United States President Joe Biden has renewed his commitment to see his struggling re-election campaign through, telling voters in the key battleground state of Michigan that he is the better choice, despite growing calls for him to quit the race.
“I am running and we’re going to win,” he told a crowd holding placards in his support during a rally in Detroit.
“I’m the nominee,” he said on Friday. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The 81-year-old Biden continues to face challenges over his mental sharpness and calls to step down after a disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27.
Reporting from Detroit, Al Jazeera’s John Hendren pointed out that there is a large Arab and Muslim American population in Michigan, who are centred in Dearborn, just south of Detroit.
“To put it in perspective, in the primary, Biden got about 600,000 votes in Michigan, easily winning over any other rivals, but about 100,000 voters voted ‘uncommitted’. Those were largely Arab and Muslim Americans and young Americans who are upset about his handling of the war in Gaza,” he said.
“So, Biden’s got to turn those voters around. But Biden’s also underwater with Black voters, young voters, Hispanic voters. He’s down from where he was in polling last time around, so it’s really a problem across the board for him. He’s just not drawing the numbers he was four years ago.”
During the tour of Michigan, Biden stuck with his rhetoric that a second Trump presidency would pose a threat to the country.
“Do you really want to go back to the chaos of Donald Trump as president? Back when the United States lost three million jobs,” he said.
Biden also said he intends to codify abortion rights, sign the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, raise the minimum wage and move towards a ban on assault weapons during the first 100 days of his second term – something that would require Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.
Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer and its Democratic senators, Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, did not attend the Biden rally, but a number of union and religious leaders did.
They included Union Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, who praised the president for standing “with the working class”.
But a group of lawmakers, political donors, activist groups, news outlets and Hollywood stars have called on the president to step aside and allow another nominee to lead the party.
‘Save Palestinian lives’
A group of protesters gathered for the Biden rally in Detroit, trying to voice their concerns about the mounting death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, activist Lexis Zeidan said the protesters had a unifying purpose – “to save Palestinian lives”.
Zeidan was among the organisers of the “uncommitted” movement, which saw hundreds of thousands of voters across the country cast ballots in protest against Biden’s policy towards Israel during the primaries.
“The goal was to get him to understand that if he did not listen to the demands of the people, which is to ensure a permanent ceasefire … then he’s going to lose the White House,” she said.
Zeidan added that there is still a chance that Biden could win back some voters in the key battleground state but only if he shows an abrupt change.
The US remains Israel’s staunchest political and military backer. In a post on X on Friday, Biden hinted at progress in continuing diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza, saying both Israel and Hamas had agreed to a “framework” he laid out six weeks ago.
But recent ceasefire negotiations in Egypt and then Qatar with international mediators have yet to achieve an agreement.
Suehaila Amen, a community advocate, said Arab and Muslim Americans in the Detroit area feel “disenfranchised and disrespected” over his unconditional support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
“He is a warmonger and genocide supporter. He continues to aid and abet a genocide on the innocent civilians of Gaza,” Amen told Al Jazeera.
“Biden continues to show the greater global community that the only thing he cares about is ensuring his allies have carte blanche to slaughter as they wish with our tax dollars funding the murder of innocent men, women and children. He is a disgrace to the nation as a leader.”
