Dearborn, Michigan mayor hits Biden for sending campaign to meet with local Arab-American leaders
Dearborn, Michigan Mayor Abdullah Hammoud told CNN's Dana Bash on Tuesday that it was "dehumanizing" of President Biden to send a member of his campaign staff to speak with Arab-American and Muslim leaders in the state.
Democratic Dearborn, Michigan Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said Tuesday that it was "dehumanizing" of President Biden to send campaign staff to meet with Arab-American and Muslim leadership because it required "policymakers."
CNN's Dana Bash asked why he declined to meet with a member of the Biden campaign after Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., decided to sit down with her, amid the ongoing backlash Biden faces over his support for Israel.
"This is not a moment for electoral politics. Over the course of now, 115 days, Israel murdered more than 26,000 Gazans and displaced over two million. For us, this is an issue that demands action and not lip service. This is an issue that requires policymakers to come talk about taking a different course of action. This is not a conversation you have with campaign staff," Hammoud told the media outlet.
Bash asked if he had spoken to anyone on a policy level.
Dearborn, Michigan Mayor Abdullah Hammoud joins CNN's Dana Bash on Tuesday, January 30, 2024. (Screenshot/CNN)
"I think if you're going to send a delegation to Dearborn to meet with a collective group of Arab-Americans and Muslim-American leaders, it should be a senior policymaking team. But for us, it’s just dehumanizing when he sends campaign staff. It sends the message that this is purely one of political means. For us, Palestinian lives are not measured in poll numbers. We have to have a serious dialogue moving forward," he said.
The CNN host also asked Hammoud how the Biden administration could win back the support of Arab and Muslim Americans. He said Biden needed to commit to the promises he made in 2020 about bringing "decency" back to the White House.
"It’s understanding that we here in Dearborn, the broader Arab-American community, the Muslim-American community, we know what it is like to live overseas, under siege, under apartheid, under occupation. So come to Dearborn, come to this community, let's put the pen in both of our hands and let’s co-govern and co-write what the policies should be to move our country forward in the right direction," he said.
Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted President Biden's speech to the United Auto Workers union conference in Washington on Wednesday. (Fox News)
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Hammoud was also asked about whether Biden would still be a better alternative for the Arab-American community compared to former President Trump.
"For us, we have survived the Trump presidency four years ago. And I’m not blind to what’s being said by Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates. However, Democrats nationally need to reckon with the question of, what does it mean for them to potentially lose thousands of voters on the response to this human rights issue? What are they going to do about it? The question you pose me is a question that should be posed back to the president," he said.
Several of Biden's recent campaign stops and speeches have been interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters.
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Biden was interrupted multiple times during a recent abortion rights rally in Manassas, Virginia, on Tuesday.
Throughout Biden’s talk, multiple protesters interrupted by shouting critiques of his administration’s handling of Israel's ongoing ground offensive against the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Immediately after beginning his remarks, a male protester with a Palestinian flag shouted, "How many kids have you killed?" The protester was drowned out by the crowd chanting "four more years" as security escorted the protester out.
Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
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