Teamsters President Sean O’Brien told Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson during a podcast Monday how Vice President Kamala Harris turned her back on the union, before the group decided against endorsing a candidate for president.
In September, the Teamsters, one of the largest labor unions in the United States, announced they would not endorse a candidate, marking the first time since 1996 that the group had not supported a presidential contender. On “The Tucker Carlson Show,” O’Brien told Carlson that after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, Harris had met with one of the union’s executive board members at an event.
“They’re going through the line to get the picture, and Joan introduces herself to Vice President Harris [and] says, ‘I’m Joan Corey. I’m on the general executive board for the Teamsters.’ She [Harris] goes, ‘Teamsters? You better get on board. Better get on board soon.’ Says it to my vice president,” O’Brien said.
“To her face?” Carlson asked. “Damn, I thought I was arrogant. That’s really arrogant!”
O’Brien continued, saying that he then called former Democratic U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh to relay Harris‘ reaction, warning about her tone toward the union.
“So she comes back. We have the meeting the next day,” O’Brien said. “She tells me this. So I call up Marty Walsh — he wasn’t the secretary of Labor, but, you know, he was pushing hard for us to make the endorsement. I’m like, ‘Let me ask you a question, Marty. Excuse my French. Who does this fucking lady think she is?’ If I want support from any organization I am not gonna point my finger in someone’s face and say, ‘You better get on board or else.’ But that’s the attitude of this whole party.”
Harris only agreed to that interview after the group had pressured her, O’Brien told Carlson. O’Brien had earlier conducted media interviews saying that the Democrats hadn’t invited the labor union to their convention and that Harris hadn’t accepted the roundtable discussion.
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“So she comes to the roundtable. Same format, same questions — rank-and-file members are asking her questions just like they asked every other candidate. They were trying to negotiate with us. She only wants to answer three questions. We’re like ‘There’s 16 questions here.’ She answers three of them and on the fourth question one of her operatives or one of her staff slips a note in front of me: ‘This will be the last question.’ And it was 20 minutes earlier than the time that it was gonna end,” O’Brien added. “So, you know, you’re there trying to get our support and her declaration on the way out was, ‘I’m gonna win with you or without you.’”
Despite the labor union’s tendency to support Democratic candidates, O’Brien had spoken at the Republican National Convention in July, where he said the group is “not beholden to anyone or any party.” In September two major internal polls were released by the group, showing 59.6% of rank-and-file members electronically submitted their vote in favor of having the group endorse Trump for president, while just 31% threw their support behind Harris. Similarly, in a research phone poll, 58% supported Trump, with 31% favoring Harris, 6% undecided and 5% claiming they “don’t know.”
While Carlson described Harris’ behavior as “crazy,” O’Brien said that Biden and Harris were unwilling to talk to the media following their meeting with members, which was in stark contrast to how Trump behaved.
“The one difference between all the candidates that came was that at the conclusion of all these roundtables we had the media set up. So after [the] conclusion of [the] meeting with Trump, I did a press conference down in the lobby of my building. Well, Donald Trump did a press conference down in the lobby of my building after he spoke. The same offer was extended to both President Biden and Vice President Harris, and they refused,” O’Brien said.
“So you’re meeting with the biggest labor organization that you want and you’ve got an opportunity for media to question you about how you felt the meeting went and what you wanted to achieve and you don’t want to speak to the media? That’s a problem. But Trump, to his credit, in our building, in our foyer, had a press conference.”
During Harris’ campaign, the vice president was consistently called out for her lack of in-depth conversations with the media, as well as giving vague responses when she did sit down with the press. Despite her attempts and use of surrogates to appeal to voters, Harris lost favor among key Democratic voting blocs such as Hispanic and black males.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/X/”The Tucker Carlson Show”)
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