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AMY GOODMAN: I also wanted to address the issue of foreign policy. From Dearborn, Michigan, to talk about Donald Trump’s election, we want to go to Michigan, where we’re joined by Linda Sarsour, Palestinian American Muslim organizer, author of We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders, co-founder of MPower Action Fund. Yes, Dearborn, the Arab-majority city, Trump won 42% of the vote over Vice President Kamala Harris, who received 36%. Jill Stein received 18%. Stein campaigned calling for an arms embargo against Israel. And I also want to hear what Ralph Nader has to say about this.
Linda Sarsour, if you can respond? We spoke to you last night. Now a lot of the results are in. If you can comment on what happened and what a Trump presidency will mean for Israel-Palestine?
LINDA SARSOUR: I appreciated hearing Ralph Nader’s analysis, which I share. And this all goes to the feet of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party literally marginalized Arab American, Palestinian, Muslim American voters. Kamala Harris did not really, in my opinion, make any effort to really win over the votes of these demographics. Kamala Harris continued to parrot the usual talking points about humanitarian aid and about what’s happening, Gaza being devastated, without any action plan. She was asked many times, “Would you break from the policies of Joe Biden or in the ways in which Joe Biden has addressed the genocide in Gaza?” And she has said no multiple times.
Again, Donald Trump engaged in outreach in the Muslim American community. He went and visited mosques. He met with religious leaders. He had billboards all across Dearborn that were multilingual, in the language — in Arabic languages, in Bangla, in Urdu. And whether or not people agree with Donald Trump or whether or not — and you know me, Amy. I’m having déjà vu of 2016. I was a frontline organizer when Donald Trump was president, so I’m not looking forward to the next four years. But the Trump campaign did the outreach. They filled in a gap that was left by the Democratic Party.
And all Kamala Harris had to say in this election was “I will uphold international law. I will actually enforce the laws we already have on the books when it comes to military aid to any country violating human rights.” But the campaign made a calculation. They made a calculation that they did not need Arab American, Muslim American and Palestinian American voters, that they can actually win this election without this important electorate. They were too busy courting Liz Cheney and her friends instead of coming to Michigan and actually having deep, courageous conversations with the critics of the Kamala and Biden administration.
So, this is a devastating moment for our communities. Donald Trump is someone that we know very well. We don’t only know him on domestic policy. We know him also on foreign policy. He gave sovereignty to Israel over the Golan Heights. He declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel. There is an Israeli settlement that is named after Donald Trump. His son-in-law Jared Kushner believes that Gaza is this beautiful waterfront property. We are going to be in big trouble. And I blame that solely on the Democratic Party and one of the worst-run campaigns that I’ve seen in my 23 years in organizing.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Linda, I wanted to ask you something I asked earlier to some of our other guests. There was not a large outpouring of independent votes, but there definitely was a decline in the overall Democratic vote. Kamala Harris has apparently gotten 15 million votes less than sleepy Joe Biden did in 2020. I’m wondering, your sense was that those who stayed home, a reflection of some of the failures of the Democrats this time around?
LINDA SARSOUR: Absolutely. And the thing that people don’t want to talk about — and as you know, the Democratic Party is not a fan of mine, because they don’t like to listen to critics who actually are organizers and know how to mobilize communities. Somebody should ask the Democratic Party: How much money did you invest in Black and Brown-led organizations who do get-out-the-vote efforts, who engage and build power locally in communities? Somebody needs to ask them that question.
They spent a majority of their money on ads, on television ads, and really ignored the grassroots. I was on the ground in Pitt County, North Carolina. I was in Saginaw, Michigan. I was in Dearborn. I went to Georgia. And I did not see the type of field operation that is worthy of our communities. And Joe Biden had the Democratic House, Senate and White House in his first two years, and he couldn’t deliver on things like protecting and expanding voting rights. He blamed Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for being obstacles to his agenda. He couldn’t even get two Democrats in line to pass legislation.
Lots of women across the country care about things like reproductive rights. Well, why didn’t the Joe Biden administration push Congress to codify Roe? We are in this situation because Democrats want to be in power, but they don’t know how to use their power once they are in office. And that is a failure of the party. And the party has to go back to its roots if it wants to move from here. You are either going to be loyal to your base, which majority supported ceasefire and support arms embargo against Israel, that support progressive issues, or you’re going to continue to try to recruit a constituency that does not exist, that did not turn out for you in this election. And I hope somebody in the campaign right now is sitting and reflecting on this, and hopefully some people are fired and no longer will be working for the party after this election.
AMY GOODMAN: Linda Sarsour is Palestinian American. Ralph Nader, you are Lebanese American. We only have a minute, but your response on the issue of the Democratic position, the Biden-Harris position on Israel, Palestine and Lebanon right now, and what you think has to happen? Because, in fact, the Democrats are in power right now, before Trump takes over.
RALPH NADER: Are you asking me?
AMY GOODMAN: I am.
RALPH NADER: Yeah. Well, Biden is projecting weakness. There are a lot of voters who want strength, and Trump understands that. And on the Middle East, he’s projecting incredible weakness. That’s why we call him Bibi Biden, and his secretary of state, Bibi Blinken. He’s giving Netanyahu whatever he wants — daily shipments of deadly weapons of mass destruction, diplomatic cover, veto in the U.N., pushing allied countries to get in line. He even refuses to demand that Netanyahu let American reporters into Gaza to report what’s going on. He won’t even allow airlifting at the request of American doctors who are over in Gaza, airlifting burned babies and amputee children for treatment in ready and able American hospitals. He is a co-combatant with the Palestinian holocaust and the genocide that’s going on. And Israel’s making no bones of this. Netanyahu wants the whole of Palestine, the West Bank, southern Lebanon to the Litani River. And it’s an all-go signal from Biden. So he’s projecting weakness here. He is weakly representing the mighty United States of America as if he’s an adjunct, a poodle for the Netanyahu regime.
AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there. That does it for this hour. I want to thank Ralph Nader, Linda Sarsour and John Nichols of The Nation.
This is Democracy Now! “War, Peace and the Presidency.” Stay tuned for hour two of our expanded post-election show right here, or if the station isn’t running it, you can go to democracynow.org. And on this day, I want to wish a happy birthday to John Hamilton and Emily Andersen, and our deepest condolences to our producer Messiah Rhodes on the passing of his dad, David Rhodes. Democracy Now! produced with Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Deena Guzder. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Thanks for joining us.
