President Biden’s first speech after his reelection announcement Tuesday was delivered to an enthusiastic group of labor unions, following the same playbook he used in 2020 when he spoke to a Pittsburgh union hall after releasing a campaign launch video.
Mr. Biden made his case for a second term at the legislative conference for the North America’s Building Trades Union, an organization comprised of 14 unions representing nearly three million workers.
The event at the Washington Hilton came just hours after Mr. Biden officially kicked off his 2024 campaign with a video announcement.
Although it was billed as a White House event and not an official campaign stop, Mr. Biden spelled out why he believes his spending programs have revived American manufacturing, created good-paying union jobs, and rebuilt the middle class.
He also concluded his remarks by echoing his 2024 campaign slogan, “Let’s finish the job.”
“We’re on the cusp of major change,” the president said. “We’re creating jobs again and manufacturing has come alive again. People can afford decent healthcare, and towns that have been forgotten and left for dead are coming alive again because of you all and what we are doing. Now we just have to keep going. Finish the job!”
The friendly crowd of union workers didn’t seem to know or care that it was an official presidential speech and not a campaign kickoff, repeatedly interrupting Mr. Biden with chants of “Four more years!”
In closing his speech, Mr Biden tied his potential 2024 rival, former President Donald Trump, to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, and the rest of the GOP. It’s a theme that is likely to be repeated by the president as the 2024 election nears.
“The speaker, the former president, the MAGA extremists, they’re cut from a different cloth,” Mr. Biden. “The threat that MAGA Republicans pose is to take us to a place we’ve never been.”
Republicans responded to the president’s speech with a sharp rebuke.
“Biden wants to ’finish the job,’ yet he couldn’t name a single accomplishment in his three-minute-long video seeking re-election,” said Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “Americans’ paychecks are shrinking and our communities are less safe in Biden’s America, which is why our Republican nominee will beat Biden in 2024.”
Mr. Biden has long voiced his support for unions, a key group that helped carry him to victory over Mr. Trump in 2020. He often brags that he is the “most pro-union president’ in recent history and insists “unions built the middle class.” He repeated the line about unions and the middle class on Tuesday.
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Ahead of his remarks, Mr. Biden received an endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The union issued a statement calling Mr. Biden’s Cabinet, “the most pro-union administration of our lifetime.”
“Throughout his first term, President Biden has been a steadfast ally of unions and American workers. I am confident that support will continue in his second term,” IBEW President Kenneth W. Cooper said in a statement.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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