'‘Uncommitted’ Nightmare Haunts Harris as CNN Interview Further
Fractures Democrat Base'

<https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2024/08/30/uncommitted-nightmare-haunts-harris-as-cnn-interview-further-fractures-democrat-base/>

'Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris is facing a severe crisis
with the pro-Palestinian wing of her party after she doubled down on her
and President Joe Biden’s Israel policies in her CNN interview Thursday.

CNN’s Dana Bash pressed Harris on arms policy toward Israel on Thursday
night. After Harris initially skirted a direct question about
potentially withholding “some” arms to Israel, as the pro-Palestinian
Uncommitted movement has been demanding for seven months, Bash did not
let her off the hook. Following up on the same question, she drew a “No”
from Harris when she asked if there would be any “change in policy in
terms of arms and so forth” towards Israel, igniting a frenzy of
condemnation from prominent pro-Palestinian figures, including Rep.
Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

The response and the fallout underscore and worsen a massive problem for
Harris, who has a fractured base heading into the home stretch of the
election. These voters, more than half a million of whom protested the
Biden-Harris administration with “uncommitted” votes in the Democratic
primary, have threatened and continue to threaten to stay home in
November, barring a radical change in policy or a cease-fire. The
movement includes Arab Americans, Muslims, young voters, and far-left
progressives.

Making the problem so severe for Harris is that the movement began in
the ever-critical swing state of Michigan and spread to other key swing
states like Wisconsin, places where the presidency is expected to be
decided by a slim margin. Harris is on shaky ground, considering she
still has not brought home her base at a point in the cycle where
presidential candidates typically are focused on courting moderates.

Another aspect to contemplate is that if Harris does change course on
this position, she runs the risk of looking that much more insincere to
undecided voters on crucial issues. She has already waffled on a number
of critical policy positions, including fracking, and polling shows the
public views former President Donald Trump as the more genuine candidate
by a wide margin. Regardless, the issue has festered so long that
winning these voters back with words alone appears impossible. At this
point, she needs a concrete stoppage in arms and a ceasefire, which are
not on the horizon.

Harris’s Reaffirmed Commitment to Israel and a Furious Base
During the interview, Bash noted that the Biden-Harris administration
has failed to reach a ceasefire deal in the war and asked Harris if she
would “do anything differently” than what the administration has done,
explicitly pointing to potentially withholding arms from Israel.'

'Harris said she is “unequivocal and unwavering in her support for
Israel” before tip-toeing around any specifics about policy change and
repeatedly declaring a cease-fire must be reached without offering a
concrete plan on how to do so:

But let’s take a step back. October 7, 1200 people were massacred, many
young people who are simply attending a music festival. Women were
horribly raped. As I said then, I say today, Israel had a right, has a
right to defend itself. We would. And how it does so matters. Far too
many innocent Palestinians have been killed, and we have got to get a
deal done. We were in Doha. We have to get a deal done. This war must
end. We must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out. I’ve met
with the families of the American hostages. Let’s get the hostages out.
Let’s get the ceasefire done.

Bash persisted, “But no change in policy in terms of arms and so forth?”

“No, we have to get a deal done,” Harris said.

“I remain committed — since I’ve been on October 8 — to what we must do
to work toward a two-state solution where Israel is secure and, in equal
measure, the Palestinians have security, and self-determination, and
dignity,” she went on to add.

Pro-Palestinian progressives panned Harris after the response, led by
Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent.

Prem Thakker, a reporter for Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo News, shared the clip,
writing, “To be clear: this is Kamala Harris saying she will disregard
US & international law by sending weapons to a government committing
human rights violations.”

Tlaib concurred with Thakker while sharing his tweet, saying Harris’s
policies will further what she called “War crimes and genocide” in Gaza.

Hasan blasted Harris as well, saying she and Biden could force a deal to
end the war.

“Oh, btw, as @NaomiAKlein and I discussed on #Unshocked today, Harris
and Biden can impose a deal, they don’t have to wait for one, or implore
the Israelis to agree to one. A deal has been on the table since October
and Netanyahu is the main obstacle,” he argued.

Ryan Grim, the co-host of Counter Points and editor of Drop Site News,
guest co-hosted the populist alternative media show Breaking Points on
Friday and analyzed the entire interview alongside the show’s regular
co-host Krystal Ball. He zoned in on Bash’s framing of withholding
“some” arms from Israel as the Biden-Harris administration has already
done and suggested Harris’s stance is even more pro-Israel than Biden’s:

The Biden administration has even said they would restrict “some”
weapons, like the 2,000 pound bombs used for offensive purposes. People
keep saying that Harris is better rhetorically and more empathetic.
Where’s the empathy there, when you’re actually not even standing by the
tiniest of concessions that the Biden administration, her administration
has made?

It seems like she very clearly wants to just say she “unequivocally,”
“unconditionally,” whatever, supports Israel’s right to defend itself,
whereas even Biden will say, “Well, maybe the 2,000 pound bombs dropped
on refugee camps, we’re not going to allow that, or at least we won’t
allow it for like a two-week pause period.”

'
Ball blasted Harris in her analysis, saying she does not think Harris
“has ideological beliefs,” adding this is the one issue where the
progressive left is breaking with the Biden-Harris administration:

There’s such concern on this one issue, there’s such concern about a
clear break with the Biden policy. There’s no concern on that on
literally any other issue, but she clearly feels like, or also maybe
just ideologically believes or feels – that’s less likely because I
don’t think she has ideological beliefs–but she feels this is where the
pressure is, is she needs to prove how committed to Israel she is and
she doesn’t feel as much pressure from the left for whatever reason,
whatever political calculus she’s doing, which, by the way, I think is
foolish when you just look at the polls.

A post on X by Briahna Joy Gray, the national press secretary for Sen.
Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2020 campaign and the host of the Bad Faith
Podcast, spotlighted the fracture that is not merely taking place
between the establishment and progressive wings of the Democratic Party
but is also metastasizing within the progressive faction itself.

'She ripped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who claimed Harris is
working toward a ceasefire, for her silence after Harris doubled down on
backing Israel and compared that to fellow squad member Tlaib’s
criticism of Harris.

“No comment tonight from AOC, who claimed Harris was ‘working
tirelessly’ for a ceasefire just last week,” Gray wrote in a post on X.
“Compare to Rashida Tlaib, who immediately criticized Harris’s CNN
remarks. AOC’s last tweet is about IUD insertions.”

Katie Halper, the progressive host of the Katie Halper Show podcast and
a leading voice among the progressive Jewish activists against the war
in Gaza, retweeted Gray’s tweet calling out Ocasio-Cortez.

Cenk Uygur, the co-creator and co-host of the progressive left-wing
program the Young Turks, wrote in a post on X that Harris’s “answer on
Israel was TERRIBLE.”'
'“If you say you’re never going to question Israel’s funding or the
weapons we’re sending them, by definition you’re not doing all you can
to get to a ceasefire,” he continued. “If you’re not using your
leverage, you’re doing NOTHING BUT EMPTY WORDS.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning independent journalist Glenn Greenwald, the host
of System Update, called out insincere “scum-bag” commentators on the
left “who spent 10 months profiting greatly by screaming ‘genocide’
about Gaza” only to lie that Harris would have a different Israel policy
than Biden’s.'

'Remember those scumbag left-liberal YouTube hosts and Twitch streamers
who spent 10 months profiting greatly by screaming “genocide” about Gaza
– through monetized traffic and radical-branding posturing – who then
began lying that Kamala would be different on Israel than Biden?” he
asked.
Another progressive influencer, podcaster Sabby Sabs, said that Harris’s
reaffirmed position undermines what she has told uncommitted voters
behind the scenes.'

'Kamala made it very clear that she will NOT withhold weapons from
Israel. Her administration is going to be the same on Israel as I told
you it would. It doesn’t matter what she told uncommitted voters in
private. She said it privately for a reason!” Sabs wrote on X.