Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud on Refusing Meeting with Trump, Not Endorsing Harris

[Uncle Joe]

All eyes are on Michigan as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris battle over undecided voters in the crucial swing state, including many of the state's 200,000 Arab American and Muslim voters who reject both the Republican and Democratic parties' stance on Israel and Palestine. We speak to Dearborn, Michigan's Lebanese American Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who is the first Arab and Muslim mayor of the city, about many of his constituents' loss of support for the Democratic Party and how the Arab American vote could impact the presidential election. Hammoud, like many Dearborn residents, has lost extended family to Israel's attacks on Lebanon, and describes the climate in the city as "a blanket of grief." Having called for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel, he refused to meet with Trump last week, but has also declined to endorse Harris. Hammoud calls on voters to not sit out the election entirely, but to "vote their moral conscience, and says the citizens of Dearborn are "willing to put people over party, first and foremost."

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[JohnSJ]

1. I believe this Mayor also has an issue with LGBT+, and doesn't seem to know about separation of church and state

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2022/10/10/lgbtq-faith-communities-dearborn-hamtramck-libraries-banned-books/10353638002/

"But now, conservative Christians are mobilizing among the same Muslims that some of them used to disparage.

"The same dangerous ideology that once considered people like me 'a problem' in Dearborn is now being revived under the guise of preserving liberty," Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, the first Muslim to be Dearborn's mayor, said in a statement posted a couple of days after the protest."

On the positive side though, because of some of this mayor's views, it is probably a good thing he isn't endorsing VP Harris.

[alwaysinasnit]

2. I have had trouble trying to understand the position of many of these Arab American and Muslim

voters. It seems to me that tfg will let Bibi do whatever the hell he wants, and even give him whatever armaments Bibi wants. Harris' position has to reflect the current administration's. That said, should she be elected, there may be room for adjustment and more pressure on Bibi to, at least, agree to terms of a cease-fire. But then, what do I know?

[Uncle Joe]

3. It's a leap of faith, that we're asking them to make.

Just using logic, reason and informed common sense, a rational person would know that *rump literally doesn't care about anyone; be they Palestinian, Israeli or American except himself and Netanyahu is of the same mold.

Logic and reason may be on our side insofar as acknowledging Kamala's limited power in a Biden Administration, or a fundamental change in policy should Harris become President, but when your family and friends are being blown away on a daily basis or starved to death, one would more likely be operating in an emotional frame of mind.

Too much emotion usually crowds out reason and logic, *rump and Netanyahu know this, and that's what we're up against.

It's as Bernie has stated *rump and Netanyahu; both extreme right wingers, are in bed together and trying to help one another.

[alwaysinasnit]

4. I think you hit the nail on the head.