Support for President Joe Biden’s policies and intent to run for a second term is waning. On Tuesday, CNN host Poppy Harlow called out former Obama adviser and Biden supporter Van Jones.
Harlow took issue with Jones when he declared that “Biden has fantastic policies for union members.”
The CNN interview focused on the 2024 election and how green energy policies could hurt various sectors of the economy — including the auto industry.
Harlow noted recent comments by United Auto Workers (UAW) leaders who oppose Biden’s policies and led their workers to go on strike as of last Friday.
UAW leadership has raised concerns about how long-term increases in electric vehicle production will hurt their workers,” said Harlow.
Harlow also noted the UAW had released a statement in opposition to the “Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act” that would “amend the Clean Air Act to prevent the elimination of the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles.”
“The UAW “opposes the bill because union workers are not political pawns for the culture war,” said Harlow.
Jones disagreed and mocked President Donald Trump’s decision to skip the second GOP debate and visit Detroit instead.
“It’s a big tug of war. Union Joe versus the blue-collar billionaire” said Jones. “There’s this demographic which for a long time was presumably blue. Blue-collar, blue voters. That was presumptive. Then in 2016, that blue wall cracked. It cracked because of Donald Trump’s appeal on NAFTA and that stuff.”
Jones added: “Suddenly it’s a jump ball. And this year is maybe the biggest labor upsurge in a generation, with 300,000 plus American workers on strike right now from Hollywood workers to people on the front lines in the auto industry and labor matters. Unions matter and they are a jump ball.”
Scoffing at Trump’s attempt to reach blue-collar workers, Jones argued that Biden’s policies were far superior to Republican ideals: “So you see Donald Trump reaching in there and trying to grab at the heartstrings of those workers. Now the reality is none of his policies are going to be great for those workers. Joe Biden has policies that would be fantastic for those workers—”
Harlow took issue with the last part of Jones’s statement and tried to interject, “But—”
“—right now it’s about the optics,” Jones added.
Harlow pressed Jones: “But not all of them. I mean, this is– you brought this up with the acting labor secretary Julie Su that was so interesting and that is the issue of the Biden push for electric vehicles. This internal memo from May from the UAW reads ‘the federal government is pouring billions into the electric vehicle transition with no strings attached, no commitment to workers. We want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments.’“
Watch:
CNN-s-Poppy-Harlow-fact-checks-Van-Jones
Harlow added, “And that is what Republican politicians are capitalizing on. Saying they’re putting the green economy ahead of you.”
The Daily Caller reported that guest Josh Barro jumped into the conversation, saying Trump has the “opportunity to capitalize” on growing concerns about the economy.
The viability and impact the push for electric vehicles can have on the economy can place “significant financial strain on the automakers and require large capital investments.”
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.
