Biden reelection campaign team travels to Michigan but is shunned by some Arab American leaders

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — President Joe Biden ‘s campaign manager traveled to Michigan on Friday, where many Arab American leaders are enraged over the administration’s Israel policy, and found a number of leaders unwilling to meet — exposing a growing rift between the White House and groups otherwise loyal to Democratic causes in a critical swing state.

Julie Chavez Rodriguez, manager of Biden’s reelection campaign, led a group of advisers to the Dearborn area. But some Arab American leaders, who have for months accused the president of being too supportive of Israel in its war with Hamas, declined to sit down with them.

A meeting between Rodriguez and Arab American and Muslim leaders was canceled Friday after pushback within the community, said Assad I. Turfe, a deputy Wayne County executive, who said he was tasked with coordinating the meeting.

Turfe said he reached out to more than 10 Arab American and Muslim leaders after being contacted by the Biden campaign on Wednesday. The leaders then spoke with community members, Turfe said, who made it clear they did not want them meeting Rodriguez.

“I don’t believe that the Biden administration, at the senior top level, understand how big of a problem this is and how upset and angry the community is,” Turfe said.

Fighting between Israel and Hamas has inflamed tensions between Jews and Muslims around the world but had an especially deep resonance in the Detroit area, which is home to several heavily Jewish suburbs and Dearborn, the city with the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud took to Twitter, formerly X, to sarcastically note Rodriguez’s travel while criticizing Biden for urging congressional leaders to quickly approve a $20