On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander stated that President Joe Biden is dealing with a “collision of his pro-labor position” and “his climate efforts as it relates to electric vehicles” in the auto strike.
Alexander said, “[H]e did put pressure on those automakers, effectively saying that, while he wants them to be competitive, they need to help share some of those corporate record profits with these automotive workers, with the UAW workers right now to make sure they see record wages, wage growth for themselves as well. What’s striking to me right now about this balance is it comes at an interesting time, of course, as we head into the 2024 campaign season. And I’m told by some of the President’s advisers that he’s been advised by some of those allies and others that he has to try to find some nuance in the way that he talks about issues like this so it doesn’t seem like he is off-putting to the business community, that he does emphasize a desire to help support the business community. For one thing, that’s the community where a lot of the donors are in terms of the money he needs to raise up to a billion dollars for the next campaign cycle. But also to help support the workers as the most pro-labor President — as he described himself — in history.”
He continued, “So, it really is this fine line he’s walking right here with serious implications, as you have this collision of his pro-labor position, his climate efforts as it relates to electric vehicles, all of this taking place in Michigan right now, and his desire to sell what he calls Bidenomics, his economic agenda. It is quite a moment that he is trying to maneuver.”
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