(Headline USA) With Muslims boycotting the Democrat ticket amid outrage over President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel–Hamas conflict, the White House is seeking foreign intervention in a highly unorthodox campaign ploy that would seem to raise serious concerns over potential conflicts of interest.
The leader of Iraq traveled to Michigan on Thursday to meet with the state’s large Iraqi community and update them on escalating tensions in the Middle East following Iran’s weekend aerial assault on Israel.
The visit from Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has been thrust into the spotlight following the Iran’s weekend attack on Israel, which included drone and missile launches that overflew Iraqi airspace, as well as others that were launched from Iraq by Iran-backed groups.
Some are now speculating that Biden may, in fact, have greenlighted the Iranian attack using back-channel communications, ostensibly to mitigate the potential fallout that a surprise attack would have incurred.
Nonetheless, the Iron Dome defense systems activated for the face-saving military showcase cost billions of dollars for the U.S.
Did the Biden admin green light Iran's attack on Israel? 🤔 https://t.co/wEAj0Ex5kq
— Rep. Tom Tiffany (@RepTiffany) April 15, 2024
Al-Sudani’s trips to both Washington and Michigan to discuss U.S.–Iraq relations had been planned well before Saturday’s drone and missile launches from Iran-backed groups.
But it comes just three days after the two world leaders met to reaffirm their “strategic partnership” on a variety of issues—including efforts to streamline Iraq’s energy and banking sectors—raising questions about how much funding, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers, was attached to the agreement.
Republican lawmakers earlier this month slammed al-Sudani’s close ties with the rogue Iranian regime, noting that Iraq has provided considerable funding that likely helped support regional terrorism against Israel and U.S. interests.
“Your appeasement of Iran has endangered American national security and weakened our relationship with our allies,” said a letter signed by four U.S. senators and four members of the House of Representatives.
Just months prior to the deadly Hamas attack on Israel that broke a two-year ceasefire and left some 1,200 innocent Israelis dead, Biden authorized Iraq to release $2.76 billion in frozen assets to its Iranian neighbor.
In their letter, the Republican legislators went on to list several specific actions that the Iraqi government had taken that conflicted with U.S. military, diplomatic and trade efforts in the Middle East, according to The Hill.
For Biden, whose reelection prospects could pivot on his success in wooing Michigan’s Arab population, soliciting campaign assistance from al-Sudani may be far more valuable than any Middle-Eastern concessions.
There are just over 90,000 residents in Michigan of Iraqi descent, the largest of any state, according to the most recent U.S. Census. In Wayne County, home to the cities of Detroit and Dearborn, 7.8% of residents identified of Middle Eastern and North African ancestry, alone or in any combination, the highest percentage of any U.S. county.
However, protest votes during the Democratic primary triggered fears that residents—many of them refugees from America’s eight-year war with Iraq, which ended in 2011—could sit out the November election and hand the crucial swing state, once again, to Republican contender Donald Trump.
Al-Sudani was expected to land in the Detroit area Thursday evening and be met by local leaders, including Wayne County Executive Warren Evans and Assad I. Turfe, a deputy Wayne County executive.
He will then travel to a mosque in Dearborn Heights to meet with Iraqi community members and officials to give an update on his meeting with Biden talking about the economic relations between Iraq and the U.S., according to Mohammed Al-mawla, a community member involved in the planning.
Earlier this month, Dearborn became immersed in a swirl of controversy after “Death to America” chants erupted during an Al-Quds Day protest.
The group also made clear its displeasure with Biden during the demonstration.
“It’s not Genocide Joe that has to go; it’s the entire system that has to go,” said local activist Takek Bazzi. “Any system that would allow such atrocities and such devilry to happen and would support it—such a system does not deserve to exist on God’s earth.”
Concern about the defection of a core Democrat constituency has already resulted in multiple visits from Biden administration officials to the area.
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to Biden, traveled to metro Detroit in March to meet with Lebanese Americans and discuss efforts to prevent the conflict from expanding along Israel’s northern border, where Hezbollah operates.
Ahead of the Feb. 27 primary, several White House officials also traveled to Dearborn to meet with Arab–American leaders to discuss the conflict.
Nonetheless, more than 100,000 Democratic voters in Michigan—or 13% of the Democratic vote total—wrote in “uncommitted,” despite Biden having been the only serious candidate.
Trump, the first Republican to win Michigan since 1988, defeated Hillary Clinton by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2016.
Although questions abound regarding election-integrity concerns in the 2020 race, Biden officially carried the state by a margin of roughly 154,000 votes, with 332,000 coming from Wayne County.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
