Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that President Joe Biden is heading to the picket line with auto union workers this week because he’s “deeply pro-worker” — not because he’s trying to get ahead of former President Donald Trump.
“I think this is President Biden being who he is,” Buttigieg said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” describing him as “the most unapologetically pro-worker, pro-union president we’ve ever had.”
The White House announced Friday that Biden would head to Michigan on Tuesday to meet with striking United Auto Workers union members. “The President will join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create,” the White House statement said.
The announcement came days after sources confirmed to NBC News that Biden’s predecessor was planning on delivering a prime-time speech to auto workers on Wednesday as counter-programming to the Republican presidential debate, which Trump is not attending.
Asked by host Kristen Welker if Biden was trying to get ahead of Trump, Buttigieg said he was going because he stands with the union, and “that’s going to be on display I think when he’s on those picket lines.”
He added the administration wants “the auto sector to succeed as well,” and said they are “pushing the parties to get to a win-win deal that does right by workers.”
Asked for specifics on what a win-win deal would look like, and if the administration was in favor of a proposed four day work week, Buttigieg stayed away from details, except to say: “When you have record profits in this industry there ought to be record pay and record benefits going to the workers who are creating that value. That’s only fair.”
Biden was invited to join the striking workers by UAW President Shawn Fain, whose leadership Trump has blasted.
In an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., praised the president’s decision to stand with the workers as a “historic, historic event. We have never seen in modern history a president show up to a picket line like this.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com