A coalition of Muslim political organizations has condemned Vice President Kamala Harris for her alliance with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Harris yesterday attended a joint event with the anti-Trump Republican, where she praised both Cheneys for their willingness to stand with her despite being members of different parties.
“There are many who know it’s wrong and then there are those who have the courage to speak out loudly about it,” Harris said.
However, the event was poorly received by the American Muslim 2024 Election Task Force, a coalition of seven major political action committees focused on Muslim issues. In a statement, the group condemned the embracing of “anti-Muslim bigot and torture defender” Liz Cheney, and said that the move would drive young voters and minority groups away from voting for Harris.
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The Task Force said: “Vice President Harris should have never hosted a campaign event alongside Liz Cheney, an anti-Muslim bigot and far-right war hawk who continues to openly endorse the crime of torture, including waterboarding.
“Liz Cheney’s current opposition to Donald Trump does not excuse her bigotry or erase her support for torture. The Harris campaign’s decision to platform Cheney is an insult to every American who worked to oppose the Bush-Cheney administration’s criminal policies and to everyone around the world who died due to those policies.
“Vice President Harris has already lost key support among young voters, Muslim Americans, Black Americans, Arab Americans and others because of her refusal to lay out any plan to end the Israeli government’s ongoing genocidal war crimes in Gaza. Embracing war criminal enthusiasts like Liz Cheney will only drive those voters further away.”
Newsweek contacted the Harris campaign for a response to the comments via email.
The Harris campaign, like Biden’s before it, has had a rocky relationship with Muslim voters since the escalation of the conflict in Gaza on October 7 last year. Green Party candidate Jill Stein, has taken a firm stance on ending the war and diminishing the U.S.’s relationship with Israel, which has garnered her parts of the Muslim vote in key swing states at the cost of Harris’ support.
In Wisconsin, a must-win state for Harris, 44 percent of Muslim voters back Stein, compared to 39 percent for Harris and just 8 percent for Trump. At the last election in 2020, President Joe Biden won 86 percent of the Muslim vote nationally, with only 8 percent supporting Trump.
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