In response to anti-war protesters at a Romulus, Michigan campaign rally Wednesday demanding the US impose an arms embargo against Israel, Vice President Kamala Harris threatened the protesters with a Trump presidency if they continued to speak out against genocide.

The Democratic nominee responded to chants of “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide – we won’t vote for genocide,” by first telling the protesters, “I’m here because we believe in democracy but I am speaking now, I am speaking now.”

Undeterred by Harris’ attempts to shut them down, the group of protesters continued to chant. This prompted a visibly upset Harris to snap, “You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise I’m speaking.”

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Harris proceeded to glare at the demonstrators for exercising their First Amendment right to protest against the Biden administration’s support for the Israeli rampage in Gaza, which has killed as many as 200,000 people, according to a recent study from the respected medical journal The Lancet.

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Responding to Harris on X, Socialist Equality Party presidential candidate Joseph Kishore wrote:

For over 10 months, Harris, Joe Biden, the Democrats and Republicans have politically, militarily and economically supported the genocide in Gaza. Since being elevated to the top of the Democratic ticket last month, the vice president has made clear multiple times that a Harris-Walz administration would be just as vicious in prosecuting the slaughter as the current Biden administration.

Two weeks ago, Harris welcomed war criminal Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House where she shook his blood-soaked hand and promised to provide Israel with all the weapons it needs to “defend itself.”

On July 24, both capitalist parties welcomed the Butcher of Gaza to Congress where they showered the war criminal with 29 separate standing ovations.

Speaking at an anti-war rally organized by the Socialist Equality Party a few hundred yards away, I insisted, “The assembled Representatives and Senators, Democrats and Republicans, warmongers and war criminals don’t represent us,” and that the way forward for the working class and youth was not to appeal to the war criminals responsible for the killing, but to mobilize the working class in the United States and internationally against the war, and its source, the capitalist system.

Harris’ self-centered rebuttal drew cheers from some of the estimated 15,000 people who attended the Wednesday’s rally. In her vapid speech, Harris presented empty rhetoric while avoiding any talk of war and genocide.

Instead she opened by bringing “greetings from our incredible President Joe Biden” followed by leading the crowd in chants of “Joe! Joe! Joe!” and “Thank you Joe! Thank you Joe! Thank you Joe!”

In the right-wing speech, Harris attempted to characterize herself as fighter for the “middle class” by touting her record as “prosecutor” and “attorney general.”

Harris spent a plurality of her speech warning of the danger of a Trump presidency, without explaining how it was possible that, nearly four years after the January 6 coup, Trump could win the upcoming presidential elections.

As a bulwark against attacks on democratic rights, Harris proposed passing the toothless John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Borrowing from Biden, and virtually every other Democrat, she also proposed passing an “assault weapons ban, universal background gun checks and red flag laws.”

Harris also called for Congress to pass the PRO Act, a piece of legislation aimed at boosting the labor bureaucracies that have been acting as labor police for the corporations and capitalist parties.

Harris was joined by several other politicians on Wednesday, including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Harris’ running mate Minnesota Governor Tom Walz, Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, CIA Democrat Elissa Slotkin and UAW President Shawn Fain. The latter has seamlessly transitioned from being one of Biden’s top surrogates to an all out stooge for Harris.

Prior to Wednesday’s rally, Fain held a private meeting with Harris and Walz at the UAW’s Solidarity House.

Showing his disdain for workers and their families, Fain peppered his speech with vulgarities in a pathetic attempt to come off as genuine.

“We got a strong, intelligent and I’m just going to put it bluntly a bad ass woman,” said Fain. Later on Fain yelled, “the working class has been left behind, but I don’t know how you feel, but I’m f..king angry.”

Fain neglected to mention that autoworkers’ jobs have been slashed and wages have declined in the face of inflation under both Democrat and Republican administrations. On Friday, Stellantis announced it was laying off as many as 2,450 workers at the Warren Truck assembly plant.

These job cuts, and tens of thousands more, are the direct result of the contracts that the UAW apparatus rammed through after its phony “stand up” strike last year.

After appearing alongside Harris and Walz on Wednesday, Fain welcomed the Democrats to Local 900 for another pep rally, this time in front of a few dozen bureaucrats.

In an attempt to dragoon anti-capitalist and socialist workers and youth disgusted over the Gaza genocide back into the dead end of the Democratic Party, since February this year, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has promoted the “uncommitted” campaign.

The campaign by DSA members, joined by Democrats such as Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, encouraged an “uncommitted” protest vote in the Democratic presidential primary as a way to register disagreement with the Biden administrations’ genocidal policies. In all, over 700,000 people voted “uncommitted” or some variation throughout the 2024 primaries.

However, as the WSWS wrote in February this year at the onset of the campaign:

No matter how many people vote “Uncommitted”… the US government and the Biden administration, the Democratic and Republican parties, will continue to supply the genocidal Zionist regime with all the political, military and economic support it needs to carry out the “Final solution” of the Palestinian question.

Even though Biden has dropped out, he has never stopped providing Israel all the political, military and economic support it needed to continue its genocidal campaign.

Harris’ snide remark in Michigan has complicated efforts by the Uncommitted movement to dragoon anti-genocide voters into supporting the Democratic ticket this November. Michigan, home to the largest Arab-American population per capita in the US and a key state in the electoral college vote, has been the main focus of the “uncommitted” campaign.

Prior to holding Wednesday’s rally, Harris met briefly with two of the main organizers of the Uncommitted campaign, Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh. Elabed is a sister to Rep. Tlaib, while Alawieh is a Democratic Party delegate and former chief of staff to recently defeated Missouri Rep. Cori Bush.

In a statement issued after meeting with Harris, Elabed said she told Harris, “Michigan voters right now want a way to support you but we can’t do that without a policy change that saves lives in Gaza right now.”

Elabed said she asked Harris to meet to discuss an arms embargo to Israel. After Harris agreed, Elabed gushed, “In that moment it felt reassuring.”

While stressing that Harris did not agree to anything besides a meeting, Elabed added, “I really felt that VP Harris’ empathy towards me and empathy towards the plight of the Palestinians was incredibly genuine.”

In his statement Alawieh said, “I looked VP Harris in eyes and said, ‘Uncommitted voters, uncommitted delegates, we want to support you but we need to see a more humane Gaza policy that includes an arms embargo that saves lives.”

Alawieh called on Harris “to embrace an affirmative message that stops the killing so that we can mobilize voters for whom Gaza is a top policy issue.”

In a statement issued Wednesday morning, Phil Gordan, national security advisor to Harris, wrote on X/Twitter:

VP has been clear: she will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups. She does not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.