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full screen Democrat Rashida Tlaib holds a sign reading “Guilty of Genocide” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress. Archive image. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP/TT
Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress, refuses to stand behind Kamala Harris, The Guardian reports.
She is the only one in the attention-grabbing group called “The squad” who does not.
The grouping that has come to be called “The squad”, roughly “the gang” in Swedish, consists of four female members of the House of Representatives who were all elected to Congress in the 2018 midterm elections and who belong to the Democrats’ left phalanx.
Three of the members – Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley – backed Kamala Harris back in July. But the fourth, Rashida Tlaib, has been critical of Harris and the Democrats’ actions regarding the war in Gaza.
“Don’t underestimate the power you all have,” Tlaib said at a rally organized by the United Auto Workers union in Michigan on Friday.
Instead of urging voters to vote for Kamala Harris, Tlaib focused on urging voters to vote generally — and to in turn persuade friends and family to vote.
– More than any ads, more than billboards – you all have more power to get others to go and vote, people who understand that we have to fight back against corporate greed in our country, said Rashida Tlaib.
Earlier on Friday, Tlaib also criticized Republican candidate Donald Trump. In a post on X, she called him an “Islamophobe and serial liar who does not support peace”.
“The truth is that the Biden administration’s unconditional support for genocide is what got us here. This should be a wake-up call to those who continue to support genocide. This election did not have to be even,” writes Tlaib.