Gov. Gretchen Whitmer really hopes to “see the release of hostages and the cessation of violence” in Gaza, but whether she supports a permanent ceasefire is anyone’s guess.

The Biden campaign’s national co-chair appeared on CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins Tuesday to discuss the growing anger from Muslim leaders over the president’s handling of the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Roughly 100,000 Michiganders voted “uncommitted” during the Democratic primary – about 10 times more than Whitmer predicted. In the weeks since, the “Abandon Biden” movement has swelled to well over 500,000 uncommitted votes nationwide.

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“We have seen so much anger from Arab Americans about the way Biden is handling this war,” Collins said. “What are you hearing from people in your state about that?”

Whitmer ignored the question to talk about something else.

“Michigan is a state that has a robust Jewish population, and a robust Muslim population, Palestinian population, Arab American population, they’re not all one and the same,” Whitmer said. “I think that it’s really important to do everything we can to support people here, that’s why I’ve worked so hard to make sure people are safe in their communities, wherever they worship, um, trying to get people out of the region in the early days, but I really do hope that we see the release of hostages and the cessation of violence that is playing out.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declines to call for a permanent ceasefire but says she wants to see “the hostages released and the violence needs to stop.” pic.twitter.com/GFA23VepJ5

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 3, 2024

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Many Michiganders are “one degree of separation” from the “gut-wrenching” situation in Gaza, and that’s why “it’s so important we resolve this and use every ounce of American might that we can to do that,” Whitmer said.

Whether the governor believes that might should include a demand for a permanent ceasefire is unclear. Collins posed the question directly, but Whitmer dodged.

“I believe that the hostages need to be released and that the violence needs to stop, and we need to really talk about rebuilding Gaza and supporting the Palestinians,” Whitmer said.

Collins tried a second time: “Some people have called for a permanent one, President Biden has called for one for at least six weeks, I believe, with the release of hostages. Where are you?”

“Well, you know, I, I would like to see a peaceful resolution here,” Whitmer said. “Um, I don’t know that that is, um, on the horizon immediately, but I sure as heck hope so.”

Whitmer’s comments come as the Biden administration is working to appease the most progressive members of his party, who have made a call for a permanent ceasefire a central issue for 2024.

“I think Joe Biden’s total failure to address the humanitarian crisis, the genocide that is going on in Gaza, is really a war crime,” Abandon Biden co-chair Khalid Turaani said at a press conference during Biden’s most recent visit to Michigan. “In a perfect world, I think Joe Biden will be among Benjamin Netanyahu in The Hague.”

The Abandon Biden campaign, as well as a separate Uncommitted National Movement urging the same action, have racked up substantial “uncommitted” votes in Democratic primaries in Michigan, Minnesota, Hawaii, Washington, North Carolina, and Massachusetts.

With more than 90% of votes counted in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, results show over 48,000 opted for the “uninstructed” option – more than double what organizers with Listen to Wisconsin predicted, NPR reports.

Those votes – Wisconsin’s version of voting “uncommitted” – equate to just over 8% of the primary vote counted so far. The total is also roughly double Biden’s 2020 margin of victory over Trump in the Badger State.

“We have blown his last margin of victory out of the water,” Listen to Wisconsin spokeswoman Heba Mohammad said. “He needs to be paying attention and calling for an immediate, permanent ceasefire, as soon as possible.”

In other Democratic primaries on Tuesday, 11% voted uncommitted in Connecticut, 16% voted uncommitted in Rhode Island, and thousands cast blank ballots in New York as part of a “Leave It Blank NY” campaign, as voting uncommitted is not permitted there.

New York election officials are expected to release vote totals in the coming weeks, Gothamist reports.

“The war in Gaza has really splintered the Democratic coalition that is urgently needed to defeat [Donald] Trump and his right-wing extremist agenda,” the New York Working Families Party’s co-Director Ana María Archila told the news site. “And it has created a very serious moral dilemma for voters across the country.”