Squad member Rashida Tlaib slams Biden for giving 'genocidal maniac' Netanyahu a 'blank check' as she urges Michigan to vote AGAINST the president in Tuesday's primary
Tlaib said colleagues don't have 'courage' to stop aiding Israel. She spoke at a cease fire rally in Dearborn and called Netanyahu a 'maniac'
By Geoff Earle
Daily Mail
Feb 26, 2024
'Squad' member Rep. Rashida Tlaib called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a 'genocidal maniac' in remarks at a cease fire rally in Dearborn, Michigan
'Squad' member Rashida Tlaib tore into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau as a 'genocidal maniac' at a rally in her home district Monday where she mocked expressions of concern by colleagues she said were 'enabling killings' of Palestinians.
Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress, blasted political opponents while standing before a huge Palestinian flag emblazoned with the slogans 'STOP GENOCIDE' and 'CEASEFIRE NOW' Monday in the final hours before Tuesday's primaries.
It came amid an impassioned effort to boost support for 'Uncommitted' in Tuesday's primary that could set back President Biden in a state he needs to beat Donald Trump.
'Over the past few weeks, we've heard a lot about how the President and the administration are quote "concerned", troubled by the Israeli government's actions. And yet this past week I was hopeful I really was this past week once again, our country vetoed a resolution at the United Nations for their time calling for an immediate ceasefire – move to bypass Congress literally within minutes to send more weapons to the genocidal maniac of Netanyahu' she fumed.
The line drew boos and chants of 'Ceasefire now!' from members of the crowd who packed an events center in Dearborn.
She said fellow lawmakers come up to her and vouch for their own support for a two-state solution in an expression of solidarity, but then don't deliver.
'I say great - you just gave it [military aid] somebody that doesn't support a two state solution. They're enabling and [emboldening] yet more killings,' she said.
'And yet time and time again, the opportunity comes to take a stand and vote against sending billions of dollars in unconditional, blank check military funding and they don't find that courage.'
Detroit City Councilwoman Gabriella Santiago-Romero knows a losing Democratic presidential campaign in Michigan when she sees one.
She was a young campaign aide for Hillary Clinton when the former secretary of state infamously failed to visit the state until days before her stunning upset loss to Donald Trump in 2016.
Standing inside the ballroom packed with activists, Santiago-Romero says she knew within weeks as a Clinton volunteer that that the former secretary of state was going down.
‘The naked truth right now is that our country is aiding and abetting genocide,’ said former Benrnie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign co-chair Nina Turner
Detroit City Councilwoman Gabriella Santiago-Romero says the vote for 'Uncommitted' will strengthen Biden's hand
Even if Biden changes policy, '‘I’m still not going to vote for Biden or Trump,’ she said. I’m going to vote for a third party,' said English teacher Jazzaray James
The event featured speeches by a union official and the mayor of Dearborn
A protester outside had a Holocaust denying poster, but crowd members cheered when speaker Nina Turner spoke against the Hamas attack inside Israel that killed 1,200
Now, at the Gaza ceasefire rally in Dearborn, which boasts the nation's largest per capita Muslim population, she says a protest action to have people choose ‘Uncommitted’ over the sitting president could save Joe Biden policies that are costing him here.
‘It will strengthen Biden’s message in calling for a cease-fire, and doing more to hold Israel accountable’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘We are here. We have always been here,’ she said of a collection of activists, Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, teachers, and organizers who came to hear Rep. Rashida Tlaib and other speakers backing the effort.
‘If Democrats lose, it’s completely their fault,’ she said.
Santiago-Romero says she knew Clinton would have problems when it made belated efforts to shift staff like herself to the campaign, and argues Biden’s campaign in the battleground state isn’t where it should be.
‘They’re scrambling,’ she said. She says Donald Trump is a ‘very real threat,’ but that people who might otherwise back Biden aren’t making idle threats. ‘This is not a game. We’re very serious,’ she said.
About 200 people, many wearing blacked checked keffiyeh, packed into an event space next to a kabob restaurant and ‘Gentleman’s Club’ in the city of about 100,000.
A few perused literature in the back of the room by Marx and Lenin, plus pamphlets on stopping the Ukraine war. Protesters outside the room held signs reading 'Jews Bomb Hospitals' and 'Six Million? Really?' – although inside the room the crowd cheered approvingly when a speaker denounced the Hamas October 7 attack in Israel and said the killing of innocent people anywhere is wrong.
One attendee, English teacher Jazzaray James, said she was determined to vote Tuesday to send a message. ‘I feel like it’s going to cause a ripple effect,’ she says of the ‘Uncommitted’ effort.
‘There’s a huge section of American people that are frustrated by both sides,’ she said.
She supported Biden in 2020, but now says it’s too late for him to win back her support – even if he did pivot on Israel and start publicly demanding a permanent cease fire. ‘I’m still not going to vote for Biden or Trump,’ she said. I’m going to vote for a third party.’
‘Even if they decided to [change], f*** them for their decisions he already made, the millions of people who already died,’ she said, blasting Biden on human rights generally.
Leaders of the ‘Uncommitted’ push aren’t ignoring concerns some voters might have about paving his way to a second term by weakening Biden.
Before the microphones, Tlaib, former Bernie Sanders campaign co-chair Nina Turner, and other speakers specifically mentioned Trump. They say their push will strengthen Biden, not weaken him, by giving him a more defensible policy.
‘Trump is an existential threat to our democracy,’ said Tlaib, ‘and President Biden is risking another Trump term over his support of the right-wing government of the most extreme government in the history of Israel,’ she said.
‘The naked truth right now is that our country is aiding and abetting genocide,’ Turner yelled into a microphone as she walked among rally participants.
She was one of multiple organizers who applied the label to Israel.
Top Democratic politicians in the state have recognized the momentum behind the 'Uncommitted' effort, amid concerns it could embarrass Biden, who has scored overwhelming primary wins.
A new Emerson College / The Hill poll had Biden with 75 per cent support, compared to 5 per cent to Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and 9 per cent planning to vote for 'Uncommitted.' With just a day before the primary, 12 percent were still undecided.
'Right now, we got two candidates in this race. One, we cannot abide. The other one is just not doing the right thing,' Detroit activist Maureen Taylor, state chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, told DailyMail.com.
'But we don't have a choice. But whatever happens in November, we got four years after that, to get a million [people] across the country. 'We're going to sit back and tell them, if you don't do what we want, we're going to take over housing, we will take over hospitals, we will take over nurseries, we will take over schools. You do what we say or none of you gonna get paid.
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