A former aide to President Donald Trump and current co-host of ABC’s The View is warning Democrats that protest votes could potentially lead to more catastrophic events in the Middle East.
Joe Biden is on pace to face presumptive Republican nominee Trump in a rematch of the 2020 election, but the president’s handling of the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, which quickly escalated following the October 7 terrorist attacks, has drawn scrutiny from many within the Democratic Party.
On Tuesday, 48,091 Wisconsin voters cast ballots for “uninstructed” to protest the Biden administration policies, accounting for 8.3 percent of the total Democratic vote—more than doubling the 20,000 or so votes Biden defeated Trump by in 2020. Last month, more than 100,000 Michigan Democratic voters cast “uncommitted” ballots, while voters in other states have done the same in smaller numbers.
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“Based on Michigan and Wisconsin results, we know that the protest votes—the sort of ceasefire kind of votes in Michigan—were more than the margin of victory that Joe Biden won victory in Michigan in 2020. This is very real,” Alyssa Farah Griffin said.
“I believe a protest vote is part of democracy, I think that it’s a good way to make your voice heard. But I would say to these folks—these are Democrats and I’m a Republican so take it or leave it—but as an Arab-American, do you really think that Donald Trump would handle Gaza better than Joe Biden? If he thought it was politically advantageous, [Trump] would level Gaza without a second thought.”
Griffin went on to say she was “conflicted” because of the options for president but implored voters to think of the long-term ramifications of not voting for Biden based on this singular issue.
Co-host Sunny Hostin seemed to empathize with the protest voters in the Midwest swing states that are predicted to ultimately determine the results of the November 5 election.
“I don’t think that you can tell people whose families have been killed—whole entire lines of their families have been murdered, over 32,000 people, women and children the majority—that, ‘Well, but if Trump wins, it would be [worse],'” Hostin said, mentioning Michigan’s large Muslim population and billions in foreign aid sent from the U.S. to Israel.
When Joy Behar, another co-host, interjected and said the war could end quicker if Hamas released hostages, Hostin said anything short of a ceasefire could continue to galvanize such voters against Biden.
“I think that pressure is working,” Hostin said. “And I think if you have any shred of humanity, you must understand that those people are losing their entire families, lines and lines of families. And it’s a humanitarian crisis.”
On Monday, seven workers of the charity World Central Kitchen—a nonprofit founded by Spanish chef José Andrés—were killed by an Israeli airstrike as the chef’s team was leaving a warehouse where they had unloaded some of the more than 100 tons of humanitarian food brought to Gaza by sea.
On Wednesday, Andrés told Reuters reporter Jeff Mason that his nonprofit “was deliberately targeted” and questioned how the U.S. could supply aid and military support to Israel.
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