Seattle Times: Advocates for ‘uncommitted delegates’ vote press case against Biden
By Jim Brunner
At a news conference Monday outside the federal building in downtown Seattle, supporters of the movement harshly criticized Biden for U.S. military aid to Israel and for vetoing United Nations resolutions calling for a ceasefire…
They warned Biden is alienating an important swath of the Democratic Party base during a year in which he’s already facing dumpster fire polling numbers.
Tacoma City Councilmember Olgy Diaz, who has long worked in Democratic politics, said she feels ‘cheated’ by Biden’s response to the ongoing conflict.
‘I can no longer stand idly by when we have a perfect and timely opportunity right here in Washington to send a clear message that standing in the way of a ceasefire is not the way that Washington voters want them to govern,’ she said.
The activists, including Palestinian Americans, Democratic Socialists, and union leaders, argued Washington can apply pressure to the Biden administration and his reelection campaign with a strong “uncommitted” showing in the state’s primary.
Serene Salam, a Palestinian American college student from Bellingham, said what should be a beautiful time in her life is being “overshadowed by debilitating sorrow” over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “I am here today to stand up for my people, because right now they are dying at the hands of all of our tax dollars,” she said…
The movement garnered attention since Michigan’s recent Democratic primary, in which more than 100,000 voters selected the uncommitted option — about 13% of the vote. Biden still easily carried the state with more than 80% of the vote.
In Washington, the campaign has been endorsed by UFCW 3000, the state’s 50,000-member grocery workers union; as well as by The Stranger, Seattle’s alternative left-wing newspaper; and a smattering of elected Democrats.
The movement has been pretty much the only activity ahead of an otherwise dull primary, which has not generated any candidate visits as the nation appears headed for a rematch between Biden and Donald Trump.
At the federal building on Monday, some speakers favoring an “uncommitted delegates” vote said they felt like they were being taken for granted by the Biden reelection campaign.
Rebekah Harris Liebermann, a member of Democratic Socialists of America, and a grandchild of Holocaust refugees, said she couldn’t stand one minute longer seeing the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, adding: “That it is being done in my name, in my grandparents’ name, is a knife in my stomach.”
