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You are here: Home / Economics / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Gallant vs. Goofus, UAW Strike / White House Edition

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Gallant vs. Goofus, UAW Strike / White House Edition

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… Fain, speaking Tuesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer, said he saw no reason to meet the GOP former president who is running again in 2024.

“I don’t think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for,” he told Blitzer. “He serves the billionaire class and that’s what’s wrong with this country.”

When Blitzer suggested that Fain was effectively endorsing Biden, the UAW president said that was not the case.

“It’s not an endorsement for anyone,” he told Blitzer. “It’s just flat-out how I view the former president.”

The UAW has not made an endorsement in the 2024 presidential election…

Fain also blasted Trump’s choice of location for his visit, saying it should make clear he isn’t a friend of union labor.

“I find the pathetic irony that the former president is going to hold a rally for union members at a non-union business,” said Fain. “His track record speaks for itself. In 2008 during the Great Recession, he blamed UAW members. He blamed our contracts for everything that was wrong with these companies. That’s a complete lie.”…

Reader Interactions

37Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Dispatch from Detroit: Not a lot of excitement for Biden or Trump ahead of their back-to-back visits here. “Mind your own business … it’s not about them. It’s about us,”one striking UAW member said yesterday.

    Putting aside the lie about Trump speaking to striking workers, it seems odd that strikers wouldn’t welcome the support from high level officials. I didn’t give the story click, but seems like one of those pieces that was pre-written with a theme in mind.

  3. 3.

    Alison Rose

    @Baud: From my skim-read, there was one dude with the pull-quote, and otherwise it was more that people said they weren’t sure the President’s visit would change much about their situation. Which isn’t exactly as negative as some are trying to frame it.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    @Baud: There are a lot of UAW members out on strike. Even if 99% of them welcomed Biden’s visit, Our Intrepid Media would give a voice to that remaining 1%.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    @dmsilev: Yep — we know for a fact the Beltway press looks for anti-Dem themes. One thing that’s encouraging: the local press I’ve read isn’t so gullible.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    OT, but brendancalling has a gig in the Philly area, so I wanted to let all you Philly folks know about it.  From an earlier comment from brendancallinglast night:

    On a completely unrelated note—and in some shameless self-promotion—if any jackals are in Philly this weekend, I’m playing at the Philly Brewing Company‘s first “Harvest From the Hood” release since 2021. Last year, the city cut down their hops by mistake. Big oopsie!

    Anyway, there will not only be two great country/Americana bands—my own, the Country Gold Classics, and Yonder Hearts—we will also have a two step lesson, led by Yonder Hearts’ singer Jess and me. Two-stepping makes country music so much more fun. So come on down to the Brewery in bee-yoo-teeful Fishtown (exact address at the link)! Dance lesson from 1:00-1:30, bands start shortly thereafter. I’m the uglier one playing bass.

  8. 8.

    Percysowner

    I’m so proud to be a Democrat. I’m one of the people who wasn’t thrilled about Biden. My first choice was Liz Warren and my second was Kamala Harris. I’m not to proud to say I was wrong. Biden is a GREAT President.

    I will say several of his Secret Service people looked less than thrilled about having him so close to so many people, probably unvetted people. Plus, they certainly didn’t blend in. They actually stuck out like sore thumbs.

  9. 9.

    piratedan

    @Percysowner: same, I am coming to the opinion that the Secret Service is suffering from the same issue that haunts the FBI, too many Republicans, not enough Americans.

  10. 10.

    Hob

    @dmsilev: Just based on my own past experience in a union job, I don’t think it would be nearly that hard to find someone to express a cranky “I don’t like politicians” type of opinion. People have all kinds of personal takes on what organized labor means to them, and there are plenty of people who either are disengaged from politics, or do have their own political allegiances but are wary of elected officials stepping into a situation because that might derail things in some way. Whether that’s a rational or helpful attitude in this case isn’t for me to say because it’s not my community. But I’m also not too concerned if a news article quotes someone saying something like that, because I already know there are people who feel like that.

  11. 11.

    RaflW

    I’m having a fabulous salmon dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, then we’re going grocery shopping to not watch the runner-up debate tonight.

    I’ll check here and glance at some Xits later to see how the stupid-fest went.

  12. 12.

    Dan B

    At TIFG’s rally at the non-union shop there are folks waving Union Members for Trump signs.  They all gotta lie. Every damn one.

  13. 13.

    Scout211

    CNBC  is posting live updates at TFIG’s Michigan rally. Trump really just spews verbal garbage.

    Trump slams EVs, praises success of trucks while erroneously naming tool brand

    Trump did not name a single American truck brand as he railed against the Biden administration’s efforts to spur an industry-wide transition to electric vehicles and the limits of electric trucks.

    Trump, in his speech in Detroit, claimed that electric trucks sell for “peanuts” and have short-lasting batteries.

    Those trucks “go for like one-fifth”, Trump claimed in his speech in Detroit.

    He then appeared to try to contrast those trucks with their traditional-engine counterparts. But the example he picked is not the name of an existing truck brand.

    “You take a Powerbuilt or one of the good brands,” he said, before saying that electric trucks “go for just a small amount of time compared to a diesel-fired truck.”

    Powerbuilt is a brand of tools.

  15. 15.

    Alison Rose

    @Scout211: I presume he was thinking of Peterbilt, but fortunately for him, it’s okay for old Republican men to get basic facts wrong every time they speak and it means absolutely nothing about their intellect or mental capacity.

  19. 19.

    BlueGuitarist

    @Scout211:

    Trump really just spews verbal garbage

    reposting from the tail end of an earlier thread,

    The UAW’s lead negotiator in contract talks said

    “Donald Trump is coming off as a pompous ass”

    and predicted nothing but 

    “more verbal diarrhea” from him.

  21. 21.

    kindness

    So much of the MSM must loathe Democrats.  They repeat Republican framing on everything even though they have to know the Republican framing is a lie.  Yet the MSM dutifully repeats it.  Maybe Harlan Crow is paying them all?

  23. 23.

    CaseyL

    @kindness: ​

    When Sinclair Broadcasting took over a bunch of ABC affiliates (I think it was ABC), the word went out from top management to soft-peddle anything critical of the GOP and emphasize anything critical of Democrats. It was out and open, and you could see it immediately in the way stories were reported (not to mention the commentary).

    And there is no job easier or better paying than news anchor. I’m not sure they do any actual work at all: someone dresses them, someone else does their hair and makeup, and there’s a whole team that writes up what they’re supposed to say and gives it to them to say it in front of the camera. All they need to do is be able to adjust their facial expressions to go with whatever they’re reading.

    I can’t imagine any of them are willing to give up such lucrative, effortless employment over something as silly as “telling the truth.”

  24. 24.

    Gvg

    Not only does he not know ANY American truck brands or tool brands, apparently nobody around him does either. Good golly. How can any guy who thinks he knows American guy culture not just laugh and walk out on such a senile fraud?

  25. 25.

    Barbara

    @Alison Rose: ​”They don’t actually die they just get a new Peterbilt.” Yuck yuck yuck. Kind of a teenage guy thing.​
    ETA: Oh I see someone else beat me to it.​

  27. 27.

    Jackie

    @Jackie: I’m not watching the debate, but the clips I’m seeing; everybody keeps saying essentially Biden’s MIA in his basement. WTF? Are they re-debating 2020? Do these 2nd tier candidates really think they can convince their audience Biden hasn’t been traveling across the country WEEKLY speaking at and attending events?

  30. 30.

    Jackie

    @Matt McIrvin: We need to know what they’re doing in order to counterattack. Ignoring them isn’t the way to win elections. We should have learned that lesson after 2016.

  32. 32.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I was interested by the report that Republican primary voters aren’t concerned with electability because they actually believe Biden is frail and senile.  They believe Biden is such a decrepit husk that anyone can beat him.  They really live in a fantasy world.

    EDIT – @Jackie:

    We should have learned that lesson after 2016.

    Of the many many many things that went wrong in 2016, I don’t recall not paying attention to Republicans and thus being unable to counterattack being one of those.

  33. 33.

    Hoppie

    @Timill: It was a Brit visiting my student apartment in Bologna back in the day who asked me how to say “would you like to play hide the sausage” in Italian.   Vuoi giocare a nascondare la salsiccia: doesn’t everybody know that?

  34. 34.

    Jackie

    @Frankensteinbeck: Not “us per se” but the many Democrats who didn’t bother to vote, thinking Hillary’s win was “in the bag.” Too many Democrats didn’t take TIFG’s Populism appeal seriously.

  35. 35.

    Jackie

    Missed the edit window, but rather than claiming Biden is hiding in the basement, the second tier GQP candidates should have focused on TIFG’s “hiding in the basement” by being too cowardly to debate face to face.

  36. 36.

    Jackie

    I’m obviously talking to myself, but following the debate Rachel Maddow interviewed CA Gov Newsom – who attended the debate. His first thought was disgust. He agreed with me that there were no qualified VP candidates on tonight’s stage. He also spent a lot of time praising Biden’s support for the UAW and bashing TIFG for speaking at a non-union factory pretending to support union workers.

    Gov Newsom is proving to be one of Biden’s biggest supporters.

  37. 37.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    So far, it turns out the “crowd” for TFG was bussed in, no auto workers or union members. Typical TFG bullshit, with extra senility on top

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