On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN Primetime,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to a question on whether President Joe Biden’s recent prediction that there wouldn’t be an auto worker strike by stating that Biden has been clear that he’s pro-union.
Host Abby Phillip asked, “Was it a mistake for President Biden to say, recently, that he did not think that there would be a strike?”
Jean-Pierre responded, “Look, what the President has been very clear about is that he has been a pro-union guy for a very long time, before he was President. And you see that, it shows in his record. And it even shows these last two years of what he’s been able to do. He believes in collective bargaining, he believes in the right to strike, and he believes that it is up to these groups to come together and come and have this negotiation. We are helping in any way we can. We are engaging in any way we can. But, look — he believes that corporate profits, if they’re going to have — those companies are going to have those corporate profits, that UAW should have [an] also record contract. They’re having these record profits. So, that’s what’s important to the President. He is about the unions. He’s always said, there would be no middle class without the unions.”
Phillip then said, “There’s been reporting in Politico and in other outlets that there was a lot of negative feedback that came after he made those comments, including from Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), is that accurate?”
Jean-Pierre responded, “Look, I’m not going to get into, certainly, any private conversations. Everybody has their opinion, and I think that’s important to have. What I can speak to is the President’s record when it comes to being pro-union, what he has done these last two years, and he’s going to continue to do that work.”
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