Trump campaign won't say if it wants votes of ‘death to America’ chanters in Michigan, calls them 'extremists'
Former President Trump's campaign will not say whether it would welcome support from individuals who were caught on video chanting "death to America" during a recent anti-Israel rally in the 2024 battleground state of Michigan.
A Dearborn crowd was led in chants of "death to America" and "death to Israel" by Michigan-based activist Tarek Bazzi during the International Al-Quds Day rally earlier this month.
Trump 2024 spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called the chanters "radical extremists" when asked by Fox News Digital whether the former president would be open to receiving support from those who engaged in the chants.
"Crooked Joe Biden's weakness and his appeasement policies have strengthened our enemies abroad and emboldened radical extremists here at home. When President Trump is back in the White House, he will bring peace and unity through strength and make America Great Again," Leavitt said.
BIDEN CAMPAIGN: WE DON'T WANT THE VOTES OF 'DEATH TO AMERICA' PROTESTERS IN MICHIGAN
Leavitt did not respond when asked if Trump would take support from those who took part in the anti-American and anti-Israel chants.
Though many Muslim Americans tend to support Democrats, one activist in the area, Mike Hachem, has reportedly supported Trump in the past and has been working to lead the Abandon Biden movement in Dearborn.
Hachem is one of a handful of individuals behind the effort to not only convince the Arab community in Dearborn to ditch support for President Biden, but to switch their support to Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Biden's re-election campaign denounced the "death to America" chants in a statement to Fox News Digital last week.
When asked if the president would court those agitators, Biden campaign spokesperson Charles Lutvak replied, "No."
Bazzi’s remarks were also denounced by the White House.
"The White House condemns these abhorrent and antisemitic remarks in the strongest terms," deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital. "As President Biden has said, America is the greatest nation on Earth and a beacon to the world."
The campaign initially limited its comments to the chants themselves, largely reciting the White House statement.
Biden's campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt told Fox News Digital that the chants had been "condemned" by the campaign. Lutvak reiterated that the "Biden-Harris campaign denounces these disgusting and antisemitic remarks."
"President Biden knows America is the greatest nation in the world. Full stop," Lutvak said.
The controversy surrounding the Dearborn rally comes amid the city's emergence as one of the key centers of resistance to Biden’s re-election bid. During last month's Democratic primary in Michigan, more than 100,000 voters marked "uncommitted" on their ballots instead of supporting Biden as the party’s nominee.
The voter hostility toward Biden is chiefly a result of the administration's stance on Israel, which is at war with Hamas after the terror group's Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish State. Though the White House has shown increasingly tepid support for the U.S. ally, many of those opposed to the Israeli offensive remain unsatisfied.