Yeah, yeah, I get it. Honest I do. Enough’s enough. An unnecessarily exaggerated response. An incredibly complicated situation that just keeps getting knottier. But just like in comedy, timing is everything.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s call for people to vote against President Joe Biden in Michigan’s Feb. 27 Democratic primary reverberated across political circles and social media over the weekend, with nervous supporters of the president’s saying she was helping former President Donald Trump’s reelection efforts.

On Saturday, even as Trump was making his way to Michigan for a raucous rally in Waterford Township, Tlaib, D-Detroit, who represents southeast Michigan’s large Arab-American and Muslim community in Dearborn, released a video of her telling people to vote uncommitted as a signal to Biden of their continued demand that he call for Israel to stop a bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

Several Democrats and others denounced Tlaib’s stance almost immediately. Norm Ornstein, a congressional expert and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, proclaimed it “shameful” on X on Sunday.

And after a group, Republicans Against Trump, posted the remarks, asking, “Who’s going to primary her?” the civil rights lawyer Andrew Laufer said of her comments on X: “That’s an amazing stance @RashidaTlaib. Have your supporters not vote or vote for the guy who will deport them. Just an amazing position.”

And as for the Listen to Michigan campaign, Tlaib has literally close relations with its membership: Her sister, Layla Elabed, is its campaign manager. Several other local leaders with whom she is close, including Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Township, also have signed onto the uncommitted campaign.

…also “signed on”, that bastion of hard-hitting journalism, The Metro Times.

Even a dog knows not to defecate where he sleeps.

Alt. link: https://archive.is/apavN

Further reading:

• Michigan Advance: Biden campaign focusing on Trump, despite ‘uncommitted’ campaign in Michigan Dem primary
• The Freep via archive.is: Trump rails against EVs, China, job security in Michigan visit: Here’s a fact check