WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday made Social Security a key part of his pitch to the Teamsters leadership in a closed-door meeting as the powerful labor union weighs its 2024 endorsement.
Speaking with the leadership board, Biden discussed labor issues and Social Security a day after former President Donald Trump said in a CNBC interview that “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.”
Similar to his State of the Union address last week, Biden did not refer to Trump by name but instead called him “the former president,” according to Teamsters vice president at-large John Palmer who attended Tuesday’s meeting.
Biden “got really passionate about Social Security” and cited Trump’s recent comments, Palmer said. He added that Biden used what he called a “Joe-ism” when talking about Trump, saying, “C’mon, man.”
The union has yet to endorse a presidential candidate for 2024, though it usually waits until after the party conventions, said Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz.
When asked whether the union will follow their traditional schedule this year, Deniz said, “We have a process we are following, and the roundtable is a part of that.”
The Republican National Convention is in July, followed by the Democratic convention in August.
Some Teamsters want the union to endorse Biden “sooner rather than later,” Palmer said. He counts himself in that group.
“Every day matters, especially about getting in front of the membership and explaining to them why. I mean, the differences couldn’t be any more stark,” Palmer said of Biden and Trump.
In a post to X about Tuesday’s meeting, the Teamsters said the union “is conducting national polling of the membership and will begin work with its 360 local union affiliates to convene townhalls to hear directly from as many members as possible in all states in the lead up to the 2024 race.”
“We appreciate President Biden taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with Teamsters members and leadership,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien in the union’s post. “The President shared that he is committed to continuing to support workers and standing with labor if elected to a second term.”
Trump met with the Teamsters leadership in January. After the meeting, he told reporters that he believed he had a “good shot” at securing the union’s endorsement.
“Usually a Republican wouldn’t get that endorsement,” he said.
The union endorsed Biden in 2020. Four years earlier, it endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
In a Tuesday statement, the Biden campaign pointed to other union endorsements the president has received, adding, “We hope to earn the support of the Teamsters as well.”
The campaign highlighted the president’s “historic, pro-union record,” including a visit to a striking autoworkers’ picket line in Michigan last September.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
