President Biden’s reelection campaign says it does not want the votes of protesters who chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” at a recent anti-Israel demonstration in Dearborn, Michigan.
The chants were led by Tarek Bazzi during an International Al-Quds Day rally last Friday.
Asked by Fox News whether the president hopes to win the support of those demonstrators, Biden campaign spokesperson Charles Lutvak reportedly said, “No.”
The campaign “denounces these disgusting and antisemitic remarks,” he said.
“President Biden knows America is the greatest nation in the world. Full stop,” Lutvak added.
Not everyone from the president’s party was willing to condemn the protesters, though.
Fox Business reporter Hillary Vaughn approached Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) in the halls of the United States Capitol Complex on Thursday and asked whether the Michigan congresswoman would condemn the chants.
Tlaib said only that she would not talk to Fox News because she does not “talk to people that use racist tropes.”
“I’m talking about your guys’s racist tropes,” she said when pressed to respond. “You know, you guys are — you know exactly what you do. And I know you’re Islamophobic, but you guys gotta go deal with it on your own selves. You’re not going to use me.”
Michigan could be a make-it-or-break-it state for Biden’s reelection hopes. But trouble may be on the horizon with Biden among voters who are critical of his position on the Israel-Hamas war. In a show of protest last month, more than 100,000 voters in the state’s Democratic primary voted “uncommitted” over Biden.
Dearborn could emerge as a critical marker of Biden’s support in the state, as the city has the highest per capita Muslim population in the U.S.
Campaign officials held a meeting with Arab American and Muslim leaders in the city in January, though it was not well received by Democratic Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who called the outreach “dehumanizing.” Top Biden administration officials traveled to the city in February to once again meet with Arab American and Muslim leaders.