 Do you think that young progressives in the United States will ultimately rally behind Joe Biden in November or has he seriously damaged his standing? Look, I think we will see what happens in November because the choice is pretty clear. Running against Donald Trump, I suspect, will be the Republican candidate. It's one of the most dangerous political figures in modern American history. So I think people will end up rallying around Biden. But there is no question. It is very hard for young people, I think, for most Americans to be excited about what is going on right now. President has got to change course. He has been very clear. He has expressed his concern about, quote, unquote, indiscriminate bombing. He has asked that now over and over again to change course. Now just yesterday said, no, we're going to continue doing what we are doing unacceptable. You cannot give billions of dollars to a country that ignores your wishes violates international law. So I would hope that the president follows through on his concerns and says from that now this is unacceptable. You're not getting a nickel more from the United States unless you radically change course. We're not going to see hundreds and hundreds of thousands of children starve to death. Look, I have my disagreements with Bernie Sanders when it comes to Israel. He somehow still is not calling for a ceasefire, which is so disappointing to me because he actually recognizes the severity of the humanitarian crisis created in Gaza specifically because of Israel's war crimes. So it's mind boggling to me that he can't say the word ceasefire. But despite that, he still is using his power in meaningful ways. And I think that he deserves credit for that. For example, he's forcing a vote on a resolution that will force the State Department to report on Israel's human rights abuses. And if they fail to comply and don't release said report within 30 days, then aid to Israel is automatically cut off. Now that's not going to pass. But I think that the effort overall is still good. It's important. Nonetheless, Bernie's overall position on Israel to me just seems completely incoherent because he's only calling for a humanitarian pause, which makes no sense because the humanitarian disaster that he's describing continues to unfold after there already was a humanitarian pause. So another one isn't going to make a difference. If you genuinely want the violence to stop permanently, you would call for a ceasefire and he hasn't done that. But two things can be true at once. He's bold enough to attempt to cut off aid to Israel, that matters, but he's not bold enough to address the root cause of the humanitarian crisis that he's against. But when it comes to what he says about Biden, he is absolutely right, even if he's using kid gloves to handle the situation. Biden is continuing to express concerns about Israel, but he's not making actual demands. He's not doing what he needs to do to stop the genocide. And in the absence of actual demands and threats to cut off aid, nothing is going to change. But don't take my word for it. Let's actually listen to what a Likud party member of the Knesset said on Israeli television. Now, this clip is from December 8th and it recently gained traction. So it's a little bit old, but it's still true as of today. Quote, we have no American ultimatum. There is no deadline from the U.S. Therein lies the problem. We've all been saying it, Israel is admitting it now. They're not facing pressure from Biden. Therefore, you know, these disagreements don't really amount to much. Now, I've shared this article before, but this particular paragraph is worth repeating. So in an op-ed for the nation, Trita Parsi explains, in 1982, President Ronald Reagan was disgusted by Israeli bombardment of Lebanon. He stopped the transfer of cluster munitions to Israel and told Israeli Prime Minister Manishem Begin in a phone call that this is a Holocaust. Reagan demanded that Israel withdraw troops from Lebanon. Begin caved. Twenty minutes after their phone call, Begin ordered a halt on attacks. So the Reagan administration made a demand and they cut off weapons to Israel. And guess what? They were forced to acquiesce. So the question is, why won't Biden do the same? He's not powerless. So he's making a choice. The Biden administration's decision to allow this to continue is a choice. He is choosing to be a willing participant in the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the people of Gaza. And that choice may cost him the election. Because as Bernie Sanders correctly put it, young voters aren't excited to rally around a candidate responsible for the deaths of 24,000 civilians, including 10,000 children. And the polls currently reflect that. The Hill reports in an ABC News poll conducted January 4th through 8th. Only 33% of those surveyed said they approved of Biden, a drop from the previous poll in September of 2023, when 37% approved of his performance. Biden's disapproval rating is 58% up from 56% in September. ABC News said it's the lowest approval rating since former President George W. Bush from 2006 to 2008. Biden, who is running for reelection, has a lower approval rating than former President Trump, who is leading the GOP nominee for presidents. Disastrous. Disastrous. And this is one of many polls indicating Biden is losing support. In other words, there's an iceberg dead ahead and the Biden administration is sailing right into it at full speed, not even trying to steer away from it. And this isn't happening because the demographics who voted for Biden in 2020 have suddenly become red-pilled and they're all Trump supporters. It is because they are disillusioned with Biden and they plan to forego voting altogether, which is a huge problem in particular when it comes to young people. Teen Vogue's Fortessa Latifi explains, after a record-breaking youth turnout in 2020 helped decide the election for President Joe Biden, a recent poll released by Harvard Kennedy School shows that young Americans seem less likely to vote in 2024 than they were in 2020. According to the poll at this point in the 2020 election cycle, 57 percent of Americans between ages 18 and 29 were planning to vote. That number has since declined to 49 percent, though Gen Z voters prefer President Biden over his likely challenger, former President Donald Trump. Only 35 percent of this demographic approves of Biden's performance as president. Now let's just pause right there and address the implications of this if it's not already obvious to everyone. If this stands, if these numbers don't change and we actually see an 8 percent decrease in youth turnout and not an increase from 2020, Biden loses this election. I'll repeat that. Biden loses and Donald Trump with Project 2025 in mind and with him promising to be a dictator, but only for a day will win this election. Democracy as we know it will be over. So this cannot stand and you can try to blame young people. You can say it's irrational for them to hand the election to Trump, but ultimately many of them are going to stay home. So Biden is the one who has to make the change. The onus is on him and it's not like he doesn't have enough time to change course. Teen Vogue actually spoke to young voters and I think that these anecdotes are really important, but they're not representative of all of Gen Z and millennials, but here's what they're saying nonetheless. Elias, who was a Palestinian American, has a laundry list of issues with the current administration that have pushed him to this point of not voting, including sales of new oil and gas leases and Biden's support of Israel. For Elias, the deciding moment came when Biden cast doubt on the Gaza health ministries reported death tolls. Quote, I found that to be truly monstrous, he says. It's something I cannot co-sign with my name and my vote. Lillian, a college student in New York, is undecided about voting this year. She's been disappointed by the Democrats on so many issues, including Biden's promise to forgive $10,000 of student loans, which was ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court, the parties neglecting to further efforts to codify abortion, and the president's support of Israel. London 24 doesn't want to hear a guilt trip for not planning to vote in the 2024 presidential election. It won't work, she says, and stop telling her that Biden is the lesser of two evils because she's tired of that argument. Every four years, we're told to choose the lesser of two evils, and things will get better, she says, and it just doesn't get better. Leah voted for Biden in 2020, but is considering withholding her vote in 2024 because of what she sees as the disappointing outcomes of his presidency. She doesn't agree with Biden about funding Israel's war on Hamas, and she's saddled by student loans the president said he would forgive. Quote, it felt like kind of a con, she says, about then-candidate Biden's proposal to forgive $10,000 of student loan debt per borrower. I don't want to vote for Biden, I want a better option. Now, for the record, I hope that young people don't stay home. I hope they actually do exercise their right to vote because I think that voting is important, and I don't agree that there's no difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. I do think that there are discernible and important differences between Democrats and Republicans, and really my thoughts on voting in general was perfectly articulated in this video by Olaimi. I'll link to that down below, but you don't have to agree with their reasoning, but you can't pretend as if their votes don't matter. They do matter, and vote shaming them isn't going to be an effective strategy, otherwise it would have worked in 2016. Many young people said they were going to stay home then, and many did, but their votes matter, and they must be won over. And if they're not going to be won over, then different young people must be mobilized, right? Young people were already disappointed with Biden after the Supreme Court struck down his student debt cancellation plan. He said that he would pursue cancellation through the Higher Education Act, but as far as we know, that's just in limbo. He's kind of nibbling around the edges with small amounts of cancellation here and there for anyone who qualifies, but the overwhelming majority of us still have student debt, and even his SAVE Act, which is good in theory, hasn't benefited a lot of us till this point because applications that we've submitted have been stuck in limbo for months. So there's really been no real relief for student debt holders, and on top of that, he chose to restart student loan repayments, which was bound to piss off young people. So you've got that. You've got all these reasons why young people were, I think, reasonably and rightfully disillusioned with Biden, but then you add a genocide to the list as well, and you begin to see why young people feel so frustrated with the Biden administration and why so many of them are just saying, I'm out. I'm not going to vote. What's the point? It doesn't feel like my life is changing meaningfully, so I'm just going to choose to stay home. Now, again, I don't agree. I think that who's in the White House does matter, but you can't just write these concerns off and hope things get better and cross your fingers because that's not a gamble that I'm willing to make, especially when democracy really is on the line. But I mean, it's not just young people. Biden has lost support of Arab Americans in key swing states and his attempt to repair that relationship hasn't been going well to put it mildly. Abed Ayub of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee tweeted this, quote, Biden is scheduled to travel to Michigan at the end of the month to meet with Arab American voters. There is a problem. Many are rejecting the invite to meet while others have rebuffed outreach efforts. The meetings are in jeopardy and currently looking like they won't happen in Dearborn, which was the Biden team's first and preferred choice. Don't be surprised if this trip is quote, postponed due to scheduling. Reality is starting to set in for many that our community won't forget about the genocide. Yeah. Now, I get that it's still early and things can change, including feelings, and I'm guessing that a lot is going to change between now and November. But the question is, will enough things change? And that's debatable. There's going to be a lot of people, especially Arab Americans, who's not going to change their mind because this is personal to them. They have relatives that died in Gaza, right? And Joe Biden has tuned them out, not listened to their concerns up until this point. And I'm glad that he's at least aware that now he needs to make an effort to reach out to the Arab American community because he needs their support to win states like Michigan. But he kind of waited a little long, right? He's still allowing the genocide to go on. So it might be a little too late. But at least he knows that there needs to be an effort made. When it comes to young people, the administration seemingly doesn't even have a strategy in place to address their concerns. And I say this because in an interview with Joy Reid on MSNBC, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who is an advisor to Biden's 2024 campaign, he really did not have a strong answer when he was asked about Biden's weakness with young voters. So let's listen to what he has to say. And then there's a follow-up that's even worse. But first, here he is. I think that there is some significant anecdotal evidence that President Biden does have some issues in terms of parts of the younger electorate that are not in a good place with him on things like Gaza, on the bombing of Yemen. There were just protests outside of the White House this past week. There is some energy that's building, particularly among Arab American voters, Muslim American voters who say they will not vote for him because of his stance on Gaza. Is it bedwetting or is the White House maybe not paying enough attention to real passionate objections to its policies by younger voters that they need to turn out? And I mean younger voters, including younger African American voters. Well, when you're a responsible leader, when you're in office, you have to make tough decisions, no doubt about it. And every time you have to make a tough decision, someone doesn't like it. The truth is that we've seen Joe Biden underestimated all along in his entire career, and especially in 2020. In 2024, I think what we're going to see is a real focus on the things that really matter to people's individual lives, to their families, to their communities. And that's the economy. It means their freedoms. We talked about choice. In a lot of places in the country, people are deeply concerned about gun violence. And we know that Joe Biden has stood up for a ban on assault weapons, and he has stood up for violence prevention programs. In a way, the Republicans just want to let go and, frankly, let people shoot each other wherever they may be with as many guns as they may want to have. So I do think that a focus on the issues that really matter to working families across the United States is going to matter for Joe Biden in a positive way. Now, they're always detractors, right? There are people even that vote for Donald Trump who don't like things about Donald Trump. But in the end, when people are going to see the two visions for the future of America, that young people and people of color across the United States, not to mention the vast majority of American workers know that it's Joe Biden that's fighting for them and Joe Biden that'll do better for them, Donald Trump will be a disaster for those groups. Incredibly naive. Again, the young people Joe Biden needs aren't voting for Donald Trump. They don't support Trump. The risk is them just not voting altogether, and tepidly signaling support for gun safety laws and abortion rights is not going to sufficiently mobilize young people. Biden needs a concrete action plan that he talks about nonstop to mobilize these voters. And even if he has that, it still might not work because they can't put aside the fact that he's supporting a genocide. But Joy Reid to her credit, who's been excellent lately, she asked a follow up question since she seemingly wasn't convinced and it gets so much worse. And you don't think that the White House needs to adjust or that the Biden re-election campaign needs to adjust in any way. It's messaging on issues of war and peace because these are issues. I mean, we are on MLK day and we do know that one of the things that Dr. King did later in his life was to oppose the Vietnam War. And this was an important issue to him as important in the end of his life as fighting for living wages and for racial justice. Issues of war and peace are passion issues. They're voting issues. And for a lot of younger Americans, not even just younger Americans, but a lot of progressives and a lot of just people are the humanist view of the world, the Gaza issue is a voting issue. So you're saying that people will ignore that. You don't think that the White House needs to in any way adjust its messaging on that? Well, look, here's what the White House has been doing. They're fighting what has become a mortal enemy of the United States. And that's Vladimir Putin. They're standing up for democracy in Ukraine. They're fighting against terrorism in the Middle East. Those are the things that I think the message is that the Biden administration needs to make sure they're getting out to people. But look, nobody likes war. I mean, we'd like to have all of this ratcheted down and go away. And I know the president wants that, right? But you have to have a careful foreign policy expert in the White House who understands how to manage all that in a very difficult environment. You think Donald Trump has shown that he can do that? Do you think Donald Trump would handle this better than Joe Biden? The answer clearly is no. We're doomed. We are doomed. She asks him about Gaza and he pivots to Putin and ends with, well, at least Biden's not as bad as Trump. I promise you that is not going to resonate with young people who want him to stop doing a genocide. But they don't, they don't get it. But what that answer does tell me is that the Biden administration doesn't actually have a plan to meaningfully address young voters concerns. So the question is, how exactly does Joe Biden plan to win back the White House without young voters? I mean, there's two responses to this. First, he either assumes that they'll acquiesce in November, and that's a possibility. But I mean, it's a big if, and it was a gamble that Hillary Clinton also made in 2016 that didn't pay off. So I don't know that I'd want to make that gamble if I were Joe Biden with how much is at stake. But second, he maybe thinks that he doesn't need young voters. He can just use negative partisanship against Trump again to win over voters, in particular voters that Trump is losing, moderate voters, independence, and that seems to be his game plan, right? So after Trump won the Iowa caucus in a landslide, here's what Joe Biden tweeted, looks like Donald Trump just won Iowa. He's the clear frontrunner on the other side at this point. But here's the thing, this election was always going to be you and me versus extreme mega Republicans. It was true yesterday and it'll be true tomorrow. So if you'll notice, he's making a really interesting distinction here. It's us versus extreme mega Republicans, meaning not all Republicans are bad, just the most sycophantic Trump supporters. Now, I think that this is naive to an extent because the Republican party is the party of Donald Trump. So to pretend as if there's this massive swath of Republicans who are just like itching to vote against Trump, I think they're probably going to suck it up and and vote for Trump. So the intent behind this though is to signal to moderate Republicans that they are welcome in Joe Biden's coalition. And this is what Joe Scarborough hinted at as well. We're running, he says, against extreme mega Republicans. Mika, it's not in us versus them. Joe Biden's not saying all Republicans are bad guys. All Republicans hate the rule of law. All Republicans still are going to Chinese religious cult websites to get their information. Oh, he's talking about extreme mega Republicans. It makes a difference because there are a lot of Republicans out there that again, this is about conversion. There are a lot of independence out there that Joe Biden's going to get voting for. I think that Joe Scarborough is correct to assume that converting moderates and independence is Joe Biden's strategy here. And in some ways, it could pay off, right? I think that his position on abortion is going to help him with independence, for example, and maybe some moderate Republicans, although not much. But with that being said, it's wishful thinking to believe that you're going to make up enough ground with moderates and independence to account for the hemorrhaging of young support. I'm not saying that you forego the strategy of courting moderates altogether, but it's not a binary choice. And it's not something that should be your main strategy. It should be supplemental to your existing strategy of mobilizing young people and your core base, people of color. You still need young voters to win, even if you win a lot of moderates and independence. That really doesn't change the reality of electoral politics, regardless. So Biden has to make a direct appeal to young voters. And it just seems like there's no message there. There's no attempt there, aside from Trump bad, which is obvious. And you might not want to listen to an extremist radical lefty like me, but take care from Obama alum who also feel like Biden's campaign strategy up until this point has been inadequate. This Politico article talks about a real divide between the Biden and Obama camps and the Obama camp is sounding the alarm about Biden's reelection campaign because they think that it's two bare bones and Biden needs to announce key staffers in swing states immediately so we can make up the ground that he's lost. So everyone can see that Biden is in danger. Biden knows that Biden is in danger based on reports that we're seeing. The question is, why isn't he taking action to address these deficiencies? Why aren't we seeing him course correct right now? Is he honestly waiting until June to make these changes? I mean, when things are this bad, you need to start right now. And yes, things can change and I hope that they do. But in order for things to change, the time to actually take action to make it change is right now. You have to stop the genocide. You have to stop it. Not just because of electoral reasons, but because genocide is bad. On top of that, you have to promote specific policies that appeal to core demographics of the Democratic Party, young people, Arab Americans, black voters, and you have to take the threat of Trump seriously. Not just say Trump is to democracy but act like it. Biden has been campaigning on Trump's threat to democracy and he's right to do that, but simply pointing out Trump's dictatorial ambitions isn't going to be enough. You need to give people a reason to vote for you and Biden isn't doing that. But if he truly believes American democracy is at stake, he will start acting like it and get his shit together immediately.