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What could Biden's Israel-Gaza stance mean for his campaign? Michigan is an early test
Abbas Alawieh, a spokesperson for the group Listen to Michigan, pictured at a coffee shop in Detroit, Mich., on Thursday.
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Abbas Alawieh, a spokesperson for the group Listen to Michigan, pictured at a coffee shop in Detroit, Mich., on Thursday.
Sylvia Jarrus for NPR
DEARBORN, Mich. — Abbas Alawieh had planned to step away from politics this fall. He’s a Democratic strategist who’s worked with several progressive members of Congress.
Then the Hamas attack on Israel happened that killed 1,200 people and took some 240 hostage, per the Israeli government. Israel’s military response in Gaza has since killed nearly 30,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the ministry of health in Gaza.
It may feel far away for some Americans, but Alawieh’s city, Dearborn, has felt every death in Gaza deeply. It’s home to one of the largest Arab American communities in the country.
Alawieh started getting calls from cousins, friends and acquaintances in Michigan who’d barely expressed an interest in politics.
“Those same people are reaching out to me right now saying, ‘This is Biden’s fault, what are we going to do to make sure Biden stops this?’” he said.
Just like that, Alawieh was pulled back into politics with an urgency he said he’s never felt before.
“Okay, so you have a community that is alienated, that Biden is alienating beyond what we can even capture in numbers,” he said.
So he and other progressive organizers in the Detroit metro area are trying to create those numbers. He’s a spokesperson for the Listen to Michigan movement, the self-described “multiracial and multifaith, anti-war campaign” that’s encouraging Democrats and Independents to show up to the polls for Tuesday’s primary.
But they’re not getting out the vote for Biden, who Alawieh himself supported in 2020. They’re urging voters to check the “uncommitted” box instead, as a way of protesting the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
A panel of activists and government officials in the Dearborn community at the Arab-American Museum on Thursday in Dearborn, Mich.
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A panel of activists and government officials in the Dearborn community at the Arab-American Museum on Thursday in Dearborn, Mich.
Sylvia Jarrus for NPR
“What we’re saying is, first and foremost, we need a ceasefire, not some temporary thing,” said Alawieh.
“We’re also saying, President Biden, you are losing people and have lost many people here in Michigan, key voters, where you need every vote you can get,” he added. “And unless you take a different approach, you will be handing the presidency back to Donald Trump and his white supremacist buddies.”
Michigan is a key swing state. Biden won it by more than 150,000 votes in 2020, while Trump took it in 2016 by a margin of just over 10,000 — which is the minimum number of “uncommitted” votes the Listen to Michigan campaign hopes to get.
The primary on Tuesday is also being watched as an early litmus test for how much Biden’s stance on Gaza could hurt his reelection bid — even though a lot could change before the general election in November.
“I think the more votes we have, the stronger our hand will be to play the next move that saves lives,” Alawieh said.
The heart of the uncommitted campaign is in Michigan’s Arab and Muslim communities. But it’s also resonating with young voters and people of color from a variety of religions and backgrounds. Proponents of the campaign want a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel and a clear path to Palestinian statehood.
A flyer encouraging voters to vote uncommitted sits at Cairo Coffee and Spotlite, a popular activist gathering spot in Detroit, Mich.
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A flyer encouraging voters to vote uncommitted sits at Cairo Coffee and Spotlite, a popular activist gathering spot in Detroit, Mich.
Sylvia Jarrus for NPR
In recent weeks, Biden has grown more publicly critical of Israel’s conduct, and is working on a hostage exchange deal that could bring six weeks of respite. Last week, for the third time, the U.S. vetoed a United Nations resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Israel has argued that a ceasefire would give Hamas an opportunity to regroup and regain strength, and the Biden administration has been balancing its support for a close ally with pushing for a pause and longer-term solution to the conflict.
Administration officials acknowledged “missteps” when they met with Muslim and Arab American community leaders in Dearborn earlier this month, said Alawieh, who attended the meeting.
“The feeling of betrayal here in Michigan runs so deep that it will not be wiped away by a TV ad or two or ten or a hundred,” he said.
Many residents are personally affected by the Israel-Hamas war, either because they have lost loved ones or have dealt with similar conflicts in their own family history — including Alawieh, who was a child during the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah.
“I could have been killed by one of those U.S.-funded Israeli bombs … I could have been one of those kids whose stories we don’t know,” he said. “That child inside of me, a child that too many people here in southeastern Michigan know all too well … is saying the most urgent thing you can do right now is to advise President Biden to call for a cease-fire.”
The administration told NPR that Biden is “working hard to earn every vote in Michigan” and to “create a just, lasting peace in the Middle East.” But many anti-war Democrats who spoke to NPR say they feel taken for granted by the party — and, by voting “uncommitted,” hope to increase pressure on Biden to listen to them and change course.
The campaign aims to send Biden a message
Supporters of the uncommitted effort agree it won’t change Biden’s expected primary victory on Tuesday — his Democratic opponent Dean Phillips trails far behind. But they hope to prove that he needs their support to beat Trump, the leading GOP frontrunner, come the general election in November.
Among those supporters is former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, a Democrat who represented parts of metro Detroit in Congress from 2019 to 2023. He’s also a self-described Biden ally who worries the president doesn’t understand how deep the anger is in the Arab American community and beyond in the key swing state of Michigan.
Former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin at the First United Methodist Church in Ferndale, Mich., on Thursday. He is a Biden ally and uncommitted voter.
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Former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin at the First United Methodist Church in Ferndale, Mich., on Thursday. He is a Biden ally and uncommitted voter.
Sylvia Jarrus for NPR
“The biggest danger for the president in his reelection is not getting that message,” said Levin, who will be voting uncommitted in the primary.
The threat to Biden’s reelection, as Levin sees it, isn’t that anti-war Democrats will vote for Trump. It’s that they won’t vote at all. He says the 150,000 votes that Biden won by in 2020 is actually a relatively slim margin in a state with some 10 million residents.
“I don’t see how you win the presidency without winning Michigan,” Levin said. “And so then, here’s the kicker: I don’t think he can win Michigan unless he changes course.”
This issue is also personal for Levin. His synagogue, housed in a church, displays a large banner in Hebrew and English, reading: “Jews & Christians praying for ceasefire now.”
“I know Joe Biden understands this conflict and I know he cares a lot about it,” Levin said. “My desire to see him lead on this and change course is both because it’s what must happen to achieve a secure homeland for my people and the Palestinian people and for his own politics so he can be re-elected and we don’t descend into fascism in America.”
Congregation T’chiyah & the First United Methodist Church flies a banner calling for a ceasefire in Ferndale, Mich.
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Congregation T’chiyah & the First United Methodist Church flies a banner calling for a ceasefire in Ferndale, Mich.
Sylvia Jarrus for NPR
More than 40 Democratic elected officials in Michigan have pledged to vote uncommitted. Among them is Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, the first Arab mayor of this majority-Arab city.
He says his city — home to residents who have family living through strikes in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq — is not sleeping, and he wants the president to know that.
“For us here in Dearborn, we don’t wonder what it’s like,” he said. “Not only did we live under those similar conditions — whether it was occupation, apartheid, war, besiegement — but also the people who are dying, these are our family members and our friends, people who we know directly.”
He knows that his city, along with the wider community of Arab Americans and American Muslims in Michigan, aren’t seen as kingmakers in the electorate.
“We’re not sizable enough to make a candidate win,” he said. “But we’re sizable enough to make a candidate lose.”
He says if Biden calls for a full ceasefire tomorrow it doesn’t automatically repair the damage, but earns the president “another conversation at the table.”
Every minute counts, Hammoud said, and it’s not too late for Biden to take action to prevent additional civilian deaths in Gaza. Israel’s military kills an average of 250 Palestinians a day, a higher rate than any other major 21st century conflict, according to Oxfam.
“There’s always time to do the right thing. But this has to happen outside of the context of, does that mean it moves the needle for what you’re going to support in November?” he said. “Because I refuse to believe that Palestinian lives only are important in the context of polls and outcomes of elections.”
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud sits at Jabal Coffee House in downtown Dearborn on Thursday.
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Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud sits at Jabal Coffee House in downtown Dearborn on Thursday.
Sylvia Jarrus for NPR
As he spoke, he walked through a shopping district in west Dearborn, where restaurants serve up everything from Detroit-style pizza to shawarma and Yemeni coffee. He brought a team of reporters to this district to show off the small businesses that reflect his city, but he also wondered if the nation or the administration would care about its pain if an election weren’t at stake.
“It feels like this is a new caliber of dehumanization,” he said. “I think many of us who have children often wonder what world our children are going to grow up in?”
People are in pain and want to be heard
In a few weeks Ramadan begins, the Muslim holy month when those who observe fast from dawn to dusk. In recent years, Dearborn has drawn hundreds of thousands of people to the nighttime festivals.
This year, all of that is canceled because of the war.
“People are not in the mood to be at these celebratory events,” said Hammoud.
While the pain in Dearborn is predominantly about what residents are seeing in Gaza, it also comes from the increased hate at home.
More than 40 Democratic elected officials in Michigan have pledged to vote “uncommitted” in the upcoming Michigan primary.
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More than 40 Democratic elected officials in Michigan have pledged to vote “uncommitted” in the upcoming Michigan primary.
Sylvia Jarrus for NPR
Since a Wall Street Journal opinion piece maligned this entire city as “America’s jihad capital” earlier this month, threats have poured in, including to the mayor himself, who is Lebanese American and Muslim.
Hammoud didn’t expect to find himself in the middle of this fierce geopolitical battle when he was elected in 2022.
“I mean, I ran on the prospect of making sure your garbage is picked up on time. I never imagined myself in a room with senior officials leading conversations on foreign policy,” he said. “But when that foreign policy directly impacts your constituents, I think it’s irresponsible if you walk away right now.”
After Tuesday, what changes?
The message of uncommitted is resonating in Dearborn.
Outside a popular brunch spot, two sisters, Anem Khan and Huma Shahzad, who always vote Democrat, say on Tuesday they’ll check uncommitted because of the daily horrors they’re seeing in Gaza.
“Everything I feel … my mood, my day, everything is based off of what’s going on in Palestine,” Khan said. “It’s not about religion. It’s about kids and adults and parents and families being eliminated.”
What upsets them the most is that their tax dollars are paying for many of the bombs being used in Gaza. They say Biden needs to publicly call for it to stop.
Anem Khan and Huma Shahzad, pictured in a parking garage in Dearborn on Friday, say they will be voting uncommitted in Tuesday’s primary.
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Rachel Treisman/Treisman
Anem Khan and Huma Shahzad, pictured in a parking garage in Dearborn on Friday, say they will be voting uncommitted in Tuesday’s primary.
Rachel Treisman/Treisman
“Killing innocent people is not the answer to anything, ever,” Khan said. “Unless he calls for a ceasefire, I don’t think that anyone would vote for him.”
But even that might not get their vote.
“I’d need to see action,” said Shahzad.
In Dearborn that sentiment seems to cross religious and racial lines, but it’s unclear if it’s gaining traction beyond the metro Detroit area.
Biden’s administration is hoping it will win back a sizable share of younger voters ahead of the general election, thanks to his position on issues like climate change and abortion — and the fact that he’s not Trump.
Supporters of the uncommitted campaign in Dearborn bristle at the suggestion that their refusal to vote for Biden is a vote for Trump, or that things could be “worse” under a president who has tried to enforce a travel ban on several Muslim majority countries — known as a Muslim ban — and threatened to bring it back if reelected.
For Shahzad, who is 27, she says her student loans that Biden promises to forgive and her personal safety under a possible Trump presidency are less important than changing the daily reality for Palestinians in Gaza.
“We do have more of a protective layer around us here in America because we are sheltered,” she said. “Where in Palestine they have nothing. They just have the clothes on their backs.”
Dearborn mayor Hammoud asks, what is he supposed to say to his constituent who lost 80 loved ones in Gaza?
“I think people fail to explain that, they can’t contextualize that for us,” Hammoud said, adding, “I don’t think there is a worse.”
In an exclusive interview with CBS News on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he doesn’t believe the recent disclosure of President Trump’s billions in crypto earnings is problematic for the president.
“I don’t think there’s an appearance problem,” Bessent told CBS News anchor and MoneyWatch correspondent Kelly O’Grady regarding Mr. Trump’s earnings.
According to a financial disclosure released earlier this week, Mr. Trump has earned approximately $1.4 billion from his crypto ventures since beginning his second term. Those include his “meme coin” $TRUMP and earnings from World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company backed by the president and his family.
Congressional Democrats have criticized Mr. Trump’s crypto windfall, arguing it presents a conflict of interest since his administration has sought to loosen regulations on cryptocurrency.
“This is an innovation presidency,” Bessent told CBS News. “So whether it’s digital access, whether it’s AI, whether it’s everything that is going on in the tech ecosystem that, you know, all Americans are benefiting from that.”
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told CBS News on Tuesday that “there are no conflicts of interest” in the disclosure.
In his interview with CBS News, Bessent also touched on the latest developments with the tax-deferred Trump Accounts and his outlook for the U.S. economy as it grapples with the impacts of the Iran war.
Economic relief is coming for American families, Bessent believes
The Treasury secretary said his message to Americans who are experiencing strain at the grocery store and at the pump wrought by the Iran war is that “we’re going to get to the other side of this.”
Since the war began in late February, halts to shipping traffic in the critical Strait of Hormuz, which handles roughly 20% of the world’s global oil supply, have led to rising gas prices, which have in turn accelerated inflation and raised costs more broadly. In May, the annual inflation rate rose to 4.2%, according to the Labor Department, its highest level since April 2023.
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline on Thursday was $3.83, according to AAA. At the height of the war, gas prices topped $4.50 a gallon, but have steadily declined in recent weeks as oil prices return to near prewar levels and the U.S. and Iran negotiate over a more permanent end to the war.
Bessent said he is hopeful that the average drops to $3 a gallon by Labor Day.
“Gasoline prices are a little stickier on the way down,” Bessent said. “We’re trying to give the gasoline retailers a little bit of a nudge. We’re telling them we’re watching them. We’ve had some good uptake from some of the bigger retailers from some of the bigger retailers in terms of what they want to do for consumers.”
Thursday’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that U.S. employers added 57,000 jobs in June, far below what economists had predicted, but the unemployment rate held steady, dipping slightly to 4.2% from 4.3% the month before. However, the report found that annual wage growth was 3.5%, below the rate of inflation.
Bessent described the discrepancy between wage gains and inflation as a “short-term spike,” and said he expects to see oil and energy prices continue to drop.
“I would expect, perhaps, as soon as this month, we’re going to see real wage gains,” Bessent said.
Asked whether the stock market’s strong performance in recent months, or the real-world pressure facing many Americans, is a more realistic view of the state of the U.S. economy, Bessent said he believes the market’s strong performance will be predictive of the direction the economy takes.
“The stock market lives in the future. So what the stock market is telling us is, presumably, what I am saying today, that we’ll get to the other side of this,” Bessent said. “Rates will come down and then we will be back up to real wage gain. So both can be true.”
Trump Accounts a tool to create “financial literacy,” Bessent says
The White House announced this week that beginning on July 4, Americans can begin contributing to Trump Accounts, a federal program launched earlier this year designed to help children under 18 invest money in the stock market and build savings before they reach adulthood, similar to how adults save for retirement.
“Thirty-eight percent of American households have no investment in our great equity markets, and we want everyone to share, you know, in the bounty that is the U.S.,” Bessent said. “In our innovation and our capital markets, and, you know, the economic engine, greatest in the history of the world. So, you know, over time, I would think that that 38% number would move toward zero. And then the other thing too is financial literacy.”
According to Bessent, more than 6 million Trump Accounts have been opened so far, and there are approximately 70 million children in the U.S. eligible for them.
On July 4, the federal government will begin contributing $1,000 to accounts for eligible children who are born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028. The Trump Accounts were part of the White House’s “big, beautiful bill” legislation passed last year.
Bessent noted how wealthy philanthropists, organizations and states can also donate to the accounts, even by contributing public stock. Last year, Michael Dell, who founded Dell Technologies, and his wife Susan Dell announced they would donate $6.25 billion to the accounts, or $250 per person.
“I would expect that we are going to see, again from these philanthropic families and institutions and companies, I would expect that we would see the lower-income profile families, actually the accounts will be topped up more,” Bessent said.
Bessent said the accounts could also build throughout adulthood and be rolled into an individual retirement account.
“We want them to really understand the power of long-term compounding,” Bessent said of the families who take part in the program. “That you’ll own a share of a company, that many people have – bank deposits. They’re used to getting interest, they’re used to paying interest. So what we want them to understand is, what does a piece of the action feel like?”
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Ukraine latest / Limits of military might / Can major powers regain dominance? : Sources & Methods
A view taken on June 24 shows a heavily damaged multi-story apartment building following a recent attack, which local Russian-installed officials called a Ukrainian drone strike, in the town of Gorlivka in the Donetsk region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, amid the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
AFP via Getty Images
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AFP via Getty Images
Four years in and Ukraine is still giving Russia a run for its money. Four months in and Iran shows no sign of bowing to U.S. demands.
What do Russia’s fight with Ukraine and the U.S. war with Iran tell us about the limits of military might?
Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR’s Ukraine Correspondent Joanna Kakissis about the overnight attack in Kyiv, which comes on the heels of Ukraine’s drone assaults in Moscow. NPR National Security Correspondent Greg Myre joins them to talk about what the conflicts in Ukraine
and Iran say about military might and whether major powers can regain dominance.
Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.org
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Newsom’s office responds to SCOTUS ruling on women’s sports as California faces ongoing trans athlete wave
Linda McMahon slams Democrats for dismissing women’s sports concerns
Education Secretary Linda McMahon discusses the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding transgender sports bans, emphasizing the need to protect women’s sports. McMahon highlights the impact on female athletes, addressing concerns about fairness, lost opportunities, and safety in locker rooms. She criticizes Democrats for their dismissal of these issues, reaffirming the Trump administration’s commitment to defending women’s rights under Title IX.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has responded after the U.S. Supreme Court made a historic ruling on trans athletes in women’s sports on Tuesday.
The court ruled 6-3 to uphold state laws that protect women’s sports from biological male trans athletes. California is one of 23 states in the country that don’t have laws to protect women’s sports, and since 2014, has had a law in place to protect the rights of males to compete against females.
A spokesperson for Newsom’s office said the Supreme Court ruling will not impact California’s current setup.
SUPREME COURT MAKES RULING ON TRANS ATHLETES IN WOMEN’S SPORTS
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference in Hayward, California, on March 2, where he criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The Supreme Court’s decision does not affect California’s laws. The state remains committed to ensuring every Californian, including the LGBTQ community, is met with dignity and respect,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
A source within Newsom’s office provided Fox News Digital a bulleted list titled “As a Governor, Governor Newsom has the strongest record in the country on protecting and expanding transgender rights.”
The list included several bragging points, including “making it easier to update gender markers on official documents,” and “appointed multiple trans judges.”
The list concludes by pointing out, “California is one of 22 states that have laws requiring transgender students to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity. California passed this law in 2013 (AB 1266) and it was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.”
Newsom’s state was ravaged by a trans athlete national media crisis in May, for the second year in a row and third time in total in one year, as prominent trans athlete AB Hernandez competed in girls’ sports.
Hernandez won two track and field state titles for the second straight year. Ahead of the first round of the state tournament in early May, “Save Girls Sports” protesters led by former NCAA women’s soccer player Sophia Lorey scheduled a press conference near the competition grounds.
AB HERNANDEZ ADVANCES IN CALIFORNIA STATE CHAMPIONSHIP AS SAVE GIRLS’ SPORTS ACTIVISTS RALLY NEARBY
A source within Newsom’s office previously addressed the press conference in the days leading up to the event in a statement provided to Fox News Digital, prompting controversy and criticism from locals.
“The Governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect. He rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids. The Governor’s position is simple: stand with all kids and stand up to bullies,” the statement read.
The governor faced mass backlash from activists across the country for his office’s statement. The controversy only exploded the very next week when it was revealed the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) re-implemented a pilot program that bumped every girl who finished behind the trans athlete up by one spot on the podium. The change resulted in now-infamous imagery of Hernandez sharing podium spots with the female second-place finishers.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is engaged in Title IX lawsuits against education agencies in California for its policies that allow trans athletes in girls’ high school sports. The lawsuit was officially launched in July after Hernandez won two state finals in triple jump and high jump, and won second place in long jump, at last year’s championships.
Newsom previously declared that he believed males competing in girls’ sports is “deeply unfair” during an episode of his podcast with the late Charlie Kirk in March 2025.
Then in July 2025, Newsom spoke about the issue in an interview on the “Shawn Ryan Show” saying he has been “amazingly frustrated by it” and that he regularly encounters parents who are angry about the state’s policies at his children’s soccer games.
“Every parent coming up says, ‘It’s so unfair.’ Like ‘Whoa,’ like everywhere I went, progressively-minded people, not bigots, that are champions of trans policy like I am, but didn’t like the sports. They were like ‘come on man, you got to figure this out,’” Newsom said.
Newsom added that his allies in the LGBTQ caucus were “furious” with him after he made his initial comments in March while speaking to Kirk, and even recalled an alleged conversation with President Donald Trump about it.
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“Trump is having the time of his life, and I assure you he is because we’ve had conversations on this topic,” Newsom said.
“And now he’s suing and threatening us, and they’re just, and you know, I’m the poster child,” Newsom added. “But I do think we have to address that issue.”
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