Scenes from past Al Smith dinners

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump weren’t pulling any punches as they addressed the well-heeled gathering in NY, just a day after they faced-off in the final TV debate.

Donald Trump’s reference to Hillary Clinton as “a nasty woman” during the last presidential debate before the election has inspired reactions ranging from disgust to mockery.

Clinton and Trump are sitting one seat away from each other at the Al Smith dinner, separated only by Archbishop Timothy Dolan at the event in Manhattan.

But as it progressed, Trump’s speech turned more biting. Obama, meanwhile, used his speech that year to look ahead to an upcoming debate on foreign policy, previewing his argument by saying “Spoiler alert: we got Bin Laden”. “It’s fantastic”, he said.

Trump then cracked a joke about Wikileaks, which has been publishing hacked emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

“The politicians, they’ve had me to their homes, they’ve introduced me to their children, I’ve become their best friends…”

Trump will speak first Thursday night, then Clinton.

But Trump and Clinton opted to instead trade sharpened barbs that reflected the acrimony of the 2016 White House campaign. “In fact I’m actually starting to like Rosie a lot”. “For example, here she is tonight in public, pretending the not to hate Catholics”.

But Mr Trump said: “I don’t know who they’re angry at, Hillary, you or I? I’m curious to hear what a billionaire has to say”.

Ms Virginia said he told her “Do you know who I am?”

So while the hashtag #nastywomenvote has been trending due mostly to women getting in a few jokes about Trump’s comment, it is following traditional paths of women’s rights groups.

While Clinton was explaining part of her economic policy, Trump interrupted and said “Such a nasty woman”. “Maybe a ‘5″ if she loses the torch and tablet and changes her hair”. “I’ve got to ask, how did you get the governor [Andrew Cumomo] and mayor [Bill de Blasio] here together tonight?”

Some 1,500 well-heeled invitees each paid at least $3,000 to attend the gala, which raised approximately $6 million.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner – held the third Thursday of every October – is a tradition in American presidential politics and marks the last time the two nominees share a stage, CNN reported. In 2004, the candidates did not attend after the Catholic Archdiocese of NY agonized over whether Democratic nominee John Kerry, a Catholic who supports abortion rights, should be invited.

Trump’s comment came in response to a dig from Clinton to the effect that the Republican nominee – who has bragged about his savviness in avoiding paying taxes – might also try to get out of chipping in toward the nation’s pension and health insurance programs.

The dinner’s namesake was the NY governor who in 1928 became the first Catholic nominee for president. “I have now stood next to Donald Trump longer than any of his campaign managers”, Clinton said as a stone-faced Trump looked on. But when he ran for the Senate in MA in 1994 against Ted Kennedy, he ran as a supporter of abortion rights, telling voters he was “committed to the belief that we can believe as we want, but we will not force our beliefs on others on that matter”.