A guest who appeared on CNN’s morning show Tuesday said that President Joe Biden’s visit to striking United Auto Workers members is really just a “sign of desperation” because he’ll be showing up “empty-handed.”
Bloomberg’s senior Washington correspondent Saleha Mohsin noted that Biden is headed to Detroit on Tuesday, a day before former President Donald Trump is expected to visit the city and the picket lines.
White House Press Sec. Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that Biden’s visit is “historic” and said the president has always been “on the side of workers” getting their “fair share.”
CNN’s Phil Mattingly pointed out that it would pose a challenge for Biden as he joins the picket lines, given his role as president, which traditionally requires him to maintain a more behind-the-scenes presence during negotiations.
“You’ve covered this team’s economic policy and efforts closer than anybody. How do they operate in this space given the politics?” Mattingly asked Mohsin, per the Daily Caller.
“To me, it’s a sign of desperation. If the president is making this huge move to show up and outshine the last president, who was a candidate, who is a big opponent, it is showing how hard he is fighting because what Donald Trump is doing is trying to recreate that 2016-like attraction, that pull to blue-collar workers that got him to the White House,” Mohsin said.
“And Biden grabbed those votes in 2020, and they’re uncertain now about him. That constituency is not shared because he’s backed electric vehicle production. Trump is talking about how that’s going to wipe out your jobs because they need less union workers to produce those kinds of cars,” she continued.
“They’re shipping those jobs to China. That’s exactly how he won in 2016. He’s recreating that. So Biden is rushing in to do the counter-narrative, but he’s showing up a little bit empty-handed when it comes to policy fixes on making sure union jobs are protected,” she noted further.
“What power? You made this good point that the president needs to tell these workers he won’t allow the EV transition that this administration backs so fervently to chip away at good-paying jobs. But he doesn’t really actually have any power to make those promises, does he?” co-host Poppy Harlow asked.
“He has signaling power to show up and to make it clear to the big automakers that I’m the president, and I support this. Unless he’s willing to go back on those promises on EV production, which he’s not, that’s going to upset a lot of people in the climate change sector. He can’t really do anything here,” Mohsin responded.
Employees initiated a strike following the expiration of their contract on September 14th. Initially, the union called for a 46% salary increase over a five-year period, as well as a condensed four-day workweek with full compensation for a 40-hour workweek. UAW leadership has expressed apprehensions regarding the potential negative impact of increased electric vehicle production on their workforce in the long run.
Biden and members of the Democratic Party have endorsed policies that provide financial support for electric vehicle manufacturing and impose limitations on internal combustion engine vehicles. The Inflation Reduction Act, along with the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, also allocated substantial funds to subsidize electric vehicles.
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