The White House has stood by President Joe Biden alluding to former President Donald Trump‘s Muslim travel ban when he was asked whether he was concerned Arab Americans would not vote for him in this year’s general election.
Biden was underscoring the contrast between himself and his predecessor, according to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, citing the incumbent’s record “protecting” the Arab American and Muslim community, in addition to any other community that has been “under attack” or “felt left behind.”
“What the president was doing was trying to give a reminder of where we were before, what it looked like before, in the last four years in the last administration,” she told reporters Friday. “It was a question that he was asked, he answered it very quickly. He thought of it, it was obviously asked in a political way, and so that’s where he went.”
Jean-Pierre similarly defended Biden’s lack of public outreach to the same communities after meeting with leaders last October, a gathering that included only one Palestinian American.
“He has had direct conversation with leaders in the respective communities,” she said. “His team has regularly stayed in touch with members and leaders of those respective communities, as you just laid out, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans as well. And so those conversations are obviously very important. I don’t have anything to read out or lay out of any upcoming discussions with those leaders in those communities. But he has been. He’s had direct conversation.”
Biden has been criticized by Arab and Muslim Americans for his response to the Israel–Hamas war amid the escalating civilian death toll in Gaza.
“How concerned are you with the Arab American votes during this election?” a reporter asked Biden on the White House’s South Lawn this week. “Are you concerned with the Arab American votes … for you during this election because of Gaza? Many say they will not vote for you.”
“The former president wants to put a ban on Arabs coming into the country,” he replied. “We understand who cares about the Arab population, number one. Number two, we got a long way to go in terms of settling the situation in Gaza.”
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In the past, Biden has also been scrutinized for seeming complacent with black voters. In 2020, he told Charlamagne tha God on The Breakfast Club that, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
