Vice President Kamala Harris' newly-appointed Arab-American outreach director once claimed "Zionists" were "controlling a lot" of American politics.
The Harris campaign announced this week it had tapped Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Brenda Abdelall to oversee the vice president's efforts to shore up support among Arab-American voters in the final months of the presidential race.
However, comments Abdelall made in college in 2002 resurfaced Thursday in a report by The Washington Free Beacon.
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Abdelall, then a political science and Arabic/Islamic studies student at the University of Michigan, was asked by The New York Sun to respond to controversial comments made by a speaker at the American Muslim Council's convention. Jamil Fayez, a professor emeritus at Wake Forest University, had said, "Zionists are destroying America."
"'Destroying' is a harsh word," Abdelall reacted to The New York Sun. "The Zionists have a strong voice in American politics. I would say they're controlling a lot of it."
According to the 2002 New York Sun report, Abdelall pointed to the primary defeat of Rep. Earl Hilliard, D-Ala., suggesting it showed "the Jewish influence in politics" since he was attacked by Jewish groups for voting against a House resolution condemning Palestinian suicide bombings.
The Harris campaign defended Abdelall Friday, telling Fox News Digital "In her role at DHS, Brenda worked closely on the implementation of the country's first National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. She also led efforts for the first United We Stand summit, a White House event to counter hate-fueled violence, like we tragically saw with the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Those 2002 comments do not reflect Brenda’s views or the views of the campaign."
Both Harris and President Biden, before he exited the 2024 race, have struggled to rally support among Arab-American voters, who have been vocal in their outrage over the administration's handling of the Israel-Hamas war following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
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Biden and Harris have been repeatedly heckled at campaign events and given names like "Genocide Joe" and "Killer Kamala" for providing military aid to Israel as the death toll in Gaza mounts.
More than 100,000 voters in the key battleground state of Michigan, home to a large Arab-American population, voted "uncommitted" in protest against Biden during the Democratic primary. Harris is hoping to earn their support ahead of November.
