Republican candidates for president blamed President Joe Biden for ongoing auto worker strikes while capitalizing on steep inflation rates over the past two years.
Biden became the first president ever to join a picket line on Tuesday when he took part in a workers’ strike for 12 minutes, donning a “UAW” hat for the United Auto Workers union.
But GOP candidates who showed up to debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, threw their attacks at Biden instead of each other during the first question of the evening.
They focused on the president first before the rest of the night descended into chaos with interruptions and bickering.
The performance of all candidates raises the question of whether any of them can do enough to close the enormous gap with front-runner Donald Trump.
Ron DeSantis delivered his sharpest attack yet on the former president, saying he was “missing in action,” while Chris Christie mocked Trump for skipping a beat by calling him “Donald Duck.”
The rivals also piled on Vivek Ramaswamy, with Nikki Haley claiming she got ‘dumber’ every time she heard him talk.
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina was the only candidate to directly criticize the content of the striking workers’ demands
“Biden showed up on that picket line. But why are those employees there anyway? It’s because of all the spending that’s being pushed into the economy,” said former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina was the only candidate to directly criticize the content of the striking workers’ demands.
“One of the challenges we have in the current negotiations is that they want four-day French working weeks, more money, they want more benefits, they want to work fewer hours, that’s just not going to last.”
“Biden showed up on that picket line. But why are those employees there anyway? It’s because of all the spending that’s being pushed into the economy,” said former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
Autoworkers at the Big Three car companies are on strike to demand up to 40 percent higher wages, a four-day work week, better benefits and pension plans – and the ability to represent new battery factories for electric vehicles, as they believe many traditional car factories will have to transfer workers on electric vehicles.
They point to the salaries of the CEOs of Ford, GM and Stelantis, who each make many millions and whose companies have raked in more than $20 billion this year.
Haley called for cost-cutting measures such as eliminating gasoline and diesel taxes, “collapse” middle-class tax brackets and making the small business tax cuts in the 2017 tax law permanent — not just the cuts Corporation tax.
“Let’s focus on what it takes to get more money into workers’ pockets,” she said. “Then we will be able to deal with these kinds of strikes without being on a picket line like Joe Biden.”
Biden on Tuesday became the first president ever to join a picket line when he participated in a 12-minute workers’ strike, donning a “UAW” hat for the United Auto Workers union
Former President Trump took a different approach in his own appearance at a non-union auto plant in Michigan.
Speaking on camera to union car workers, he emphasized that their wage negotiations would mean nothing if the country continued on the path to electric vehicles – both because they need fewer workers to produce and because many of their parts come from China come. and other countries.
“I want you to negotiate your contract,” Trump said. “You’re all on the picket lines and stuff, but it doesn’t matter what you get because in two years you’re all going to be broke. … You can be loyal to the American workers, you can be loyal to the environmental nuts, but you can’t really be loyal to both. It’s one or the other.’
Trump, who won the votes of a majority of auto union workers in 2016, propelling him to victory in Michigan, said it would be “suicide” for the UAW if it did not support him.
“They have to support Trump or they will commit suicide,” he said. “Commit suicide because of your job.”
“If you can talk to Shawn, ‘Shawn, support Trump and then you can take a nice two-month vacation,’” referring to UAW President Shawn Fain.
Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum blamed Biden’s electric vehicle subsidies, as did former Vice President Mike Pence.
“The reason people in Detroit are on strike is because Joe Biden is interfering with the capital markets and the free markets,” he said, noting that electric vehicle owners can get a rebate of up to $7,500 from the government for their purchase.
“If you decide we’re going to take all your tax dollars… subsidize a certain type of vehicle and the batteries come from China, China controls 85% of the rare earth minerals – they’re called rare earths because they’re measured in parts per million. China moves 100,000 pounds of earth. In Indonesia, in Africa, they are literally destroying the planet so that we can make and manufacture a battery that goes into a car subsidized here. That’s why they’re striking: because they need two-thirds fewer workers to build an electric car. Joe Biden – this attack is Joe Biden’s feet.”
Vivek Ramaswamy warned striking workers not to give in to ‘victimhood’.
“I understand that hardship is not a choice. But victimhood is a choice and we choose to prevail in the United States of America. You know, what if I had some advice for those workers, I would say, stand in front of the White House,” he said.
‘What we need is to achieve economic growth in this country. Unlock America’s energy, drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear power, put people back to work by no longer paying them more money to stay home, stabilize the US dollar itself, and repeal a majority of those unconstitutional federal regulations. ‘