President Biden is expected to easily win today's primary,
but Michigan governor and Biden campaign Co chair Gretchen Whitmer
acknowledged that a large portion of the electorate will not
vote for Biden to protest his handling of the Israel
Hamas war.
I think there will be a sizable number of votes
for uncommitted.
I think that it is
every person's right to make their statement about what's important
to them.
The uncommitted organizers have said that they want to get
at least 10,000 votes.
Do you think they'll reach that?
I think that that's possible,
yeah.
President Biden has seen significant backlash in the state from
its Arab American and Muslim American population,
as well as some young progressive voters,
we should note. Governor Whitmer will join us later this
morning on Morning Joe.
Joining us now, White House reporter for the Wall Street
Journal,
Sabrina Siddiqui. Sabrina, good to see you again this morning.
So the president faced a little bit of a protest
vote in New Hampshire.
Viewers will recall some people there were encouraged to write
in Ceasefire
instead of the president's name,
and that amounted to next to nothing.
Today feels much more sizable,
and I know you've been focusing on it for quite
some time.
So give us the lay of the land.
What should we and President Biden expect in Michigan today?
Thanks for having me. Well,
I think first and foremost,
President Biden will comfortably win the Michigan primary.
There's no question about that,
since he's facing minimal opposition.
But as you point out,
there is this effort to get voters
to cast their ballots as uncommitted.
And Michigan is the state with the
highest number and percentage of Arab and Arab Americans in
the country.
And those who have been
frustrated by President Biden's handling of the Israel Hamas war
and specifically the humanitarian crisis in Gaza are using this
as an opportunity to really warn the president that he
does not currently have their vote.
And barring a significant change in policy,
they are likely to either vote third party or stay
at home in November.
It's not that they're planning to vote for former President
Trump,
but, you know, I think that the margin that this
group is this or effort is looking toward is
having at least 10,000 uncommitted votes.
That was Trump's margin of victory in 2016.
Now Biden. President Biden won by roughly
154,000 votes in 2020, but I think the message is
still that if this is a close election,
then that margin of victory or that margin of 10,000
could actually make a difference.
If not, you know, they could potentially also secure more
uncommitted votes.
And really what it is,
is again a warning sign to President Biden in the
White House that they need to change course in their
handling of the war and do a lot more
to try and get, I think,
reassure this community and get more
reaffirm their support with this,
with a community that in past elections has predominantly voted
for Democrats.
Yeah, it could be a real warning to Biden and
also potentially A humbling moment for the president if those
numbers are
sizable. So Sabrina, let's take the other side of this
then.
So what does the president and his campaign staff,
how are they going to address this in the aftermath
of this morning,
select this today's election, how will they reach out to
the community and what how do they hope to repair
things by November?
Well, it's been a bit of a problem because last
month
the Biden campaign dispatched its campaign manager to meet with
some local Arab American leaders.
And Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the Biden campaign manager,
was rebuffed by many local elected officials.
So in recent weeks, you actually saw some top
foreign policy and national security officials from the Biden administration
sit down and have a conversation.
Now the biggest problem is that this,
you know, these voters are not looking for a shift
in tone.
They're looking for a shift in policy.
So what I often have heard from them is they
don't want to talk about the politics.
They don't want to talk about,
you know, how they're going to vote in November so
much as what is the president going to do
to what to to bring about what they want,
which is a permanent ceasefire in this war as well
as,
you know, the US no longer sending military aid to
Israel,
at least in the course of this conflict.
And that's something that this administration is not really prepared
to do.
I mean the president is pushing for a temporary ceasefire
and and you know he said last night that he
hopes that he hopes there will be 1 by Monday.
But but there's we're not expecting a significant shift in
the US
support for Israel in this,
in this war. And so you know what the lasting
impact of that is going to be with this community
is still untold.
Again, I think the Pine campaign is trying to draw
a contrast with a former President Trump,
a lot of his inflammatory rhetoric and policies toward Muslim
and Arab Americans.
But it's just not clear that drawing that contrast is
going to be enough when,
you know, this is these voters are,
I think, really frustrated by and disappointed with
President Biden's posture, especially as the death toll in Gaza
has neared 30,000 people,
most of whom are civilians.
Yeah, you make a great point here,
which we'll get into a little later in the show.
The president has hopes of a ceasefire coming and certainly
those around his reelection bid hope that the war in
Gaza will fade from the headlines by November.
But will this population in Michigan and other places
for give and move on and come back to the
president?
That's the open question. Terrific stuff.
To start us off this morning,
White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal,
Sabrina Siddiqui. Sabrina, thank you.
We'll talk to you again soon.