President Biden is facing doubts from Jewish voters who supported him in 2020 as the Israel-Hamas war rages on abroad and as mass student protests against Israel cause concerns at home.
"I’ve had a couple of people say point-blank, ‘How could any Jew vote for a Democrat?’" Michigan Jewish Democrats' West Michigan chair Troy Zukowski told CNN.
"I’m not so concerned about Jews who may vote for Trump," he continued. "I’m more concerned about those who may vote for third party spoiler candidates or not vote at all."
Calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and the wave of anti-Israel protests at colleges and even sporting events across the country have divided wings of the Democratic Party, undermining unified support for Biden in his re-election campaign.
CNN reported that tensions rose last month at a White House briefing held right before the Rose Garden event celebrating Jewish American Heritage month, which featured Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden discussing fighting antisemitism, and deputy national security adviser Jon Finer and National Security Council spokesman John Kirby discussing Israel. There, according to the report, they were peppered with difficult questions, including why one NSC official had been part of the far-left group Students for Justice in Palestine.
"It was a very tough crowd for a room of people you have to assume all voted for Joe Biden four years ago," said a person in the room who asked not to be named, according to CNN.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a practicing Jew and prominent Biden supporter, dismissed concerns about Jewish voters abandoning Biden and attacked former President Trump instead.
"If you go back in the history of the world and look at the leadership of every dictator, from Pharaoh to Hitler to Kim Jong Un, at what point in our history when a dictator has been leading a nation has a minority group done well?" Shapiro said on CNN.
"Donald Trump will eviscerate the rights of minority groups, including American Jews, if he is given the power of the presidency again," the governor said. "History tells us that."
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"Right now, the Democratic Party is in a moment where they have to choose to successfully lead these forces instead of being led by them," former Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin told CNN.
"Every effort to pander to [Michigan Rep.] Rashida Tlaib and those ‘Abandon Biden’ voters in Michigan has the risk of alienating Jewish voters in the Detroit suburbs," he said.
"Jewish Americans and Jewish leaders around the world recognize that President Trump did more for them and the State of Israel than any President in history," Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"Joe Biden’s weakness led to the attacks on Israel, and he still refuses to outright condemn the anti-Semitic mobs raging on college campuses because his donors are funding them and he needs the votes of these radical terrorist sympathizers," she said. "The bottom line is that Joe Biden caves to Far-Left extremists and terrorists while President Trump will protect Jewish Americans and put American citizens first."
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The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this article attributed a quote from an anonymous person to CNN to deputy national security adviser Jon Finer. This has been corrected.