Florida’s Governor thinks Democrats lost the White House in part because of an inchoate position from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on conflicts in the Middle East, which ultimately hurt her campaign in a key swing state.
“There’s a little bit of poetic justice,” DeSantis declared during a Friday speech to a student group at Notre Dame University.
“So Biden and Harris by definition, they got so skittish on supporting Israel because you had an uprising and a revolt in Michigan amongst a lot of the Muslim American voters, and so they were trying to kind of pacify (them) and telling Israel ‘End it, you gotta stop, you gotta stop’, and not giving Israel the full support that I think they deserved,’” DeSantis explained.
“And so Harris is running as more dovish on that, doesn’t like Benjamin Netanyahu, all this other stuff. Then you got Trump, who, you know, wanted the so-called Muslim ban when he was president and said basically Israel need to just finish the job. And he beat her with the same Muslim voters in Michigan. I mean, so they totally screwed up,” he added.
DeSantis has the facts partially right. He’s substantially correct on how Harris’ position on the conflict didn’t satisfy partisans of Israel or the country’s enemies and domestic critics, but he elides a key evolution in Trump’s position.
“This year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon, it is devastating. And as president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure, and ensure the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, security and self-determination,” Harris said to applause during her late campaign rally in East Lansing.
Michigan’s estimated 211,000 Arab Americans weren’t satisfied by that rhetorical attempt to please all sides, which came after the Vice President dealt with protesters at previous rallies in the Wolverine State and beyond. The Forward notes that Trump and Green Party candidate Jill Stein took 60% of the vote between them in Dearborn, a city of roughly 100,000 people with an estimated 40% being of Arabic descent.
Trump’s first-term arguments for a Muslim ban were not part of his third bid for the White House. He courted Arab-American and Muslim constituencies in Michigan particularly, and that seems to have cut Harris’ margins compared to the Biden 2020 campaign against Trump. Fox News notes Harris won by more with Jewish voters than she did with exponents of the Islamic faith.
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