Kamala Harris insisted it was time to “end the suffering” in the Middle East while Donald Trump visited one of the nation's only Muslim-majority cities on Friday as the dueling presidential contenders fought for a small but pivotal bloc of Arab American voters in swing-state Michigan. In a rare reference to Israel's fight against Hamas and Hezbollah, Harris said, “This year has been very difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon.” She said the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “can and must be a turning point.” “Everyone must seize this opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, bring the hostages home and end the suffering once and for all,” she said. Panel on Trump assassination attempt for Secret Service reform Trump, meanwhile, avoided any specifics about his plans for the Middle East, but he said he didn’t think the Arab American community would vote for Harris “because she doesn’t know what she’s doing.” Later, he fought through technical glitches that silenced his microphone for almost 20 minutes at a rally in Detroit. Michigan is one of three “blue wall” states that, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, will help decide the election on Nov. 5. Diverse voting blocs are key to winning virtually any swing state, but Michigan is unique with its significant Arab American population, which has been deeply frustrated by the Biden administration's support for Israel's offensive in Gaza following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Trump, who instituted a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and has vowed to expand the ban to include refugees from Gaza if elected again, is trying to capitalize on the community's frustration with the Democratic administration, despite his well-documented history of hostile rhetoric and policies. There were modest signs Friday that he may be making progress. The Republican nominee visited a new campaign office in Hamtramck, one of the nation’s only Muslim-majority cities, and was joined there by Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Democrat who has endorsed Trump. Meanwhile, three city council members in the same town have endorsed Harris. “His visit today is to show respect and appreciation to our community,” said Ghalib, who presented Trump with a framed certificate of appreciation. Trump's allies have held meetings for months with community leaders in the state, which Biden carried by less than 3 points in 2020. Asked about the Hamtramck mayor’s endorsement, Trump said: “I mean, frankly, it’s an honor. I’ve got a lot of endorsements, Arab Americans, from a lot of people.” Trump has held 15 separate events in Michigan dating back to April, when Biden was still the presumed Democratic nominee. Including a scheduled Saturday event in Detroit, Harris will have visited Michigan 11 times since she became the nominee, according to AP tracking of the campaigns’ public events. And while foreign policy rarely sways U.S. elections, the war in the Middle East is a critical concern for many of Michigan's Arab American voters. Trump said Sinwar “was not a good person" when asked about the Hamas leader's death. Sinwar, one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack, was killed Wednesday by Israelis. "That’s my reaction. That’s sometimes what happens,” Trump told reporters at the airport in Detroit. Even as he reached out to disillusioned Arab American voters, Trump suggested he would end efforts to encourage Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restrain military operations that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Even though Biden “is trying to hold him back ... he probably should be doing the opposite, actually,” Trump said. Harris highlighted her support from the Arab American community as well. On Friday, 52 Lebanese Americans endorsed Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, saying in a letter that the voice of their community "will be heard” under the ticket's leadership. The letter reiterated calls for a cease-fire, and it cited a recent decision by the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary legal status to Lebanese citizens in the U.S. Such status is made available to people from certain countries marred by war, turmoil or natural disasters. But Harris has also faced demonstrators protesting U.S. support of Israel in the conflict. During a closed-door meeting Thursday with students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she was confronted by a protester, according to a video posted by a pro-Palestinian student group on social media. According to the video, as Harris was telling students she was invested in them, a protester interrupted her, asking, “And in genocide, right? Billions of dollars in genocide?” A phalanx of Democratic governors — Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Wes Moore of Maryland, Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Kathy Hochul of New York — campaigned with Harris earlier Friday. Longtime Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat, emphasized that the army of top Democrats descending on the state was not a sign of panic, stating, “We have to run like we’re behind.” “A lot of people have always said we’re a blue state. She knows we’re not. And she’s not taking us for granted,” Stabenow told the AP ahead of a rally for Harris in Oakland County. Both Trump and Harris also made a push for union workers and Black voters as they worked every angle for support. At an appearance at the United Auto Workers Local 652 hall in Lansing, Harris offered a direct message to union members: “I will always have your back.” She warned that Trump would undermine collective bargaining and worker protections. “We’ve got to get the word out to all the brothers and sisters in labor to remind them what this dude does,” she said before the campaign played a clip of Trump saying it’s not hard to build a car. “We could have our child doing it,” he said. Meanwhile, Trump talked up his own support among labor unions and criticized the rise of electric cars during a rival event in Oakland County ahead of his evening rally in Detroit. While visiting a campaign office, Trump said the head of the United Auto Workers — who has endorsed Harris — doesn’t have a clue. “I’ve saved Michigan,” he said, telling the crowds he would bring back more manufacturing. “We’ll end up having those plants built over here instead of in other countries.” Later, he called Teamsters President Sean O’Brien “a great guy.” O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention, and his union decided not to endorse Harris, which was viewed as a victory for Trump, given the union’s past support for Democrats. “I think it’s been many decades before they endorsed a Republican. I think they’ll start very soon,” Trump said. Trump's Detroit event was his first there since insulting the city last week. While warning what will happen if Harris is elected, he said that “our whole country will end up being like Detroit." The city spent years hemorrhaging residents and businesses, plunging into deep financial problems, before rebounding in recent years. “We love Detroit,” Trump said Friday night as the crowd erupted. “We’re going to make Detroit great again.”

Barack Obama had frank words for Black men who may be considering sitting out the election. “Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he said Thursday to Harris-Walz campaign volunteers and officials at a field office in Pittsburgh. The nation’s first Black American president touched a nerve among Democrats worried about Vice President Kamala Harris' chances of becoming the second. Harris is counting on Black turnout in battleground states such as Pennsylvania in her tight race with Republican Donald Trump, who has focused on energizing men of all races and tried to make inroads with Black men in particular. Obama's comments belie that Black men still overwhelmingly back Harris. But her campaign and allies have worked hard trying to shore up support with this critical group of voters — and addressing questions about potential misogyny. Black Americans are the most Democratic-leaning racial demographic in the country, with Black men being outpaced only by Black women in their support for Democrats. Harris is releasing a report on her health and poking Trump for failing to do likewise A recent poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 7 in 10 Black voters had a favorable view of Harris and preferred her leadership to that of Trump on several major policy issues including the economy, health care, abortion, immigration and the war between Israel and Hamas. There was little difference in support for Harris between Black men and Black women. But Khalil Thompson, co-founder and executive director of Win With Black Men, said he agreed with what he saw as Obama's larger point. “I believe President Obama is speaking to a tangible, visceral understanding of what it means for all men to relate to women in America. Calling out misogyny is not wrong," said Thompson, whose group raised more than $1.3 million for Harris from 20,000 Black men in the 24 hours after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race in July and made way for Harris. Win With Black Men has organized weekly calls and events meant to bolster Harris' standing with Black men. The flurry of activism has focused on combating misinformation in Black communities about Harris, as well as an emphasis on the policy priorities of Black men, which the group found are often centered on greater economic opportunities, safe communities, social justice policies and health care, particularly for the partners and children of Black men. “We’re not a monolith," Thompson said. “However, we are just like every other American in this country who wants a good paying job, that we can provide for our children and participate in their lives and the lives of our partner, that we can get them home safely, afford to go to the grocery store, save a little for retirement and have a vacation.” Harris said she believes the votes of Black men must be earned, like with any group of voters. Black men “are not in our back pocket,” she told a panel hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in September. Trump seeks military aircraft protection amid Iran-linked threats Harris recently sat down with the “All The Smoke” podcast hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson to discuss her racial identity and policy issues of interest to Black men. On Tuesday, Harris will appear in Detroit for a live conversation with Charlamagne tha God, a prominent Black media personality. The Harris campaign is conducting a number of outreach efforts to Black voters, including an tour of homecomings at historically Black colleges and universities, a number of radio and TV ads targeting Black voters in key states, and a get-out-the-vote operation engaging Black communities that complements the work of allied groups such as Win With Black Men. It has also tapped high-profile surrogates, including politicians, business leaders, professional athletes and musical artists, to court Black men. “Our Black men, we’ve got to get them out to vote,” said former NBA star Magic Johnson during a recent Harris rally in Flint, Michigan. “Kamala’s opponent promised a lot of things to the Black community that he did not deliver on. And we’ve got to make sure we help Black men understand that." The Trump campaign and its allies have held roundtables for Black men and conducted a bus tour through swing states that featured cookouts in cities like Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia. The campaign believes the former president’s appeals on issues such as the economy, immigration and traditional gender roles resonate with some Black men. Trump earlier this year mused that the criminal charges against him in four separate indictments, one of which led to a conviction with another dismissed, made him more relatable to Black people. U.S. expands sanctions on Iran in response to its ballistic attack on Israel “A lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” he told a Black conservative audience in South Carolina. Trump's support among Black, white, and Hispanic male voters worries senior Harris campaign officials as the election increasingly shapes up as divided along gender lines, with Harris stronger with women and Trump stronger with men. But the debate over to what degree misogyny plays a role in some Black men not supporting Harris sidesteps a broader conversation on how Black men are engaged as full citizens in politics, argues Philip Agnew, founder of the grassroots political organization Black Men Build. “To be a Black man in the United States is to be invisible and hypervisible at the same time, and neither one of those is a humanizing viewpoint,” Agnew said. Agnew's group traveled to 10 cities across the summer, hosting roundtables with Black men and making the case for civic engagement and a progressive politics. Agnew said many Black men throughout those conversations expressed exasperation toward politics, a sentiment shared by many Americans, in addition to a feeling that their political perspectives were often misunderstood or unappreciated. “The Black men I know are incredibly concerned with the lives of our families and our communities,” Agnew said. “It's because of an abundance of love for our sisters that we ask questions, not a lack of love.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made history Wednesday as the first women — one of them Black and Indian American — to share the stage in Congress during a presidential address. President Joe Biden noted the historic development at the very opening of his address. After taking the podium, Biden greeted the two women standing behind him with a “Madam Speaker” and “Madam Vice President.” Also Read: Kamala Harris makes history He then declared, “No president has ever said those words — and it’s about time.” Biden delivered his first prime-time speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night flanked by Pelosi and Harris, two California Democrats. The two began the night with another historic moment: An elbow-bump hello, a pandemic spin on the traditional handshake. Pelosi and Harris stood side by side behind the dais in the House chamber, chatting with each other and occasionally waving to lawmakers as the group waited for Biden to arrive. Also Read: Vice President Harris: A new chapter opens in US politics “It’s pretty exciting. And it’s wonderful to make history. It’s about time,” Pelosi said hours before the speech during an interview on MSNBC. Pelosi already knows what it feels like to sit on the rostrum in the House chamber and introduce a president for their speeches. She has sat there for several addresses by Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Women’s advocates said seeing Harris and Pelosi seated together behind Biden will be a “beautiful moment.” But they noted that electing a woman to sit in the Oval Office remains to be achieved, along with the addition of an equal rights amendment to the Constitution. Biden helped usher the moment along by pledging to pick a woman for his running mate and selecting Harris, then a U.S. senator from California. “This is a great start and we have to continue to move forward to give women their equal due,” said Christian Nunes, president of the National Organization for Women. Pelosi made history by becoming the first female House speaker during Republican Bush’s presidency. He acknowledged the moment by noting during his address to Congress after Pelosi’s election that he had the privilege of being the first president to open with the words “madam speaker.” Pelosi, 81, reclaimed the powerful leadership post during Republican Trump’s presidency and sat behind him during his final two speeches to Congress, famously ripping up her copy of Trump’s remarks in 2020 as cameras continued to roll after he was finished addressing lawmakers. Harris, 56, made history last year when she became the first woman and first Black and Indian American person elected vice president. In her role as president of the Senate, she joins Pelosi to preside over the joint session of Congress. Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said Wednesday night will show men, women, boys and girls that women can attain and hold high-level positions and that they are as entitled to them as men are. Walsh also noted Biden’s promise to put a woman on his ticket, and pointed as well to the diversity of his Cabinet. She said Biden was likely to begin the speech by turning around to face Pelosi and Harris and feeling proud — not just personally, “but I also think proud for the country and proud for his party and I think he will clearly see the historic implications of this and the role that he played in making that happen.” “For all of us who care about women’s public leadership, we still look forward to the day when the person standing at the podium, in front, is a woman,” Walsh added. “But for now this is a particularly gratifying moment.” Harris’ office declined comment Wednesday on her historic role in the president’s address, preferring to let the moment speak for itself. Apart from the speech Wednesday, Harris and Pelosi have notched another first in U.S. and women’s history. They are first and second, respectively, in the line of presidential succession.

Time magazine has named President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris its “Person of the Year.”