A CNN panel had a lively debate while discussing the number of “uncommitted” votes in Tuesday’s Michigan Democratic primary, with Anderson Cooper at one point saying that “we don’t need to debate the issue” as it relates to President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Nina Turner, the co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, reacted to the early results indicating a high number of votes for “uncommitted,” which was part of an effort to express dissatisfaction with Biden’s response.
“I think sometimes as we’re talking about this issue, we are centering President Biden, we are centering former President Donald Trump, when the ‘uncommitted’ effort is the center, the people closest to the pain, and that is the Arab-American community, that is the Palestinian community, that is communities that care about peace,” Turner said.
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“And so while this president was in the ice cream shop saying, ‘I think there’s going to be a ceasefire,’ 30,000 people have been slaughtered. People are living in famine. They can’t get medical care. So it can’t come soon enough for them, and that was really the weight that I picked up on when I was in Dearborn, [Michigan],” she continued.
Biden told reporters Monday that his national security adviser informed him that a ceasefire deal is “close” to being negotiated. “My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” he said.
Turner then mentioned how some members of Congress—specifically Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO)—called for a ceasefire months ago.
“They were called abhorrent. Now fast-forward to all of these bodies laying in the wake, and people who are living through this every single day,” she said, as Cooper jumped in.
“By the way, there‘s also been slaughter in Israel, so there’s a lot of pain on both sides,” he said, questioning the need for a “lecture on the problem.”
“I‘m talking about the politics of this tonight,” Cooper said. “What, to you, would be a victory, as someone who was calling for this ‘uncommitted’ vote?”
Turner, a former Ohio state senator, said she wasn’t “denying that pain.”
“All I‘m saying is that at a certain point after October 7, it becomes clear. I mean, you have a right-wing prime minister,” she began, before Cooper interrupted.
“Right. We don’t need to debate the issue,” he claimed.
“I’m not denying anybody’s pain,” Turner continued. “What I am saying is that this president—and our country—has the power to say to [Benjamin] Netanyahu: We need a permanent ceasefire.”
