Democrats behind ‘Abandon Biden’ campaign hesitate to support Harris for president

It just took a day for Vice President Kamala Harris to gain enough support from delegates to the Democratic National Convention to seemingly become their presidential nominee.

And in the hours after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, funds poured into the campaign. The Minnesota DFL said it set a fundraising record by raising more than $100,000 online in just 24 hours. But not everyone is ready to fast-track Harris’ candidacy.

More than 700,000 Americans cast Democratic primary votes for uncommitted or its equivalent to protest Biden over his support for the war in Gaza. In Minnesota, 19 percent of the Democratic vote was for uncommitted. Now those voters are shifting their attention to Harris.

Hassan Abdul Salam is the executive director of Civil Rights Alliance of America and founder of the “Abandon Biden” campaign in Minnesota. He spoke to Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition from Washington, D.C., a day ahead of a Wednesday news conference.

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This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. Click on the audio player above for the full interview.

President Biden has left the race. How did you feel after hearing that news?

We’re excited, because in some ways it represents a success after we launched the Abandon Biden campaign. In October, we demanded that Biden call for a permanent cease-fire, and he didn’t.

On Nov. 1, Abandon Biden was launched. Our signs came out. We’ve protested the president's position since then, we vowed never to vote for him and to actively campaign against him, despite the fact that community members who are in the Abandon Biden campaign voted for him in droves.

We called for him to drop out to create a new opportunity for the party, and so we’re delighted in the sense that Biden is no longer going to be the decider on the issue of Gaza.

Our grievance is that he has not supported the fundamental value of life in continuing and enabling the genocide. We, however, cannot say that we have a victory so long as there are people dying because of our policies. So in that sense, it’s not a total victory.

So to be clear, your agenda has not changed. You're looking for a permanent cease-fire and ending military support for Israel.

Absolutely, unconditional, permanent cease-fire, not sending armaments to the State of Israel, as consistent with the International Court of Justice.

Based on Kamala Harris’s past comments on Gaza, is it clear where she stands on the issues?

We're very concerned about some of the statements she’s made about us. While she’s depicting the attacks as tragic, she’s also remaining consistent to the policies that Biden has pursued.

We are feeling that we should at least give her an opportunity to speak to us to tell us what she will do. She just started yesterday, as you have been reporting, in her campaign, so we feel it’s important that we hear clearly from her what she intends to do as the president. Based on that, we will have to recalibrate our campaign.

We don’t want to go in the direction of beginning a movement calling for all Americans to abandon Harris. We’re extremely concerned about some of the language she’s used. But again, she hasn’t gone into depth or detail about what she intends to do as president

If Harris is not a candidate you can support, what might be the alternative?

It seems like there might not be an alternative. We were hoping there would be an open convention, where candidates could come and discuss their policies and we could potentially end up with a candidate that would be ideal for those who voted uncommitted.

But instead, we woke up the next day after Biden dropped out. And the entire party had endorsed Kamala Harris. Delegates have turned towards her, and she’s consolidated massive support. She appears to be the candidate of the Democratic Party, and it looks like there won’t be an open convention. That is where we’re at and that concerns us because she’s so tied to the policy that’s been pursued by Biden.

But again, we’re hoping that they reach out, that we could talk directly to her about our concerns and grievances. As vice president, she has to be in lockstep with the president’s policies. She could tell us that in her heart, she always knew that this was a genocide, and that she would pursue policies that would lead to peace.

Is there a possibility some of the folks that you are working with could vote third party or perhaps sit it out? What happens if Donald Trump wins then?

The vast majority of the Abandon Biden leaders have called for folks to vote third party, and we have an endorsement process. We’ve been interviewing third party candidates, and we will be making an announcement.

We do not want to make such an announcement until we have clarity about what’s going to take place in the Democratic Party, both in terms of clarity of who the candidate is, which we have a sense that will be Kamala Harris, and in terms of the policy of the U.S.A.

As I mentioned, most of the Abandon Biden campaign leadership and supporters voted in droves for the Democratic Party. We’re talking Muslim, American, Arab American people of conscience of different backgrounds from all across the country who are concerned about the genocide.

They never wanted Trump. And we had to come up with some kind of resolve. What type of country do we want: a country that will enable genocide or a country that will stand by the value of life?

And so we’re willing to take the sacrifice that for years living under any Republican is incomparable to one day in Gaza, and that we have to take this stand to ensure that the president, the party, the presidential candidate, will be punished if they pursue a policy that enables genocide.

And that’s why we are pursuing this campaign, despite the fact that for us having Trump is disastrous. Many of our people believe he’s despicable. But that we have to send a signal to the political landscape that generous genocide is intolerable to American conscience.

And then make sure that everyone knows that the head of a superpower or the presidential candidate, pursuing a policy such as this, from this particular administration, whether it’s Biden or Harris cannot pursue this policy, and genocide can never again be on the ballot.