US President Joe Biden joins the Prime Minister of Israel for the start of the Israeli war cabinet meeting, in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Miriam Alster | Afp | Getty Images
Muslim leaders announced Saturday that they will go national in an effort to prevent voters from re-electing President Joe Biden in 2024 over his failure to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
The #AbandonBiden the campaign officially began in December, led by Muslim leaders in swing states like Michigan, Minnesota and Arizona, who disapproved of Biden’s support for Israel’s counterattacks against Hamas. The counterattacks came at the cost of thousands of innocent Palestinian lives.
Now, the coalition intends to expand the pressure campaign to all 50 states.
“We will save America from itself, by punishing Biden at the ballot box,” lead organizer Jaylani Hussein said in a statement.
Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The coalition plans to endorse a free presidential candidate, Hussein told CNBC. He added that the campaign is not supporting former President Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, even though it is aware of the risks of draining Biden’s voter base.
“There is a possibility that our votes will weaken the Democrats so that the Republicans can win,” Hussein said. “We’re not that stupid.”
The #AbandonBiden campaign is willing to take that risk, he said: “We will risk an unknown four years of Trump.”
to Trump track record in protecting Muslim freedoms does not gain optimism though and the former president has spoken about his plans to continue where he left off. Should Trump win a second term, he has said he wants to reintroduce and expand his Muslim ban, which bans people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.
However, Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war has been a blight in his re-election campaign so far, especially among key voter demographics that helped put him in office four years ago.
Young voters dropped Biden’s approval rating to the lowest in an NBC poll in November, amid his foreign policy actions on the war. And Muslim-Americans in battleground states, who helped win Biden slim margin of victory in 2020said they would rather vote for a third-party candidate or not vote at all this time.
That’s not exclusive to Muslim-Americans. An October Gallup the poll found that a majority of voters were so dissatisfied with the Republican and Democratic parties that they felt an independent party candidate was needed.
It’s too early to tell whether the third-party momentum will hold at the ballot box. Nearly a year from election day, this type of polling represents a snapshot in time, not a definitive prediction, but it can offer insight into emerging trends and how a campaign might think about re-emerging. position itself for the future.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said it expects Israel to comply with international humanitarian law and take all possible steps to minimize civilian casualties. However, the White House has not yet formally conditioned US aid to Israel on humanitarian criteria.
On fridayBiden sided with Congress for the second time this month to pass $147.5 million in emergency military support to Israel.
