In a letter published Wednesday on Medium, an anonymous group of Biden’s campaign staffers demanded the president call for a ceasefire in Gaza, citing concerns that not shifting his policy on the issue could hurt his 2024 chances.
“Biden for President staff have seen volunteers quit in droves, and people who have voted blue for decades feel uncertain about doing so for the first time ever, because of this conflict,” the Medium letter read.
“It is not enough to merely be the alternative to Donald Trump,” the campaigners continued. “The campaign has to shift the feeling in the pits of voters’ stomachs, the same feeling that weighs on us every day as we fight for your reelection. The only way to do that is to call for a ceasefire.”
Sure, still going to vote for Biden over Trump. All Biden has to do is not be Trump and he is the better option.
Sure, still going to vote for Biden over Trump
So am I. Because probably like you, voting for me is easy.
Takes less than 15 minutes even on presidential years.
Not everyone is so lucky. Some people are hours of waiting, presidential years we still hear about some places being five, eight, maybe even more hours wait
And because that is almost always caused by Republicans doing it to dem areas of their state…
We really, really need those votes. If we didn’t, Republicans wouldn’t try so hard to suppress them.
So while voting Biden is undoubtedly worth 15 minutes of my time, you have to ask yourself: is it enough for a single parent working two jobs they don’t get PTO from to stand there for half a day.
It might have been enough when Trump was actively in office. But lots of people liked the idea of Biden four years ago a lot more than they do after his first 3 years in office.
And college students may need to drive many hours to their “home” where they are registered to vote. Which they might do “often” anyway, and like combine it with laundry, a meal, and an overnight stay, but still that all comes at the expense of homework time and exam prep, plus depending on the weather that drive may get more difficult. People like to blame college kids for not voting more, especially earlier in the primaries, as if somehow it is the youth that put DT into office back then!?
Your comment providing a deeper perspective is like a breath of fresh air. Thank you for sharing it.:-)
Your comment providing a deeper perspective is like a breath of fresh air. Thank you for sharing it.:-)
And people told me I was an idiot for getting a sociology minor!
/s
Real talk tho, a big reason governments are so fucked up is at some point we all got convinced business majors and lawyers were a better pick for leaders over sociologists.
At the bare minimum we need sociologists running campaigns.
Give me somebody that went through grad school to earn barely above the poverty line for decades before becoming fed up with the system and running for office. That is someone American voters can identify with, and someone that understands how the American public thinks.
People like to blame college kids for not voting more, especially earlier in the primaries, as if somehow it is the youth that put DT into office back then!?
Entrenched leadership wants to ignore everyone who isn’t a conservative boomer. Blaming everyone else means they can dismiss them as unreliable.
If Covid hadn’t pushed vote by mail so hard in 2020, Biden would not have won. It was only because vote by mail increased voter engagement that Biden got it.
Engagement is going to be down in '24, vote by mail won’t be the same option it was in lots of places, and that’s going to make it a lot harder for Biden to win.
Not just vote by mail.
Lots of states finally moved away from requiring a specific polling location to anywhere in your city/county.
Which essentially broke the biggest waits. Who would stand in line for hours instead of driving to a different one if they had the option?
Pre-covid my 15 minute round trip for voting was about an hour at best, including 30 minutes driving. Because the polling location I had to go to wasn’t the closest, served a large area, and was pretty tiny with very few machines. They never even had stickers.
Now I get to go to the “rich” polling location that’s in walking distance, has a bunch of machines and volunteers, and gives out legit breakfast bags to every voter.
That also drastically helped Biden, I believe it’ll stick around tho.
All Biden has to do is not be Trump and he is the better option.
That’s all he has to do to get votes, but he needs a campaign staff. Can you imagine dedicating energy to work to get someone elected who you aren’t exactly passionate about?
Maybe he doesn’t need a campaign staff. He could keep his head down and just see what happens on election day. I’d almost welcome it.
I can because there are always more staffers, just like there are always new fools that decide to work for Trump. There isn’t a union of staffers after all, so I’m not at all worried about a handful of them.
As will I, but I will also take every opportunity I have to try and make him be less of a trash person. As difficult of a task as it is.
“I’m going to vote for the guy but do my best to convince others he’s trash. Hopefully they still vote for him too!”
So, one should never criticize the party they’re supporting? Like the blind Trump followers?
You should probably be focusing on changing your local voting methods in order to allow different candidates rather than working towards disillusioning those who would otherwise not make voting decisions that end up supporting Republicans.
No, not never. But goddamn, pick your moments. Ten months out from an election with trump leading the polls is impressively poor timing.
The best moment for criticism was 2020 in the primaries but the progressive/youth wing of the Democratic coalition feels voting in primaries abhorrent (and loves screeching about hating the party during the general election.)
I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember how close 2016 and 2020 were but goddamn, elections these days are won on the margins. And if my snarky comments about Biden make one progressive kid sit this election out, that’s one too many.
its infuriating because all he has do is setup some shitty arbitrary line Israel already crossed such as barring support/arms sales to countries with high child casualty rates and he doesn’t even have to mention Israel to sidestep the whole problem like a coward.
Some people get mad when the US plays world police, some when it doesn’t. There is always something to be outraged about.
Personally I don’t think a ceasefire is a good idea. Hamas will, again, turn around and commit more atrocities, as will Israel. It’s delusional to think they will ever stop. No one in Hamas or the IDF will magically come to their senses.
So, for now I’m just waiting for the end result. Hamas is clearly losing and all we can do is hope something good comes of it.
If you killed my family and destroyed my town to take out Hamas, the first thing I’d do is start Hamas 2. You can’t indiscriminately bomb your way out of terrorism.
The only possible outcome I can imagine where these atrocities make Israelis and Palestinians safer is if the UN Security Council enforces the 1967 borders and the ICC tries the senior leadership of Hamas and Israel for crimes against humanity. The world has to say “Never Again” to these atrocities.
Hamas part 2 or 29, it doesn’t matter, because there is no solution. Maybe if cults weren’t involved it would be a different story. The UN has no power in changing the outcome.
The best result would be Hamas and the IDF disappearing from the world, but I doubt either of those things will happen.
The latter for obvious reasons, the former because the many orphaned children now have good (and, honestly, legitimate) reason to hate Israel.
Some people get mad when the US plays world police, some when it doesn’t.
Maybe if the US actually pulled out of the middle East everyone would be happy. But they’re not; they’re actively supporting Israel’s genocide.
All Biden has to do is not be Trump and he is the better option.
Good news. That’s the extent of Democrats’ ambition.
Lol, ok then…
This is the way
In a letter published Wednesday on Medium, an anonymous group of Biden’s campaign staffers demanded the president call for a ceasefire in Gaza
Surly they couldn’t be lying about being campaign staffers, could they? I suppose they have to remain anonymous to protect themselves from violent and deranged Biden cultists.
“Fake news!”
The letter was organized by campaign staffers. Five of them confirmed the authenticity of the letter to West Wing Playbook. Those staffers, who were granted anonymity because of their concern of backlash, said they were motivated to organize their letter out of a sense of moral responsibility.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/03/biden-campaign-anonymous-letter-israel-hamas-00133705
Nice try though to ignore the issue.
You should have posted the Politco article instead of the Newsweek. You are even citing the Politico article! The Newsweek article is hot garbage.
Fair enough. I saw the Newsweek article first and the Politico article only after I had posted the former here.
Newsweek is a terrible, terrible publication.
Excuse the world for being inherently suspicious of efforts that make space for letting Trump back into the White House after “letting the establishment learn their lesson” worked so outstandingly well in 2016.
Nobody’s ignoring the issue, they’re rightfully questioning the motives of the people who are stoking the flames on the issue.
This thread is wild… is it seriously shocking to people here that Biden campaigners (plurality young people) are upset about his response to the genocide in Gaza?? Yes, obviously we need to vote for him, but it’s crazy that criticism is labeled as astroturfing or attempts to sabotage his chances.
I really hate that every time someone criticizes him, some dumbass replies with “Yeah well Trump is way worse”
Yeah no shit lol, just because I hate the current president doesn’t mean I’m automatically selecting the deranged orange.
Also why the fuck are people working for free lmao
I’m upset too, but there is more than one issue in the world. These people need to put things in perspective. If Trump wins, America is literally over.
This smells like #WalkAway psyop bullshit. Anon letter on Medium as a source, lol please.
The letter was organized by campaign staffers. Five of them confirmed the authenticity of the letter to West Wing Playbook. Those staffers, who were granted anonymity because of their concern of backlash, said they were motivated to organize their letter out of a sense of moral responsibility.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/03/biden-campaign-anonymous-letter-israel-hamas-00133705
Nice try though to ignore the issue.
I jumped to conclusions, at least someone has confirmed it’s legit. Wasn’t ignoring it but the astroturfing “Anon outside any verifiable or published source says” is a problem that keeps recurring.
They are entitled to their opinions, and I’m not even in disagreement - the entire conflict is an abomination and horrendous… but I’m curious who they’d vote for otherwise. No one worth talking about in US politics would chart a different course.
It’s much easier to hold your nose and vote for the (much!) less bad option than it is to decide to spend your time and effort working for their campaign.
Hmm, let me see. Ceasefire in a country that has nothing to do with us and doesn’t effect us in the slightest
OR
We elect a literal fascist who actually admitted he will be a dictator and use the military against his enemies at home
Tough choice
I’m sorry that pushing for Biden to be a better person is such a problem for you. Trump is a monster, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore everything Biden does and pretend he’s perfect.
I don’t see anyone pretending Biden is perfect though?
I see a whole lot of people saying “a sane rational actor instead of a fucking psychpath and his cult.”
You’re in survival mode. So calling on the better of two options to condemn genocide and call for a cease fire is a waste of time?
I guess you have to compromise your morality to survive, but damn…
When the implied threat behind that call is letting the fascist wannabe dictator into office, yes it’s a dangerous waste of time.
I’m a Palestinian here in America and I feel fucking violated by how many people are ready to let me hang by the klansman’s rope on the excuse of being mad about what Israel is doing to my cousins in the Levant.
Meanwhile the man they’re supposedly so mad at for his inaction has been pressing Israel on de-escalation, negotiating prisoner swaps, and negotiated Gaza the right to access their own offshore natural resources to use the revenue for their own development.
Biden at his worst is doing more for the Palestinian community than these supposed allies of ours are doing at what they insist are their best.
What else is there left to conclude except that vote hostagers prefer Palestinians dead rather than living, dead Palestinians don’t call them out for enabling the circumstances that let Israel and racist Americans get away with tormenting and killing us.
Every cult likes to think they’re sane and rational.
Even the Cult of Biden.
that doesn’t mean we should ignore everything Biden does and pretend he’s perfect.
who is doing that? where?
He’s not perfect. He’s like getting 6 hours of sleep, tolerable. Trump is like getting 45 minutes of sleep a week, concerning and dangerous. 8 hours of sleep isn’t on the ballot and probably won’t be next time either
Uh… Israel is killing Gazans using American-made weapons right now.
Ceasefire in a country that has nothing to do with us and doesn’t effect us in the slightest
a brutal lie in the first part, a gross lie in the second part. mind you, I’m not pushing for any of the two octogenarian that will be elected.
Gotta love the abusive-relationship mechanic from the dems.
“Yes, I’m a toxic piece of shit, but without me you’ll be starving on the streets. So stop complaining, make me a sandwich, and tell me you love me. Now.”
And anyone suggesting that maybe they should leave anyway… is smeared as just wanting to drive victims into homelessness and prostitution.
If you want people to vote for you, be good enough to vote for on your own merits.
If you’re struggling to get votes despite your opponent being literally Trump, then you need to take a long hard look in the mirror.
It’s only because Democrats are so shitty at cannidate choice that we got trump in the first place
Bold of you to assume they aren’t propping up unpopular candidates on purpose.
And while they’re at it, they very directly propped up Trump as well. Hillary Clinton is responsible for everything Trump did.
Truth x Facts
Like in 2016, and the DNC’s Pied piper strategy
Which makes sense. Campaign volunteers tend to skew younger, and the younger demographic really cares about the Israel/Palestine debacle.
But, again, what are they going to do? Campaign for “no President has done more for Israel” Trump?
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/16/politics/trump-american-jews-israel/index.html
But, again, what are they going to do? Campaign for “no President has done more for Israel” Trump?
Not campaign at all. Which I’m sure someone here will interpret as being identical to campaigning for Trump.
It pretty much is, or if they push to a 3rd party who will end up taking away 5-10% of the vote, that’s just as good as campaigning for Trump.
Stein, Kennedy, West have absolutely no hope of winning even a single state, much less the election, but they will make it certain that Biden doesn’t win.
Really? Everyone who isn’t actively campaigning for Biden is campaigning for Trump? Is there anything else to which Biden is entitled by virtue of being the second worst candidate?
If I don’t sell everything I own and donate every dime to Biden, have I actually sold everything I owned and donated it to Trump?
Is there anything else to which Biden is entitled by virtue of being the second worst candidate?
Well now that you ask, you also need to talk about how amazing the economy is, and how young and vigorous he is, and like how much safer we are with a secure Israel and stuff.
Any conversation that isn’t talking about how amazing Biden is, is propaganda for Trump.
(Excuse me while I go wash my mouth out.)
Everyone who isn’t actively supporting Biden will make sure Trump wins. Yes.
Well, you’ve certainly worked out who to blame.
They always do. If they win, it’s a mandate to keep on being a little bit better than the other people. If they lose, its everyone’s fault but theirs.
You know, despite the fact that they control who they run, they control who is allowed to participate on any meaningful level, they’re the ones that continue to collude with fascists to keep everyone else out.
If if were about beating Trump, they’d choose a better candidate. After all, the core votes for blue no matter who. But that isn’t likely, as its easier to just gaslight and harass anyone who questions the wisdom of the party elite.
Can you provide an example of a US election where a POTUS has stood aside from reelection and a better candidate took their place and won?
I’ll go ahead and wait.
Per Biden himself, there are 50 others who can beat Trump. So, if Biden withdrew his candidacy- like he promised he would last time, there’s zero risk.
In fact, I would say not doing so is the greater risk.
Oh, there’s no doubt Biden should bounce, and if Trump gets convicted, or otherwise removed from consideration at the RNC in July, I expect Biden to bow out and we’ll get a new candidate at the DNC in August.
biden bowing out after a trump conviction is probably the only thing that’s more dangerous than biden not bowing out.
The trials don’t begin until late spring, early summer at the earliest, so him bowing out after a conviction is going to be an insanely short window for whoever takes up the canidacy (and is after primaries,) He needs to be bowing out now to let the primary process actually happen.
Anything else means running the risk of trump winning.
Oh, the primaries aren’t going to happen. Any replacement, on either side, will have to be at the conventions in July and August.
which will probably be before trump’s conviction(s).
I’m okay with trump leaving the next guy with a shit show, but Biden is supposed to be the “rational adult in the room”.
Yes, it is indeed a choice between eating shit and being flayed alive.
Like yes…i might survive eating shit, and I definitely don’t want to be flayed alive, but wow…what a choice to have to make. Rock The Vote, 2024. Lol.
Man, it’s like - every president for the past four decades has been in a shit eating contest, and Biden is the least shit-eating so far - is ‘he eats too much shit’ really the issue you want to make central to his candidacy? Especially when most voters are in favor of continuing to eat shit, for god knows what fucking reason?
I’m surprised how many people seem to have forgotten South Park’s episode about deciding whether you want to vote for a douche or a turd sandwich.
Because it’s only “eating shit” to the privileged, for folks that live the difference every second of the day, that difference is between a luxury buffet and being the one who’s actually at risk of being flayed alive.
A group of staffers working on President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign warned the president that his volunteers are quitting “in droves” over his handling of Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip.
“A group”? Two people said a thing? Well lets blast it out there like it’s fuckin’ true! FFS.
This is a garbage article. Newsweek is digging for clicks and does not give a shit about America. Just like all the corporate news sewers: CNN, NBC, ABC, WaPo, NYT who covered Trump relentlessly and repeated whatever insanity he spewed as if he were not a demented rapist fraud who can’t stop lying.
Fuck newsweek for this, whatever they are now is just twitter with a masthead.
The letter was organized by campaign staffers. Five of them confirmed the authenticity of the letter to West Wing Playbook. Those staffers, who were granted anonymity because of their concern of backlash, said they were motivated to organize their letter out of a sense of moral responsibility.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/03/biden-campaign-anonymous-letter-israel-hamas-00133705
Way more than two people. Nice try though to ignore the issue.
If idiots are too fucking stupid to vote for Biden, because of a religious war…well, it kind of fits in with the past decade of idiocracy. You get what you fucking deserve.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Biden has faced immense pressure from members of his own party over the United States’ policies in light of the surprise Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people and resulted in roughly 240 hostages, including some Americans.
In a letter published Wednesday on Medium, an anonymous group of Biden’s campaign staffers demanded the president call for a ceasefire in Gaza, citing concerns that not shifting his policy on the issue could hurt his 2024 chances.
“Like so many others, we continue to be devastated by Hamas’s attack against Israeli civilians on October 7th—it was a vile assault, one that touched the consciousness of the country,” the letter read.
“Biden for President staff have seen volunteers quit in droves, and people who have voted blue for decades feel uncertain about doing so for the first time ever, because of this conflict,” the Medium letter read.
The staffers’ letter comes on the same day a U.S. Department of Education policy adviser told the Associated Press that they submitted their resignation in protest of the president’s handling of the war in Gaza.
According to the progressive Working Families Party, 64 members of Congress—all Democrats—have also called for a ceasefire or cessation of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
The original article contains 693 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Two people quit = droves.
ROFL. Gotta love sensationalism.
You’re referring to actual appointed staff in his cabinets, not the people volunteering for his campaign and other non-cabinet staff.
Oh… you mean the “anonymous” people that can’t be verified?
The letter was organized by campaign staffers. Five of them confirmed the authenticity of the letter to West Wing Playbook. Those staffers, who were granted anonymity because of their concern of backlash, said they were motivated to organize their letter out of a sense of moral responsibility.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/03/biden-campaign-anonymous-letter-israel-hamas-00133705
Nice try though to ignore the issue.
If you say so. Keep spreading this bullshit and you can enjoy Trump as your dictator. I’m sure he’ll navigate the Palestinian conflict MUCH better.
I’m sorry that reporting factual information is such a problem for you. Disliking Trump and Republicans in general is not a reason for me to be purposefully blind to the actions of those I do support.
“bOtH siDeS!” Right? No one is asking you to be blind to what’s going on, but to shit on the one person that stands a chance to keep us from having a dictatorship?
I sincerely hope you are going to be proud of what you accomplish here.
So, basically, you’re saying we ignore everything Biden does, no matter how terrible, and not bring up that maybe he should be better?
Yes, I agree we should not be blind to the facts. For instance:
support for the president’s response for the Israel-Hamas war had increased among young voters, up by 5 percentage points when compared to a similar poll conducted in October.
Republicans would also support Israel. All these people who are leaving Biden aren’t doing anyone any favors, including the Palestinians.
Nobody left democrats. It’s just that Biden might lose his nomination (unless American elections don’t work that way for the sitting president… I am just an outsider)
So is he handing the republicans the presidency this year or what? Honest question.
Yup. Pretty much.
It feels exactly like the Hilary campaign in ‘16 felt like.
The Hillary campaign wasn’t Hillary handing the presidency to Trump; it was the DNC handing it to him.
As though there was a difference between the two at the time.
