It is now ABC’s installment of what now appears to be an ongoing Acela Media series, which explores the prospects of the truest, purest victim of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza: President Joe Biden’s reelection.
Watch as ABC Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce parachutes into Dearborn, Michigan and discovers that people are willing to sit out an election over Biden’s response to Gaza, even if it means Donald Trump winning reelection:
BRUCE: The president later privately apologized to Muslim American advocates for those remarks, but Dearborn's Muslim and Arab American mayor, Abdullah Hamoud, says Biden's response to this crisis has lacked empathy.
BRUCE: What do you make of how the president is handling this crisis?
ABDULLAH HAMOUD: I think, you know, the unfortunate reality, there's been a callousness. This is a president I supported because he spoke about humanity, that he was a president for all people, and it's certainly not the president that I see in the White House today.
BRUCE: The president has been ramping up the pressure on Israel to do more to protect civilians, and address the humanitarian crisis, and he's tweaking his tone. Biden recently writing in an op-ed, every innocent Palestinian life lost is a tragedy that rips apart families and communities, but for advocates like Lexi who supported Biden in the past, it's too little, too late.
Is there anything the president could do at this point that would regain your support?
LEXI ZEIDAN: Nothing. We understand that no vote to a Democratic candidate is going to be a vote to a Republican candidate, and we are- we are willing to take that risk.
BRUCE: She says it's worth it to send a strong message to Democrats.
ZEIDAN: Maybe Trump will win. Maybe Trump will get in office, and that's to open the eyes and the ears of the rest of the public, to say, listen. It's going to be short-term pain for these next four years, but Democrats will not win Michigan until Democrats are ready to back Palestine.
A reminder of what we said when NBC ran their Dearborn story a month ago:
From my time in the trenches of The Great Latinx War, I’ve come to learn that these pieces are intended to throw a flare up to several stakeholders, to wit: the rest of the media, the local and national party apparatus, and the presidential campaign itself. Items such as these are an early warning that things are quickly spiraling out of control for the Democrat incumbent and will likely require both a policy reversal and a greater expenditure of campaign resources than anticipated. “This minority electorate which you should’ve had in the bag is getting restive and will quickly begin wilding out unless you turn things around”.
As the ground war escalates in Gaza you can expect to see more pieces, both in print and on screen, about festering anti-Biden discontent in places such as Detroit, Dearborn, and Hamtramck.
Ring the alarm.
ABC has now joined the chorus. Expect more to come as hostilities escalate in southern Gaza.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on ABC This Week on Sunday, December 10th, 2023:
U.S. REP. RACHIDA TLAIB (D-MI): We will not be silent. Fighting to save lives, no matter faith, no matter ethnicity should not be controversial especially when the majority of Americans outside of this institution supports a ceasefire. The images coming out of Gaza are horrific. Netanyahu has resumed his genocidal bombing campaign with president Biden's support. We need a permanent ceasefire now.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian American elected to Congress, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel/Hamas war amid growing frustration among Muslim and Arab Americans over President Biden's response to the war. ABC's Chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce traveled to Dearborn, Michigan to report on what it could mean for the 2024 election.
MARY BRUCE: From San Francisco to New York to the White House -- pro-Palestinian voices are rising, demanding a ceasefire to protect innocent civilians in Gaza. [ Chanting ]
In the tight-knit community of Dearborn, Michigan, the devastation and loss of life hits hard. Home to one of the largest Muslim and Arab American populations in the country, this conflict is personal.
YASMEEN KADOUH: There is zero degree of separation between Dearborn and Gaza.
BRUCE: Over tea at the local bakery, Yasmeen Kadouh shares her pain and frustration.
KADOUH: There's a collective grief we're all feeling and we don't feel like anyone's listening. They always want our votes, but they never want our voices.
BRUCE: Michigan's 200,000 Muslim voters turned out overwhelmingly for Biden in 2020, helping him win this critical state by just 154,000 votes, but now their support is increasingly in doubt.
YASMEEN KADOUH: We've woken up to the fact that you're not going to pander to us anymore. You're either going to listen to our demands, or you're going to lose this really important chunk of voters.
BRUCE: Which could cost an election.
KADOUH: Which could cost an election but even more so right now, it's costing lives.
BRUCE: Ned Fawaz is more blunt.
NED FAWAZ: Of course, this will cost an election. This is a different Biden and we're not going to vote for Biden.
BRUCE: The president's tone, especially his early rhetoric on the death toll, sparking outrage and hurt.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed.
BRUCE: The president later privately apologized to Muslim American advocates for those remarks, but Dearborn's Muslim and Arab American mayor, Abdullah Hamoud, says Biden's response to this crisis has lacked empathy.
BRUCE: What do you make of how the president is handling this crisis?
ABDULLAH HAMOUD: I think, you know, the unfortunate reality, there's been a callousness. This is a president I supported because he spoke about humanity, that he was a president for all people, and it's certainly not the president that I see in the White House today.
BRUCE: The president has been ramping up the pressure on Israel to do more to protect civilians, and address the humanitarian crisis, and he's tweaking his tone. Biden recently writing in an op-ed, every innocent Palestinian life lost is a tragedy that rips apart families and communities, but for advocates like Lexi who supported Biden in the past, it's too little, too late.
Is there anything the president could do at this point that would regain your support?
LEXI ZEIDAN: Nothing. We understand that no vote to a Democratic candidate is going to be a vote to a Republican candidate, and we are- we are willing to take that risk.
BRUCE: She says it's worth it to send a strong message to Democrats.
ZEIDAN: Maybe Trump will win. Maybe Trump will get in office, and that's to open the eyes and the ears of the rest of the public, to say, listen. It's going to be short-term pain for these next four years, but Democrats will not win Michigan until Democrats are ready to back Palestine.
BRUCE: For This Week: Mary Bruce, ABC News, Dearborn, Michigan.
