Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud on Refusing Meeting with Trump, Not Endorsing Harris

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris campaigned in the battleground state of Michigan over the weekend, where they sought support from Michigan’s 200,000 Arab American and Muslim voters, many of whom have denounced U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Kamala Harris addressed supporters at a massive rally in East Lansing, Michigan. She began her address with a nod to civilian victims of Israel’s war.

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: This year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon. It is devastating. And as president, I will do everything in my power to the end war in Gaza, to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure, and ensure the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, security and self-determination.

AMY GOODMAN: Harris visited East Lansing after President Trump traveled to Dearborn Friday, marking the first time a leading presidential candidate visited the Arab American-majority city. Trump was questioned by reporters.

REPORTER: Sir, what conversation did you have recently with Prime Minister Netanyahu about bringing peace to the Middle East?

DONALD TRUMP: We had a good conversation. We’re going to bring peace. You’re going to have peace in the Middle East, but not with the clowns that you have running the U.S. right now. You’re going to have peace — you’re going to have peace in the Middle East. And they should have peace in the Middle East, but not with the clowns you have in the Middle East. The Middle East, let me tell you, what you have, you have people in the Middle East that aren’t doing their job, and you have people in the U.S. that aren’t doing their job. And when they get it together, when they get it right, you’re going to have peace in the Middle East.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Dearborn, Michigan, to speak with Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who refused to meet with President Trump but has also declined to endorse Kamala Harris.

Mayor, welcome back to Democracy Now! First, explain your decision not to meet with President Trump.

MAYOR ABDULLAH HAMMOUD: Yeah, I’m not somebody to be fooled by President Trump. I think we very clearly understand where Donald Trump falls on the issues. This is the president that ushered in the Muslim ban, that wants to be the architect of the Muslim ban 2.0. This is somebody that annexed the Golan Heights, somebody that eliminated all funding for the Palestinian humanitarian causes and issues within the congressional budgets. This is somebody that provided Saudi Arabia with the arms to kill over 30,000 people, innocent civilians, in Yemen. And so, I’m not here to be fooled by President Donald Trump. And so I refused a meeting with Donald Trump out of principle, because that is not my president.

AMY GOODMAN: And talk about your position on Kamala Harris, who just addressed this massive crowd in East Lansing.

MAYOR ABDULLAH HAMMOUD: You know, for the last almost over a year now, what we have been calling for is for a ceasefire and to achieve a ceasefire by the appropriate means. And based on all the conversations that we’ve had, based on historical knowledge of how ceasefires were achieved, there has to be the willingness of the president to pick up the phone and to demand from Benjamin Netanyahu, that war criminal and his Cabinet, to achieve a ceasefire. And you have to be willing to impose an arms embargo.

What we have not yet heard from this president is the willingness to enact an arms embargo. And I think that is the frustration that many of us have. Yes, we want to ensure that Palestinians have the right to self-determination. And take it a step further, we want to ensure that Palestinians have a just state of their own. I think that is what’s extremely important to also call out. But what we have not seen in the policy that has been pushed out by the vice president is if she will go about or how she will go about in accomplishing this.

AMY GOODMAN: You are Lebanese American. Can you talk about what’s happened to your family in Lebanon?

MAYOR ABDULLAH HAMMOUD: My family has been displaced. The first Lebanese American citizen that has been killed was a Dearborn resident, a very close family friend’s father, Hajj Kamel Jawad. My wife has lost several family members now, one of whom was a paramedic who was assassinated as he was trying to help others. There is a blanket of grief now in the city of Dearborn, where folks are attending funeral services, offering condolences to family by the masses. I’m attending services not for one or two individuals, but for 12 and 20 on any given day. Celebratory events have been postponed. This is the climate right now in the city of Dearborn. And so, when folks come here to knock on doors or to ask how people will vote, you have to understand, for many — almost everybody I know has now lost a loved one or know a loved one who has been injured or displaced or whose ancestral home has been decimated. That is the current climate right now in the city of Dearborn.

AMY GOODMAN: Have you ever met with Vice President Kamala Harris?

MAYOR ABDULLAH HAMMOUD: There have been many a conversations across campaign teams, and there’s been many a conversations going back to even when President Biden was the presidential — the nominee for the Democratic Party. What I would say is we have made our position points very clear. We’ve been communicating very clearly, whether it was senior White House staffers or with the campaign officials, about where we stand on these issues.

And if there is an unwillingness to move off of the genocide for Gaza, off of enabling and funding this genocide that is being conducted across Gaza and now encroaching with Lebanon, then there is an unwillingness for us to step forward and endorse any candidate. You know, my loyalties, first and foremost, are to the people of my community, the people of this city, of this district. And so, we are willing to put people over party, first and foremost, to ensure that we utilize the platform that has been entrusted to us by the people to elevate their voices in this time of need.

AMY GOODMAN: And to those who say they cannot support Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, some not voting, others voting for a third-party candidate like Jill Stein, your response to also those who then say that a vote for Jill Stein would be a vote for Trump?

MAYOR ABDULLAH HAMMOUD: Given the level of grief that you just hear about on a daily basis within this community, my main concern is to ensure that people come out and cast their ballots and vote. Apathy, I think, is the most destructive thing. People forget, in 2016, it wasn’t that Donald Trump won by less than 11,000 votes; it was the fact that 80,000 people had skipped the presidential question.

And so, my job, first and foremost, what I have endorsed is that people come out and vote, to not sit on the sideline, regardless of all that has unfolded and happened to you directly or indirectly. What I can assure you is that sitting on the sideline will accomplish nothing. And so, I’ve called on people to vote their moral conscience, to go out, to at least begin with the local ballot questions, the local elections, and then work their way up to the ballot as they get to that presidential question.

AMY GOODMAN: You, Abdullah Hammoud, are the first Arab American and first Muslim mayor of Dearborn. You have stressed that it’s not only about a presidential election, it’s about the local level. Can you talk about what this election means for you, for Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, outspoken supporters of Palestinians, of Lebanese against Israel’s war on Gaza?

MAYOR ABDULLAH HAMMOUD: What you have heard over the last year is this community taking a principled position, with the community in which the “uncommitted” movement was founded and blossomed organically across this country. But what you’re hearing from many of our residents, from many of our constituents, from the antiwar, anti-justice movement — or, pro-justice movement, excuse me, broadly speaking, is that this is a community that says, if we want to end gun violence and mass shootings in schools within the states, then we must also be willing to not provide a war criminal 2,000-pound J-bombs to decimate every school and university across Gaza. If we want to expand access to healthcare, then we also must be willing to hold to account any government that bombs or decimates every healthcare facility across all of Palestine or across Lebanon.

These are the morals and the values that we have. And this is the principled position that we have taken. And this is not just a position that is popular here in the city of Dearborn, but if you look across the polls across this country, you have seen that the center of America has moved on the issue of Israel and Palestine. And what has yet to be had is the center of the two major political parties in this country to move on the issue, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: Abdullah Hammoud, I want to thank you for being with us, mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, just declined to meet with Donald Trump in Dearborn over his support of Israel’s assault on Gaza, but has not endorsed Kamala Harris, though encourages people to go out and vote. There are apparently six third-party presidential candidates in Michigan.

Tune in on election night — that’s tomorrow, Tuesday, November 5th — for our Democracy Now! four-hour election special, from 8:00 to midnight Eastern Time; on Wednesday, 8:00 to 10:00 in the morning, a.m. Eastern Time. I’m Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now!