Photos: Jovanny Hernandez (left) and Junfu Han ~ USA TODAY NETWORK
DEARBORN, Jan. 29, 2024 ~ President Joe Biden‘s reelection woes continue in Michigan, as his stance on Israel‘s military assault on Gaza prevented a campaign aide from meeting with Arab American leaders in metro Detroit.
His campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, attempted to organize a meeting with about a dozen community leaders late last week in Dearborn, but there was one problem: many community members, leaders, and activists wanted nothing to do with Biden. The meeting was canceled after severe pushback against meeting with anyone associated with a candidate many members of the Arab American community believe is supporting a genocide against Palestinians.
One leader who publically rejected the meeting with Chavez Rodriguez was Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who said Biden should call for a ceasefire instead of campaigning.
“This is not a moment for electoral politics,” Hammoud said on X, formerly Twitter. “Over the course of 111 days, Israel has murdered more than 26,000 Gazans and displaced over 2 million, with no end in sight. The lives of Palestinians are not measured in poll numbers. Their humanity demands action, not lip service. When elected officials view the atrocities in Gaza only as an electoral problem, they reduce our indescribable pain into a political calculation.“
PODCAST:
Jan. 29, 2023 ~ Three U.S. troops were killed in a drone strike in Jordan, and President Joe Biden has blamed the Iranian-backed Houthi militia group. What should the response be? Former U.S. Congressman and Iraq War veteran Peter Meijer joins Guy Gordon, Lloyd Jackson, and Jamie Edmonds to talk about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Community engagement is powerful when it is used to shape policies that save lives – these conversations must be had with policy-makers, not campaign staff. I will not entertain conversations about elections while we watch a live-streamed genocide backed by our government.
— Abdullah H. Hammoud (@AHammoudMI) January 26, 2024
(CONTINUED) Biden’s unwavering support of Israel during the siege and military campaign on Gaza, which has seen about 25,000 people killed since Oct. 7, has angered many Arab Americans and young voters, resulting in devastating poll numbers for the president.
A poll conducted late last year found that Biden only has a 17% approval rating among Arab American voters in the U.S., which has one of the largest Arab and Muslim communities in the U.S. Biden won Michigan, a swing state, by just 150,000 votes in 2020.
760 WJR TOP NEWS STORIES:
