President Biden on Thursday brushed off weakened backing by Muslim Americans amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, saying he still thinks they’ll show up for him on Election Day.
Speaking with reporters at the White House before heading to North Carolina to talk about the economy, Mr. Biden said there is a “long way to go” before the Nov. 5 election.
Mr. Biden added that his expected 2024 opponent, former President Donald Trump, has called for limiting immigration from Muslim-majority countries.
“The former president wants to put a ban on Arabs coming into the country. We’ll make sure that we understand who cares about the Arab population,” Mr. Biden said.
Muslim community leaders have been critical of Mr. Biden’s refusal to demand a cease-fire in Gaza, which has been bombarded by Israel following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack. Instead, the president has tried to balance his support for Israel with calls for restraint.
That has led to anger among Muslims and could prove fatal to Mr. Biden’s chances of reelection, since many of the swing states contain large pockets of Arab voting blocs.
Arab Americans account for just a fraction of the U.S. population and about half the number of Jewish Americans. But their largest communities reside in battleground states that could shift the election if they refuse to back Mr. Biden.
Mr. Biden won Nevada in 2020 over Mr. Trump by just 34,000 votes. The Muslim population in the state is 7,400, and any erosion of support could hurt the president’s reelection chances in the Silver State.
The U.S. Religion Census found that the Muslim population in several swing states exceeded Mr. Biden’s margin of victory in 2020.
Mr. Biden won Georgia by 12,000 votes, and its Muslim population is 123,000. He won by 154,000 votes in Michigan, which has more than 242,000 adherents of Islam. Wisconsin, which he won by 21,000 votes, has 69,000 Muslim residents.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.