 So did anyone else feel an overwhelming sense of dread when the clock struck midnight on New Year's because I know I certainly did because 2024 is going to be a year that will almost certainly change the trajectory of our country's future in a significant way For better or worse and the direction we go this year will be decided by the presidential election ultimately And it looks like we are set to see a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden With each passing day that prospect gets more and more demoralizing and I'm gonna explain why if it's not already obvious first and foremost Trump is a literal threat to US democracy There are people who try to downplay the threat that he poses But he does pose a threat and when historians say that what he is doing and saying is similar to what we've seen previous Dictators around the globe do I listen to them when political scientists warn about the threat that he poses I listen to them. He has vocalized his intent to abuse power Project 2025 is already underway and if that wasn't already a turnoff that it should be to voters in theory You would assume that his two impeachments 91 criminal charges or the fact that he was found reliable for both fraud and rape Would make his candidacy a non-starter for Americans But that's not the case because that's the world that we live in he is poised to be the GOP nominee And he is currently beating Biden on average when it comes to general election polls and the House Oversight Committee recently learned that he pocketed seven point eight million dollars while in office from 20 different foreign governments Which obviously is a violation of the emoluments clause to the US Constitution But just stop for a moment and ask yourself Is this new revelation going to matter in any way even a tiny bit? Of course not and this Twitter user I think put it best quote Good thing Trump isn't related to Joe Biden or he'd be in a lot of trouble exactly and it probably doesn't even matter to you Because we already knew that he was personally profiting off of the presidency. Nothing happens. So what is this new news going to do? It's not gonna do anything. It's not gonna amount to anything Saudi Arabian lobbyists would literally stay at his hotels to butter him up during his presidency And it worked because he did what they wanted He literally defied Congress to sell them billions of dollars in weapons amid their genocide in Yemen And he went on to veto a bipartisan resolution that would have ended US complicity in Saudi's genocide in Yemen So this new revelation or really any revelation for that matter about him will have an Infantestimal impact on the upcoming election in fact there isn't much he can do to get his loyalists to turn on him Take it from Sarah Longwell who spoke to Trump supporters in Iowa. Here's what she told CNN I was doing a focus group with Iowa voters just this week And I asked them if there was anything that would turn them off from Donald Trump and one said well if he did something really extreme like either died or murdered somebody and that was the only thing that would make them not vote for Him and one of these other candidates everyone in the group was more or less for Donald Trump And they all certainly believed that Donald Trump would be the nominee coming out of Iowa So he either has to die or murder someone to not get their support But let's be real even if there was evidence that he actually committed murder They still wouldn't turn on him. They just would refuse to believe it. They'd call it fake news So I don't even believe that murder would get them to turn on Donald Trump That's how little faith that I have in them Remember these are the same people who screech about Bill Clinton's association with Jeffrey Epstein rightfully so by the way But conveniently pretend as if Donald Trump never knew Epstein Despite him admitting that he knew him for 15 years and that he was a terrific guy who likes girls on the younger side But putting aside Trump's corruption and Criminality and general stupidity. It's not just going to be a tumultuous four years of him if he gets elected again It's not just more Supreme Court justices He is going to dismantle the administrative state and permanently change the structure of our government and institutions That is a problem. He's open about his plans to attack democracy and dismantle institutions and currently He's the favorite to win. Keep that in mind. So ask yourself How is it even possible that someone so terrible a fucking cartoon character could be leading in polls right now? It's got to say at least something about his opponent. Does it not and I'd argue it does much like his predecessor Joe Biden Is complicit in genocide more than 20,000 Gazans have been murdered by Israel Netanyahu cabinet members have expressed genocidal intense and admitted that ethnic cleansing is their end goal and Biden Still will not tell them to stop. In fact, he bypassed Congress to sell them even more weapons that they will inevitably use on innocent civilians In Gaza, but don't worry guys He told them to end the mass civilian deaths while he was giving them more weapons that they'll use to blow up civilians So it's all good apparently and to say that his support for Israel has been catastrophic would be an understatement at the time That I record this video in January of 2024. He has now lost the support of Arab Americans in key swing states like Michigan He's lost the support of black voters Latino voters He's lost the support of young voters who are sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinian people But he is still not telling Israel to stop now liberals might respond and point out that this rhetoric that he's been using Lately has at least started to shift in regard to Israel's genocide. And yes, that's true But we don't need him to talk the talk We need him to walk the fucking walk your stated concerns about civilian casualties rings hollow If you're selling them more fucking weapons, it makes you an accomplice and he is so the question is what does he do? He cuts off the money cuts off the supply of weapons tells them to stop and maybe has a chance to actually win if People forget that he did all of this shit by then which many will not many will remember it But at least he'd have a better chance if he stopped this and people pretend as if Biden is powerless But that is bullshit case in point former presidents like Ronald Reagan have told Israel to stop and guess what happened They did the nation's treat a Parsi writes 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 Menachem Begin in a phone call that this is a Holocaust Reagan demanded that Israel withdraw troops from Lebanon Begin caved 20 minutes after their phone call Begin ordered a halt on attacks indeed It is absurd to claim that Biden has no leverage Particularly given the massive amounts of arms he has shipped to Israel In fact Israeli officials openly admit it quote all of our missiles the ammunition the precision-guided bombs all the airplanes and bombs It's all from the US retired Israeli general Yitzhak Brick conceded in November of last year quote the minute They turn off the tap you can't keep fighting you have no capability Everyone understands that we can't fight this war without the United States period. So let's be clear Biden has a choice and I hate to reduce serious issues down to memes because it kind of undermines the seriousness of it But this meme shared by roots action perfectly and concisely encapsulates the predicament that Biden is in either have any shot whatsoever at reelection or commit genocide and as we all know He's pressing the genocide button and they're responding to David Hogg who makes a crucial point if Biden can't adequately and immediately address the mass drop he has had in the polls with young people There is no path to victory simply wanting it to be different or acting like there is no problem Doesn't change the fact that we have a major problem. He continues There's a lot of young people in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and other critical states that Biden absolutely has to get the votes of In order to win the danger is not that they are going to vote for Trump The danger is them just not voting but as you can see the immediate response is from smug liberal Rachel Bitcoffer who says after the kids don't vote they can ride their high horse right into the Trump camps But it doesn't work that way the onus is on Biden not the voters He knows his support for genocide is morally outrageous to voters He knows that he has the power to stop it but isn't doing that So if he has a year to fix the issue and does not you don't blame disillusioned young people with no power Who chose to stay home you blame the person with power who took their votes for granted But if voters shaming was an effective strategy, don't you think it would have worked in 2016? But no Hillary Clinton lost you can't blame voters for that You have to blame Hillary Clinton for running a terrible campaign and the same is true now with Joe Biden But there are more warning signs that he's choosing to ignore not just voters tuning out for example multiple Administration officials by now have spoken out anonymously and some have even resigned over this administration's complicity with Israel's genocide The latest is former education official Tariq Habash who is a Palestinian American who resigned saying quote I cannot represent an administration that does not value all human life equally I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives in what leading Human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government and he further explained his reasoning in an interview with Jor read on MSNBC And here's what he had to say it hurts it is a Dehumanizing thing to hear from the president of the United States someone who you worked so hard to campaign for and elect and Support his policies that you know Your life is not Valuable your identity means less than other people's identities and it's okay That tens of thousands of people who look like you and who have similar backgrounds and heritage are dying and being massacred and That hurts Do you get the sense that that there are a lot of other people in the Biden campaign and in the administration who feel the way you do That are maybe not saying anything. Yeah, absolutely. I think I think a lot of people are saying something I think that we've seen Hundreds of State Department officials sign on to numerous dissent cables that were leaked. We've seen USAID officials We've seen White House staff. We've seen interns. We've seen hundreds of Officials across the administration from dozens of agencies. This is a pretty commonly held position by a lot of the biggest supporters of the president and The majority of American voters support a ceasefire, but the president's unwillingness to move on this policy is Defining and it hurts, you know, you were the only Palestinian American in the Department of Education But you were also were a campaign guy. You worked on the campaign This is not the most important thing electoral politics, but it kind of is because our democracy is at stake What are you gonna do in November? But I mean do you have a we would you vote for Joe Biden? I think that's up to him You know, I did volunteer to support the campaign I've supported the president for the last three years and every single thing I do in my professional life And the reality is the president's in power He is the one whose name is on the ballot and it's his policies if he wants to earn my vote and the vote of millions of Americans Who support peace and an end to violence? That's up to him. It's up to him. Exactly Now he was asked by CNN's Abby Phillips whether or not he thinks Biden's support for genocide will cost him the election And this is what he said. Do you think that this issue could cost Biden the 2024 election and if it does would you be comfortable with that? Listen, I don't think that that's my decision to make. I think it's the president's he's the one on the ballot He's the one who has the power with a phone call to To end this violence to make demands of the Israeli government to end the indiscriminate Violence against Palestinians and so I think if the president wants to ensure a second term if he wants to ensure the support of millions Americans who are part of his base who have supported him You know, I think he needs to hear what the people are saying and I hope he does Yeah, and with 11 months left until the election Nobody really knows what's gonna happen at this point all we can do is look at the polls gauge where voters are at now in January of 2024 and Make a guess right a lot can change between now and November, but with so much at stake. I Find it infuriating that he is so Irresponsible to dismiss voters concerns when this is something that they have made very clear matters to them This is the same guy who told us democracy matters and he wants to protect democracy from Trump But apparently genocide is a higher priority to him than saving the Republic and What's even more maddening is that Israel's far-right government would prefer Trump instead of Biden because as supportive as Biden has been they know Trump would be even more supportive So they don't care if what they do hurts Biden, but he should care but you know He doesn't seem to Now Trump would also be terrible on this issue because he's made it very clear that he thinks that Biden is too weak on this issue He's weak on the genocide that he's complicit in so when it comes to this election You really don't have a choice when it comes to genocide in Gaza both candidates who are the major candidates support that the ones that can Win they will support genocide in Gaza so long as Israel wants to do it and that's a damn shame But to be clear, I don't think that the people disillusioned with Biden are going to vote for Donald Trump I think they're aware that Trump is worse on this issue as Charlemagne the god put it It's a competition between Biden and the couch if he can't get people off the couch to vote for him Then he's gonna lose because the people who supported Trump in 2020 and 2016 They're gonna keep supporting Trump But Biden needs to get the people back out to vote for him that he mobilized in 2020 and as it stands right now He's failing to do that But I don't want to create this false equivalence between Trump and Biden because even though they're the same when it comes to the issue of supporting Genocide in Gaza there are actual meaningful differences between the both of them in other areas for example another Trump term would almost certainly endangered the lives of trans people and As somebody with trans family members, I just don't think that that's a risk that I want to take It's not what I wanted to take I don't want to gamble with their lives and project 2025 Which he supports would entail a nationwide ban on gender firming care that the president does via executive order or regulatory changes They don't need to go through Congress to do this That's a real threat furthermore as fascistic and ruthless as Biden's border policies are while Republicans ironically pretend like there's an open border currently Trump is already broadcasting his intent to be even more ruthless than his 2016 term if you can imagine that so there are concrete differences between Biden and Trump and these differences make Biden the objectively better candidate than Trump So my goal isn't to perpetuate this false equivalence and tell you that Republicans and Democrats are the same or Biden and Trump is the same but Here's the thing you still have to take into consideration what voters want because Most people care about this issue so much that they are one issue voters Israel Gaza that's their top concern It's the most salient thing to a lot of them a lot of young people a lot of Arab Americans So you can't ignore them when they're telling you they don't want their tax dollars funding a barbaric genocide in Gaza And then fault them for choosing to stay home the onus is on Biden He is the one who needs to take their concerns Seriously make their concerns his biggest priority because they're the ones that elected them and he is a public servant Who is supposed to represent them and he's not doing that currently what he's doing is not the will of the people It's undemocratic and it's monstrous and his refusal to listen to the people who got him elected puts him in a vulnerable Position when it comes to this next election, but don't take my word for it. Look at the polls Aggregate polling data shows that Trump and him are neck-and-neck Trump has a 2.2 Overall lead on Biden So I hope Biden pulls his head out of his ass before it's too late But even if he does it's just still sad to see a repeat of him versus Donald Trump in 2024 Which is the most likely scenario because we really do deserve better candidates than both of them