Responding to a tweet by Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid, MSNBC News star Mehdi Hasan found himself busy in the comments area of his own post. Hasan attested that, like Hamid, he had recently consulted Muslim friends and family, all of whom are vowing not to vote again for Joe Biden in 2024, distressed and angry over what they view as the President’s condoning of Israel’s response in Gaza to the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7.
I’ve had the same conversations with all my Muslims friends and family members over Thanksgiving. Not a single one says they will vote for Biden again, having voted for him in 2020. Every single one says it’s because of Gaza. Dems need to understand that the anger is very real. https://t.co/xuiPSo60p7
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 25, 2023
Hasan didn’t say how he personally intended to vote, reporting only that “conversations with all my Muslims friends and family members” revealed that “not a single one says they will vote for Biden again, having voted for him in 2020.” The change is over the war in Gaza, Hasan says.
Hasan’s reporting drew such blowback that at one point in the comments he says “Not sure why you’re all shooting the messenger.” He follows by asking: “Should I not tell you what people are thinking/saying? Would you prefer to not know & think all is fine?”
Hasan acknowledges that while “{Donald} Trump would be worse than Biden for Muslims,” the anger is so powerful that people are willing to damage their own interests to service it, even in a way that delivers only a pyrrhic victory, if that, and a false sense of justice.
And yes, of course Trump would be worse than Biden for Muslims, but people are angry and people are hurting and people want to politically punish Biden for supporting what’s happening in Gaza and this is the only way they know how in a two party presidential system.
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 25, 2023
Popular commentator AngryStaffer, acknowledging the bitterness Palestinians are experiencing, still cautioned against letting that anger “radicalize” people who are vulnerable and at emotional extremes, which he says — in colorful language — is what terrorists dream about.
The amount of both blatant antisemitism and anti-Palestinianism that’s taking place right now really makes me worry about the future of the United States.
— Angry Staffer 🌻 (@Angry_Staffer) November 27, 2023
People on both sides of the aisle are far too easily radicalized. It’s like a terrorist’s wet dream.
AngryStaffer also replied to Mehdi’s reporting directly, not so much shooting the messenger as cautioning against the content of the message.
While the anger is real, it is “also extremely misplaced and people should direct it where it belongs,” he writes. Currently trying to extend the truce, Biden, he asserts, isn’t remotely comparable to the “guy who wants to deport Muslims” — Trump, that is — and protesting the situation in Gaza by withholding a Biden vote is “quite possibly the dumbest, most self-defeating way to protest,” AngryStaffer concludes.
The anger is very real, but it’s also extremely misplaced and people should direct it where it belongs.
— Angry Staffer 🌻 (@Angry_Staffer) November 25, 2023
Punishing Biden — the guy pushing to extend the ceasefire — and helping the guy who wants to deport Muslims is quite possibly the dumbest, most self-defeating way to protest. https://t.co/8qTUBvMPe8
Responding to a comment by Matthew Yglesias, who expressed a hope that before the vote comes due the anger might subside enough for the withholders to have a change of heart, Mehdi said clearly “I hope they’ll reconsider too.”
I hope they’ll reconsider too and yes that is true. We are in agreement for once
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 25, 2023
