President Joe Biden’s appearance on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers was part of an attempt to calm dissent within the Democratic Party, according to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA).
Speaking with Politico, Khanna spoke of the Biden team’s concerns over Michigan, where the Muslim population is leading a protest vote against the president over his support for Israel. Partly in an effort to calm concerns over the state’s primary and to boost his image, Biden appeared on the talk show with Seth Meyers.
“Nothing in politics is a coincidence,” he said, referring to the appearance and other recent statements. “This is happening because the president is hearing that a large part of his coalition wants this war to end.”
Khanna has been serving as an intermediary between Biden and progressive Democrats, and is now coming to play a key role as progressives’ frustrations toward the president reach an all-time high over the war in Gaza. The California Democrat told Politico that he has spoken with Biden personally about concerns of Muslims in Michigan.
“I said, ‘You’re losing progressives, you need to change,’” Khanna said. “He said, ‘Ro, I hear you. I understand. I understand that people are upset and I am pushing Bibi.’”
Biden has struggled with outreach to Arab leaders in Michigan, who have refused to speak with him. A Democrat close to the president said that his team is “freaking out” over the situation.
If enough Muslims and progressives refuse to come out on Election Day for Biden, it has the very real possibility to cost him the key swing state. The main strategy from the Biden team to combat this has been to say that a vote not for Biden is a vote for former President Donald Trump, a message that is not going over well, according to one Democratic elected official.
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“The Biden campaign wants me to tell you that any vote not for Biden is a vote for Donald Trump,” they told Politico. “I’m not gonna go that hard,” as the message could come across as insulting.
“I mean, they’re like, ‘Donald Trump never killed us, Joe Biden killed our families,’” the official added, referring to the continued attacks in Gaza where a reported 29,000 Palestinians have been killed.
