Rashida Tlaib will not endorse Biden, will work to elect him

[Suburbia]

“Residents come up to me and say, ‘Rashida, I don’t know. I hear Joe Biden this, Joe Biden that.’ I say, ‘Listen, do we need another four years of Trump? No. Then what I need you to do is go out there and focus on that,'” the Muslim congresswoman said.

“If the ultimate goal is to get rid of Donald Trump, that doesn’t have to involve me actually endorsing Biden,” she continued.

https://nypost.com/2020/07/28/rep-rashida-tlaib-say-she-will-not-be-endorsing-joe-biden/

[Roll Roons]

She's so terrible. One of my least favorite members of Congress along with Bernie, Omar and Steve King.

[Pessimistic Antineutrino]

Michigan
Likely D --> Lean R

Gary Peters in shambles


Also this statement is completely harmless it's not like she's explicitly not supporting Biden. Not that I'm a fan of Tlaib in any way

[Stranger in a strange land]

This helps Biden. The only people who wouldn't vote for Biden because Rashida Tlaib didn't endorse him are looking for an excuse to not vote for him and will find one.

[WD]

Tlaib is trash, She needs to be primaried.

[SnowLabrador]

Dang it, I thought I liked her. I guess not anymore.

[Lambsbread]

Am I misreading something? This isn't her saying that she doesn't want Biden to win or won't vote for him, but she's emphasizing her energy specifically on downballot races, especially in a swing state? That sounds like it helps Biden more than anything, lol.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Tlaib and Omar are trolls who care more about their self-aggrandizement than any policy goals.

[President Johnson]

Tlaib and Omar need to go. They're really bad team players. AOC to her credit came along and contributed to the campaign.

[Horus]

It was an anti-endorsement of Trump. Tlaib has her issues but her phrasing here may actually be helpful.

[free my dawg]

Amazingly enough, I don't think this is huge of a deal. If you read the actual interview, she's pretty clearly in our corner. With her status and the controversies surrounding her, it's probably best that she doesn't anyway.

For full context, from an unbiased source:

He hasn't directly called me or anything, but, no, right now I'm focused on my election, my constituents and my residents. One thing that I know is I'm going to be really focused on turnout in the fall. When I focus on turnout, we will deliver Michigan to Joe Biden. Trump only won Michigan by 10,000 votes. When I turn out my folks and my district, we'll be able to take back the state. When you focus primarily on getting people out to vote in a district like mine, [Biden] wins.

Because I don't want to get into a debate with my residents. Residents come up to me and say, "Rashida, I don't know. I hear Joe Biden this, Joe Biden that." I say, "Listen, do we need another four years of Trump? No. Then what I need you to do is go out there and focus on that." If the ultimate goal is to get rid of Donald Trump, that doesn't have to involve me actually endorsing Biden. My constituents don't need to be bogged down in, "Is he the best candidate?" That's not what you have to convince my residents. They need to come out in droves and be inspired by something. And that is going to be a vote against Donald Trump.

Let's not try and fall for right-wing psyops. Keep our eyes focused on November and we can't lose.

[Holmes]

This... isn't really what it's made out to be. You'd think from the posts in this thread that she was pulling a Nina Turner, but she's not being antagonistic towards Biden at all. Horus is correct, it was more of "doesn't matter if I endorse Biden because your motivation to vote is to vote against Trump either way."

[ShamDam]

This is mutually beneficial. Tlaib doesn't have to compromise her values by giving a full-throated endorsement, and Biden doesn't have the baggage of Tlaib being explicitly on his team. Everyone who hates her anyway and claims they're disgusted by this choice needs to channel their energy elsewhere

[America Needs R'hllor]

Great news! And stay out!

[Lambsbread]

It's so funny how people will be like "Tlaib sucks, she should be primaried, one of the worst members of Congress ever, we don't want her" but then criticize her for not falling in line.

If she had given Biden an endorsement, all the same characters would say "well, whatever, we don't need her but this is fine"--you don't care, you just want her to betray her principles.

[Suburbia]

Tlaib and Omar are trolls who care more about their self-aggrandizement than any policy goals.

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Am I misreading something? This isn't her saying that she doesn't want Biden to win or won't vote for him, but she's emphasizing her energy specifically on downballot races, especially in a swing state? That sounds like it helps Biden more than anything, lol.

[BaldEagle1991]

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/494275-ocasio-cortez-says-she-will-vote-for-biden-in-november

Even AOC plans to vote for Biden. What's Tlaib's deal?

[😥]

I will be very happy if she would lose primary. Along with Omar, she is the worst current Representative from Democratic Party

[Orwell]

She is actively trying to lose in the primary

[Alben Barkley]

It's so funny how people will be like "Tlaib sucks, she should be primaried, one of the worst members of Congress ever, we don't want her" but then criticize her for not falling in line.

If she had given Biden an endorsement, all the same characters would say "well, whatever, we don't need her but this is fine"--you don't care, you just want her to betray her principles.

I don’t give a f—k about her “principles,” and I find it bizarre that you apparently do. Politics isn’t about being the most pure or woke and taking a stand against the man. It’s about compromising and working as a team to accomplish concrete policy goals.

This is my single biggest issue with many “progressives.” Not only do I think that in many cases their actual principles and policy ideas are misguided and extreme, but I find them to be pretentious grandstanders who aren’t actually interested in getting anything done, just acting like they are holier than thou. Have the same problem with the Freedom Caucus types on the right like Thomas Massie by the way.

Politics isn’t a game and it isn’t a competition over who’s the most “authentic.” Anyone who is over the age of like 14 should understand this. Where others see these types of politicians as heroic for being obnoxious obstructionists, I see them as immature and unwilling to get over themselves. I also see them as supremely arrogant for assuming their principles are naturally superior to everyone else’s, and that they can just waltz right in to Congress and demand that much more accomplished people overhaul the system and the party to accommodate them.

To AOC’s credit, she seems to have gotten much better about this already. Not so much for Tlaib and Omar. And as for Bernie... dude has been like this his whole career. There is a reason I don’t mind AOC or Warren or Pressley as much as those other three, despite minute policy differences between them and despite the fact that all are significantly to my left. They are much more willing to work with others and thus are much better politicians, because again that’s kind of what politics is all about. If you just wanna soapbox, start a blog instead.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

If you’ll actually read the article and not just the title you’ll see she’s working to elect Biden.

[RussFeingoldWasRobbed]

Does she want to lose or something?

[ShamDam]

It's so funny how people will be like "Tlaib sucks, she should be primaried, one of the worst members of Congress ever, we don't want her" but then criticize her for not falling in line.

If she had given Biden an endorsement, all the same characters would say "well, whatever, we don't need her but this is fine"--you don't care, you just want her to betray her principles.

I don’t give a f—k about her “principles,” and I find it bizarre that you apparently do. Politics isn’t about being the most pure or woke and taking a stand against the man. It’s about compromising and working as a team to accomplish concrete policy goals.

This is my single biggest issue with many “progressives.” Not only do I think that in many cases their actual principles and policy ideas are misguided and extreme, but I find them to be pretentious grandstanders who aren’t actually interested in getting anything done, just acting like they are holier than thou. Have the same problem with the Freedom Caucus types on the right like Thomas Massie by the way.

Politics isn’t a game and it isn’t a competition over who’s the most “authentic.” Anyone who is over the age of like 14 should understand this. Where others see these types of politicians as heroic for being obnoxious obstructionists, I see them as immature and unwilling to get over themselves. I also see them as supremely arrogant for assuming their principles are naturally superior to everyone else’s, and that they can just waltz right in to Congress and demand that much more accomplished people overhaul the system and the party to accommodate them.

To AOC’s credit, she seems to have gotten much better about this already. Not so much for Tlaib and Omar. And as for Bernie... dude has been like this his whole career. There is a reason I don’t mind AOC or Warren or Pressley as much as those other three, despite minute policy differences between them and despite the fact that all are significantly to my left. They are much more willing to work with others and thus are much better politicians, because again that’s kind of what politics is all about. If you just wanna soapbox, start a blog instead.

There are countless bipartisan achievements that have actively made the world a worse place, as well as fringe opinions that eventually prove to be the ethically righteous ideal to push for.

I think it's ridiculous to have so much anger toward the handful of people in Congress who are pushing their colleagues to dream of a better world instead of compromising from the get-go.

[Xing]

I'm not a fan of Tlaib, but this doesn't seem to be exactly what she's saying. Either way, it's not like this will make a big difference.