CBS News
Arab American leaders urge Michigan to vote “uncommitted” and send message to Biden about Israel policy
Michigan community leaders are encouraging voters to select “uncommitted” in the Michigan primary elections, hoping to send a message to President Biden before November that they’re unhappy with U.S. support for Israel in the conflict with Gaza.
“The main push is Joe Biden’s stance on the conflict taking place between Israel and Gaza,” said Hussein Dabajeh, one of the organizers of the “Vote Uncommitted” movement.
“That’s not who we voted into office. That’s not who we helped elect,” said Dabajeh. “That’s not who over 150,000 Arab and Muslim voters in the state of Michigan voted for.”
In Michigan, Democratic and Republican presidential primary ballots alike offer voters the choice of selecting a candidate or “uncommitted.” A vote of “uncommitted,” according to the Michigan secretary of state, “indicates the voter is exercising a vote for that political party, but is not committed to any of the candidates listed on the ballot.” And, if there are enough “uncommitted” votes, the party “may send delegates to the national nominating convention who are not committed to a specific candidate.”
Michigan is a critical swing state, one that Mr. Biden won by a thin margin of about 154,000 votes in 2020, but that Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 to Donald Trump, who appears likely to be the GOP presidential nominee this year. It’s home to a large community of Arab and Muslim Americans, 146,000 of whom voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, and many of whom disagree with Biden’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
Organizers think that if the Vote Uncommitted movement in Michigan can convince tens of thousands of voters to vote uncommitted, it may help force Mr. Biden to reassess his backing of Israel in its war with Hamas. The Israeli military has cut off or restricted the flow of supplies and aid to civilians in Gaza as it continues to carry out military operations. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says that over 25,000 have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war.
The Vote Uncommitted movement in Michigan is similar to efforts to coax New Hampshire primary voters to write in “ceasefire” on their ballots. In last month’s primary, “ceasefire” received about 1.2% or 1,512 of Democratic primary votes. However, New Hampshire has a much smaller population than Michigan and a different demographic profile.
Earlier this month, Biden sent campaign manager Julie Chavez-Rodriguez to Michigan to meet with Arab American community leaders. They refused to meet with her.
“The lives of Palestinians are not measured in poll numbers,” Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, said on X. “When elected officials view the atrocities in Gaza only as an electoral problem, they reduce our indescribable pain into a political calculation.” In another post to X, Hammoud stated that one Dearborn resident has so far lost 80 family members in Gaza.
Vote Uncommitted is encouraging voters unhappy with Mr. Biden’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war to vote uncommitted, no matter their party affiliation or background. The campaign describes itself as a “multiracial and multifaith anti-war campaign” in Michigan.
“This is not an endorsement of Trump or a desire to see him return to power,” the campaign states. “We are sending the warning sign to President Biden and the Democratic Party now in February, before it’s too late in November.”
A similar push occurred in 2008 when Michigan Democratic primary voters unhappy that Barack Obama was not on the ballot voted “uncommitted,” rather than for Hillary Clinton. Because Michigan defied the Democratic National Committee’s national calendar and held its primary out of order, the DNC sanctioned the state for holding its primary out of order. As a result, Obama withdrew his name from the Michigan primary ballot. That year, nearly 240,000 Michiganders voted “uncommitted.”
The state’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, recently acknowledged on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that there is “a lot of angst” around the Israel-Hamas war and “a lot of personal pain.”
“These are legitimate and raw feelings that people have, and they’re entitled to their opinions,” said Whitmer.
Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
Getty Images
Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
