US prez polls: UAW chief suggests Trump headed for victory over Biden

By Josh Eidelson

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain suggested Donald Trump is on track to defeat Joe Biden in November, warning Democrats risk a catastrophic repeat of their 2016 election loss unless they confront “hard truths.”
 

“We’re speaking truth to those who need to hear it most and that’s the Democrat Party,” Fain said Friday at the Netroots Nation conference in Baltimore, urging people not to put “our heads in the sand and hide from reality — we tried that in 2016 and it didn’t work.”

Fain is one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders and he delivered Biden a long-sought and effusive endorsement in January, buoying the president’s reelection campaign. While Fain didn’t directly address Biden’s debate performance or the calls to replace him on the ticket, his comments indicate concern within the labor movement about the president’s prospects in November.

Amid the fallout from Biden’s June debate disaster, the UAW chief told the crowd of progressive activists that it was necessary to face uncomfortable facts. 

“We’ve seen it before: We saw in 2016 people just wanted to buckle down and hope for the best knowing that we weren’t meeting the moment,” Fain said. “And we see it happening again, though very few people are willing to speak up about it: The truth is the billionaire class and the corporate class has the working class on the ropes, and they’re ready, through their messiah Donald Trump, to deliver a fatal blow, and our political system is set up to let that happen.”

Fain didn’t mention Biden by name, though he praised the president’s record on labor issues. 

“We’ve got a president in the White House who wants to stand with the working-class and we’ve made incredible gains over the last three and a half years,” he said. In contrast, Fain added, Trump “would be a complete disaster for the working class.”

Fain spoke on a day that Biden was campaigning in Michigan, where the union has its headquarters.

Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, said in a statement on Friday night that he has been a “champion for working people over greedy corporations. That’s why our campaign has 33 unions supporting us - it reflects Joe Biden’s record of delivering results for working families.”

Biden has highlighted his union support as he tries to beat back pressure to exit the presidential race. The AFL-CIO announced Wednesday that its executive council, which includes Fain, had voted unanimously “to reaffirm its commitment” to reelect Biden, saying in a statement that he has run “the most pro-union administration in our lifetimes.”

But Fain at a Thursday meeting of the UAW executive board expressed concern about Biden’s ability to defeat Trump, according to people familiar with the conversation. Reuters reported earlier on Fain’s private misgivings. 

As a reporter asked Biden a question at his Thursday press conference about Fain’s concerns, the president interjected, “UAW just endorsed me, but go ahead.”

A UAW spokesperson declined to comment Friday.