'‘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.

Russell Dobular, the co-host of the popular left-wing populist show Due
Dissidence, called out CNN’s Bash.'

'“Did Bash bring her own lather for this soapy handjob of an interview,
or is carrying the lather around one of Walz’s new duties?” he quipped.
The Uncommitted National Movement took to X to call on Harris to adopt
its position of withholding weapons to Israel, which it described as the
view of most Americans, citing figures from CBS News.'

'Emma Vigeland, co-host of the progressive news talk show Majority
Report with Sam Seder, was unsatisfied with Bash’s approach, writing in
a post on X that all of her questions were “framed from the right.”'

'During Friday’s Majority Report with Sam Seder stream, Vigeland said
Harris’s “No” is being taken slightly out of context but stressed
Harris’s answer was not nearly sufficient, and similar rhetoric could
cost her the election.

Vigeland contended:

So, I think people are running with the “No,” a little bit. It’s more to
me a dismissal than it is an outright declaration of policy. She’s
trying to not declare anything. She’s trying to just get through it, get
to the other side. It wouldn’t be smart for her to just unilaterally
declare policy, even if she agrees with Biden.

Let’s just stipulate that, right. It wouldn’t be smart for her to be
like,”Yeah I’m concretely doing exactly what he’s doing” because she’s
not in the position to do that yet. But, still this is so insufficient
and I don’t think that she can get through this election by just
trotting that line out like that. It’s just not sustainable.

The global news organization Democracy Now also tweeted about Harris’s
position, emphasizing “No Policy Change.”'

'Referencing another moment in the interview, Jimmy Dore, the popular
comedian and left-wing populist host of the eponymously named Jimmy Dore
Show, quipped that Harris’s use of the word “honestly” repeatedly in the
same sentence gives him the impression that she is being dishonest.

Harris’s problem with a crumbling base was on full display at the
Democratic National Convention even before Thursday’s disastrous
interview. Demonstrators against the war in Gaza protested Harris every
day of the convention, with Democrat delegates being shamed heading into
and outside of the security perimeter, protesters breaching a security
perimeter gate on the first day of the convention, and a clash with
police that led to dozens of arrests on the second night.'

'What is more, the national pro-Palestinian group Abandon Biden
announced on the first day of the convention, August 19, that it had
adopted the position of “Abandon Harris.” It is committed to ensuring
she loses the election.

In a release published on August 23, the group said its “mission is now
laser-focused on exposing and opposing Kamala Harris and her complicity
in genocide.”

The group said that “appealing to the conscience of the Democratic Party
is a waste of time,” adding the party “has no interest in ending” what
it called a “genocide” in Gaza.

A Fragmented Base Imperils Harris’s Odds in Key Swing States
The origins and fast-spreading nature of the “Uncommitted movement”
during the Democrat primary exemplify how this sharp and increasingly
more unbridgeable divide in the Democrat Party is a monumental threat to
Harris’s electability in places like Michigan and Wisconsin.

The movement began with the Listen to Michigan campaign in the Wolverine
State. Its manager is Tlaib’s sister, Layla Elabed. The group sought to
garner a modest 10,000 “uncommitted” protest votes in the primary to
send a message to Biden and Harris that their policies are jeopardizing
their reelection odds.

Listen to Michigan outpaced its goal tenfold, as the uncommitted option
garnered more than 100,000 votes in the critical swing state.

“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.

To put the significance of 101,430 uncommitted votes in perspective,
Biden won Michigan over Trump in 2020 by 154,188 votes. Losing
two-thirds of Biden’s margin of victory before accounting for issues
like the economy and immigration, which work in Trump’s favor, spells
disaster for Democrats in the swing state, as polling shows Trump and
Harris in a very close race.

A Fabrizio Ward poll published by the Pinpoint Policy Institute on
Thursday found Trump with a 48 percent to 46 percent edge over Harris in
the Wolverine State. The poll sampled 400 likely voters from August
19-21 during the DNC convention and has a ± 4.9 percentage point margin
of error. An Emerson College/Nexstar Media poll also released Thursday
showed Harris with a three-point advantage, at 50 percent to his 47
percent. Emerson College sampled 800 likely Michigan voters from August
35-28 with a ± 3.4 percent credibility.

What is more, Michigan is home to dense Arab-American Muslim
communities, including the city of Dearborn. The uncommitted option was
the leading vote-getter in Dearborn in the Democratic primary by a wide
margin, drawing 6,432 votes, or 57 percent of the vote total. Biden
followed at 4,526, translating to 40 percent.

The uncommitted movement spread to nearby Wisconsin on April 2, when
48,812 selected the state’s version of the uncommitted option
“uninstructed.” This more than doubles the 20,682 votes Biden won the
state by in 2020. Polling also shows a tightly contested race in the
Badger state, as Breitbart News noted:

Emerson College found Trump narrowly leading Harris 49 percent to 48
percent, with 3 percent undecided in its survey of 850 voters. The
margin of error is ± 3.3 percentage points. On the other hand, Harris
leads Trump 49 percent to 45 percent in the Fabrizio Ward poll.

And in Minnesota, where Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz (D), serves as
governor, 45,914 voters rejected Biden in the Democrat primary on Super
Tuesday with uncommitted votes. This accounted for nearly one in five
primary voters and surpassed the 44,593 votes Democrat Hillary Clinton
beat Trump by in Minnesota in 2016.

2024 Mirrors 2016 More Than 2020
Harris must contend with multiple progressive third-party rivals, unlike
Biden in 2020, making the contours of the race more similar to the 2016
election.

The Green Party’s Jill Stein and independent Cornel West have been
leading critics of Harris’s policies regarding the Israel-Hamas war;
both will be on the ballot in Michigan. West and Stein were prevalent
figures in Chicago during the Democrat primary, attending
Pro-Palestinian protests and panning Harris over her policies.

Breitbart News producer and videographer Matthew Perdie caught up with
West, who was holding an “Abandon Harris” sign at a protest outside the
confines of the security perimeter, and asked him who the sign was for.

“It means any politician who does not speak against that genocide will
not receive any support,” he said.

When asked if he has a message to Harris, West said, “I would say shame
on my dear sister Harris in the name of genocide and denying genocide
and the issues of mass incarceration, the issues of wealth inequality,
the issues that she’s still not been able to speak to–not just because
she’s sister Harris, but because she’s part of a corrupt Democratic
party.”

Stein said she would tell Harris “to get out of the way or to get with
the program” at a pro-Palestinian rally. She then challenged Harris to
tell “Israel that the weapons supply is over… unless they immediately
terminate the war on the people of Gaza and the occupation.”

Matt Perdie / Breitbart News

Stein was part of the crowded 2016 field, in which Trump beat Clinton by
close margins in swing states. For instance, Trump won Michigan over
Clinton by three-tenths of a percentage point or 10,704 votes. Stein
garnered a critical 1.1 percentage points, likely to Clinton’s
detriment, while Libertarian Gary Johnson landed 3.6 percent, which was
likely to Trump’s disadvantage.

In Wisconsin, Trump beat Clinton 47.2 percent to 46.5 percent, or by
nearly 23,000 votes. Stein secured one percent of support, and 3.6
percent broke for Johnson.

Polling has already shown Harris is losing the national Arab American
vote to Stein by a wide margin. An American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee (ADC) and Mo Maraqa poll conducted on July 27 and 28 among
3,130 respondents found Stein leading with 45.3 percent of the vote,
followed by Harris at a grim 27.5 percent.

'