Vice President Kamala Harris coldly chided pro-Palestinian uncommitted protesters at her rally in Michigan on Thursday night as the movement that once threatened President Joe Biden’s reelection bid now haunts Harris’s campaign.
Pro-Palestinian protesters could be heard chanting, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide. We won’t vote for genocide” while Harris was levying attacks on former President Donald Trump:
Protestors shouting about genocide in Gaza interrupt rally. At first @VP waits patiently and talks about democracy. Then she gets fed up and says this: "You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise I'm speaking." pic.twitter.com/yCh6aL4ist
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) August 8, 2024
During the first disruption in her speech, Harris said, “I am here because we believe in democracy; everyone’s voice matters, but I am speaking now”:
C-SPANBut after protesters would not let up, she snapped at them and shot them a cold look.
“You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking!” she exclaimed.
She then stared down the protesters for at least 15 seconds as her supporters cheered the silencing of the uncommitted protesters.
Former top Sen. Bernie Sanders adviser Nina Turner, who helped drive the uncommitted movement in the Democrat primary, where more than half a million primary voters cast protest votes against Biden for his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, blasted Harris on X after the exchange.
“People are in a lot of pain, they want the death and destruction in Gaza to end, death and destruction our government is funding,” Turner wrote. “This response is inappropriate and lacks empathy”:
People are in a lot of pain, they want the death and destruction in Gaza to end, death and destruction our government is funding.
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) August 8, 2024
This response is inappropriate and lacks empathy.
People do not want Trump to win, they want the genocide to end. https://t.co/RjGkCUULvT
“People do not want Trump to win, they want the genocide to end,” she added, before following up with another post, saying the “Harris-Walz campaign needs these people.”
“There needs to be outreach in policy, and if the rhetoric is hostile, it tells people that the policy will be hostile,” he added. “They must build their coalition to beat Trump. This does not do that”:
The Harris-Walz campaign needs these people. These protesters are not right-wing.
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) August 8, 2024
There needs to be outreach in policy, and if the rhetoric is hostile, it tells people that the policy will be hostile.
They must build their coalition to beat Trump. This does not do that.
In a tweet sharing Harris’s scolding of the protesters, Nathan Robinson, the editor-in-chief of the leftist Current Affairs, said that “there are no signs whatsoever that Harris will stop the ongoing crimes against Palestine.”
“Those concerned with stopping these crimes have to put pressure on Harris and Walz to make real commitments and not just occasionally lament civilian deaths,” he tweeted.
The uncommitted movement of Arab Americans, Muslims, young voters, and progressives plagued Biden’s now-terminated campaign throughout the primary. The movement began in Michigan with the Listen to Michigan campaign, and more than 100,000 Democrat primary voters selected the “uncommitted” option on the ballot to protest the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the war and to force policy change that could bring them home to him in November.
“These primaries are an early litmus test for how much Biden’s stance on Gaza could hurt his reelection bid; the threat to Biden’s reelection isn’t that anti-war Democrats will vote for Trump, it’s that they won’t vote at all,” Listen to Michigan’s website states.
The 101,430 uncommitted votes in Michigan approached the 154,188 vote margin Biden won Michigan by in 2020, underscoring the threat to his bid and now Harris’s.
The movement spread rapidly, including to other crucial Rust Belt states that will decide the election, such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
In the Wisconsin democrat primary, 48,812 voters selected the “Uninstructed” option to protest Biden. This is more than double the 20,682 margin that propelled Biden to victory in the last cycle.
It also moved to Minnesota, where nearly one in five voters went for “uncommitted” in the Democrat primary, landing the movement delegates. The 45,914 protest votes eclipse the 44,593 margin that twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won Minnesota by in 2016, though Biden won by a larger margin in 2020.
Leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement, Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, spoke briefly with Harris and her running mate, Gov Tim Walz (D-MN), and “presented their concerns” about the U.S. supplying military aid to Israel for the war, according to a release. The meeting came ahead of the rally before Harris snapped at the protesters, according to the New York Times:
.@uncommittedmvmt on co-founders' interactions with Harris/Walz at the Detroit rally
— Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) August 8, 2024
Layla Elabed "broke down in tears" and said: "I’m Palestinian, I’m a founder of Uncommitted. Michigan voters want to support you, but we need a policy that will save lives in Gaza right now." pic.twitter.com/TpmJWyRhIA
Harris “expressed an openness to a meeting with Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo” but did not explicitly commit to one, per the release.
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