Excerpts from Press Conference Featuring Listen to Michigan and Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud on Uncommitted Vote

ABBAS ALAWIEH, spokesperson, Listen to Michigan:
“Quite frankly, Biden’s statement last night did not unite this party nor seek to unite this party. His statement last night ignored the more than 100,000 voters who showed up and asked of him to stand with the children of God, to stand against war crimes, to stand for peace and for a ceasefire.

Yesterday showed that the center of the Democratic Party has moved on Palestine. Michigan has made our voices clear through our vote. It's President Biden's turn to tell us where he stands.

President Biden, we know, we know you are someone who has shown and demonstrated throughout your career that you move when the party moves.

We've seen it on issue after issue and yesterday showed that the center of the party has moved on Palestine. Michigan has made our voices clear through our vote. It's President Biden's turn to tell us where he stands.”

So we're looking to you, President Biden. Michigan has made its move. We've participated. Over 100,000 of us want to know what you will do to engage us, those of us who need to see you stand up against the killing of our families. What will you do? I hope that President Biden does not choose the path of maligning our anti-war movement as the White House has done in the past when it called those supporting ceasefire quote-unquote repugnant.

I hope that the president will not continue on his path of ignoring the lives of Palestinians as he did in his 100-day statement, not mentioning a single word about the thousands of lives who've been taken by U.S. taxpayer funds and bombs.

I hope the President chooses a path different than the one that he chose in his statement last night, where he piled words upon words about the vote here in Michigan, while ignoring, shamefully, ignoring our movement for peace and against war. Our message to President Biden is that we need you to engage our movement. We need you to engage our movement and our demands.

LAYLA ELABED, campaign manager, Listen To Michigan:
“President Biden is putting our democracy at risk. The responsibility is on you, President Joe Biden.

Your administration and the Democratic Party must deliver on the call from your core constituency and use the power of your office to bring an immediate and permanent ceasefire now and end the unchecked and unconditional military aid to Israel.”

MAYOR OF DEARBORN ABDULLAH HAMMOUD
”What is clear is that our President has a choice before him. He has the choice to continue supporting and aligning himself with a war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the most tyrannical government in Israel's history. Or he has the choice to heed the concerns of residents, not only in the state of Michigan, but across this country, from coast to coast.

We demonstrated clearly that the pro-peace movement is a pro-democracy movement. And what we want more than anything else is to help protect our democracy from unraveling this coming event. And that choice rarely falls in the hands of our president. We have done our part to utilize the vehicle that we had during this primary election to demonstrate that the issues unfolding in Gaza impact us directly.

To demonstrate that Gaza is not some distant land and where innocent men, women, and children are dying. These are family members and friends that are meaningful to not only us here in Dearborn who are losing family members on a daily basis, but it means something to the Michiganders and a broad coalition that looks like the very fabric of America. And that is what is hopeful. And understanding that this is not just a Muslim issue. This is an American issue.

Now, President Biden ran on bringing decency and morality back to the White House. He ran on the idea that he can empathize because he is someone who has suffered loss.

However, we have seen from the 100-day statement to his statement claiming victory yesterday, he was ignoring, ignorantly, this community's calls not only for a ceasefire but not only a withdrawal of military aid and support that is unrestricted to Benjamin Netanyahu, but also to resume the humanitarian aid to 2 million people who are suffering from famine, but to actually once and for all resolve the cause of the Palestinian people with a just Palestinian state.

So, it is my hope, Mr. President, that you listen to us, that you choose the people of America over Benjamin Netanyahu. We are not electing Donald Trump. President Biden is the one seeking the highest office, and he is the candidate who is facing off against Donald Trump. He has to earn the votes of the constituency that he's trying to serve.

And so the question should go back to him.

What will President Biden do to earn the trust and respect of the constituency coast to coast, who has demonstrated that the pro-peace, pro-justice movement is something we're fighting for?”

Lexis Zeidan, spokesperson, Listen to Michigan:
“During a time in which Biden should be uniting us, he chose supporting a right-wing government instead of responding to his core people here. Rather than acknowledging the true human grassroots organizing that took place yesterday in Michigan to save the democracy that he himself has unraveled, he chose to ignore it completely. Listen to Michigan is a coalition of people that looks like America.

Which through our efforts has worked to unite over 100,000 people that can be labeled as the pro-peace, pro-democracy coalition. The coalition that is creating unity during a time in which Biden has led with divisiveness. In less than two weeks, and with a shoestring budget, by the way, we got over 100,000, 1 demonstrated that this is not just an Arab and Muslim issue, it's a people issue. They do not want our tax dollars funding war anymore, all while denying the issues that exist here.”