Tipsheet

Anti-Israel Group Repurposes 'Abandon Biden' to Urge Voters to 'Abandon Harris'

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  August 29, 2024 10:45 AM

While President Joe Biden may have won enough votes to become the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee--with Vice President Kamala Harris, the ultimate nominee, receiving none--he was plagued by "uncommitted" voters. This is the far-left, anti-Israel, and pro-Hamas base of the Democratic Party that dared to take issue with what support the Biden-Harris administration has showed Israel following the October 7 attack. A group known as "Abandon Biden" popped up for such a reason, and has now become "Abandon Harris."

The group sent out an email last Friday, the morning following Harris' acceptance speech. The name change went into affect on August 19, the first day of the DNC. 

"While we will keep the registered name of Abandon Biden, our mission is now laser-focused on exposing and opposing Kamala Harris and her complicity in genocide. We call on all people of conscience to join us in holding the Democratic Party accountable for the bloodshed in Gaza," the email mentioned early on.

The group looks to be "laser-focused" indeed when it comes to a particular point of view about the horrors our ally in the Middle East faced. Such framing includes no mention of Israel or Hamas.

As the email continued:

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The DNC’s recent actions have only confirmed what we’ve been saying all along: the Democratic Party has no interest in ending the genocide in Gaza. They are not mere bystanders; they are active participants in this brutal, unforgivable violence.

For 11 months, we’ve woken up to the nightmare of Palestinians being torn apart by U.S.-funded and supplied weapons, with the full backing of the Biden-Harris administration. This administration has shown nothing but contempt for human life, and Harris is no different.

What is it that happened 11 months ago? Again, the email doesn't say, leaving out how 1,200 Israelis were murdered by Hamas. Not even babies or Holocaust survivors were spared. Hamas also tortured, raped, and kidnapped civilians. 

That being said, the email still dares to talk about "conscience." The email also makes clear that their "commitment is to ensure that Kamala Harris loses the 2024 election and to make it clear that anyone who runs on a platform of genocide will be condemned to failure."

Such an email message begs the question as to if the organizers even listened to Harris' speech. While she spoke about "Israel's right to defend itself," Harris also had an "at the same time" line to express support for Palestinians. It was the loudest applause line of the night.

One line, about how she and Biden are working to end the war, and what it means for "the Palestinian people" was particularly telling, as it had to do with them "realizing their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination." It's worth reminding that those in the region support Hamas and October 7. 

Democrats, and even members of the anti-Israel Squad, found themselves in disarray over the lack of a Palestinian speaker at the DNC last week. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke on Monday night. The parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who is still being held hostage by Hamas, spoke on Wednesday night. 

AOC used those parents to engage in whataboutism about "the humanity of the 40,000 Palestinians killed under Israeli bombardment," despite how figures that have been used are inaccurate and have been used as propaganda. 

Another Squad member, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), spoke at an anti-Israel event outside the DNC. She had a message that Harris "has an opportunity to demonstrate our party’s courage and commitment to ending the genocide not just in condemning it with words, but in action by conditioning aid" to our ally in the Middle East. 

Omar and another member, Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) also joined those engaging in a sit-in outside the doors of the convention in protest of the lack of a Palestinian speaker. This took place the same night that Hersh's parents spoke. 

Harris isn't just facing heat from the "Abandon Harris" group. The "Muslim Women for Harris" group disbanded after the DNC lacked such a speaker. 

In the days following the DNC, Lee went on CBS News' "Face the Nation" where she further lamented the lack of a speaker.

"There's going to be a lot more work that we have to do to show to this demographic that the Democratic Party is – includes them in its big tent, includes them in our foreign policy considerations, and also includes them in our conversations around humanity and human rights," Lee said at at one point as she spoke about how "a lot of the people who are Palestinian, Palestinian-American, Arabs and Muslims were asking for that opportunity" to have a speaker. 

More recently, the Abandon Harris group sent out yet another email on Tuesday morning, making their efforts more clear.

The group is "ramping up efforts in key swing states to rally Muslim-Americans and their allies against the Harris-Walz ticket. This action is a direct response to Kamala Harris’s support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza," according to the email. 

The group also "calls on people of conscience across the United States to avoid falling into the complacent trap of abstaining from the 2024 election," and urges people to vote for third-party candidates. They have not endorsed any specific candidate, though. 

The email even made such claims about there being an "Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza" once again failing to make any mention of the horror from October 7, and what horrors those being held captive still endure. 

Such efforts, as well as Democrats in continuous disarray on the issue, come after those attending Jewish events at the DNC were subject to harassment from masked agitators. There were also pro-Hamas demonstrations going on outside the convention center, and agitators even tried to break past barriers. 

In his own speech from Monday night, Biden emboldened them in a way with his off the cuff remarks that such people "have a point." Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), who is Jewish and was on the shortlist to be Harris' running mate, gave his shameful non-answer about such remarks.