Morales Rocketto, lead organizer, added: “There is still plenty of time for persuasive conversations.”

Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign team via email for comment.

The White Dudes for Harris group was influenced by similar volunteer movements such as Black Men, Black Women, or White Women for Harris.

In July, a White Dudes for Harris Zoom call, which included a host of celebrities and Democratic figures, raised more than $4 million for the vice president’s 2024 campaign.

Harris did not attend the Al Smith dinner on Thursday because she was campaigning in the important swing state of Wisconsin. The vice president instead appeared via video link in a sketch alongside comedian Molly Shannon who portrayed her Saturday evening live character Mary Katherine Gallagher, a Catholic schoolgirl.

Trump repeatedly referred to Harris’ absence as he made his jokes at the event, while also attacking President Joe Biden’s cognitive ability.

“If the Democrats really wanted someone not to be with us tonight, they would have sent Joe Biden,” Trump said.

In another criticism, Trump said: “The fact is, we need new leadership in this country. Right now we have someone in the White House who can barely speak, can barely put together two coherent sentences, who appears to have the mental faculties. of a child. There is a person who has nothing. No intelligence whatsoever. But enough about Kamala Harris.”

Trump said he may have gone too far by citing the affair Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff had during his previous marriage, and unconfirmed reports that the woman was a nanny for Emhoff’s children.

“The only advice I would have for (Harris) if she wins is not to let her husband Doug near the nannies,” Trump said, prompting groans and gasps from the audience.

“That is an annoying issue. I told the idiots who gave me this stuff, that’s too heavy,” Trump added.

Trump was also on the receiving end of some jokes during the dinner.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan mocked the former president for raising the false claim that migrants ate people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio, while referring to the Access to Hollywood band.

The audio, which was unearthed shortly before the 2016 election, shows Trump bragging in 2005 that he could grab women ‘by the p****’.

“During the first and only debate, President Trump talked about immigrants taking cats and eating them,” Gaffigan said. “You know, if you’re keeping an eye on it at home, this is the second time that getting a cat has been part of a campaign issue.”