President Joe Biden on Wednesday dropped by the AFL-CIO’s Executive Council meeting in Washington to rally union leaders, marking the latest stop on his tour to shore up support for his candidacy after June’s debate.
The stop came before the president headed off to welcome the leaders of NATO member countries as they descend on Washington for the military alliance’s annual summit during what has been cast as a critical week for the president to show voters at home he is up to another four years in the White House.
Getting the chance to focus on two groups he considers key to his agenda as commander in chief and ones deep in his comfort zone, Biden praised the presidents of 60 unions as his “domestic NATO” during Wednesday’s drop by.
“We have two strong, strong organizations in America that I look to for our security,” Biden told union leaders on Wednesday. “One, literally, and I mean this sincerely is NATO," describing the military alliance as “a joint assembly of democracies that made sure we’re keeping the peace."
He went on to add of labor unions: “I think of you as my domestic NATO – not a joke, not a joke.”
Briefly addressing the labor leaders — who collectively represent 12.5 million American workers — before taking questions off-camera, Biden touted the growth of the U.S. economy compared to the rest of the world while noting there is more work he wants to do in a second term.
“We got to talk to our people, we got to talk to our people – food prices are still too high because of corporate greed, we're in a situation where rents are too high, we need more housing – a whole range of things we're gonna get done with your help in the second term,” he said.
Biden — who frequently calls himself the “most pro-union president” and made history last year when he joined striking UAW members on the picket line —- has racked up endorsements from a range of major unions.
Both Biden and his 2024 rival, former President Donald Trump, have looked for support from organized labor, which could be crucial to winning the blue-collar workers in major swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin.
In a display of that effort, both candidates earlier this year sat down in Washington with the leadership of the Teamsters union, which has yet to endorse in the race and is set to speak at the Republican National Convention next week. The Associated Press reported that the labor group’s president Sean O’Brien requested to speak at both parties’ conventions. The Democratic National Convention is not set to take place until August.
Biden this week has gone on the offensive, seeking to rally groups behind his candidacy amid some calls for the president to step out of the race following his disappointing debate performance in late June.
While key Democrats on the Hill have generally stood by Biden, members did not appear particularly unified on the topic as they left crucial meetings on Tuesday to discuss the continued fallout.
Eight House Democrats have publicly called on the president to step out of the race while Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., in an interview on CNN on Tuesday said Trump was “on track” to win the election as it stands now.
On Tuesday night, Biden spoke and took questions from nearly 200 mayors from the Democratic Mayors Association. On Monday, the president virtually addressed the Congressional Black Caucus – a group the White House has touted as still backing Biden — as well as top donors on a campaign call. And before that, he kicked off the week as members of Congress were returned to Washington from break by making clear to Democrats on Capitol Hill that he was not dropping out of the race, sending them a letter declaring it was time for the post-debate questions of how the party should move forward to end.