White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had an especially terrible press conference as she struggled to deal with questions about the Biden administration's official stance on the UAW strike.
The UAW, which is one of the largest unions in the United States, is engaged in a massive strike against the Big Three car manufacturers, General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford.
The Biden administration is allegedly going to avoid getting involved in negotiations between the companies and the UAW, but President Biden has traveled to picket with union members creating massive confusion.
Americans wanted to know if this meant that the Biden administration supported the union but Jean-Pierre was unable to give a good answer to reporters.
Jean-Pierre responded to one question saying, "I'm not going to get into the details of what's being negotiated right now on the table with — certainly with the parties."
The White House is sending mixed signals and whatever political favor President Biden is hoping to get with workers is going to be undermined by the White House refusing to commit to an official stance.
Until the White House comes out directly in favor of the UAW, Biden's picketing is nothing more than a photo opportunity.
When another reporter attempted to get a straight answer out of Jean-Pierre by asking, "I want to press you a little bit on what you just said. You said that the president supports the autoworkers. Does that mean that the president is siding with the autoworkers over the auto companies?"
Jean-Pierre responded by saying, "What we're saying is we're not going to get into the negotiation. Right? This is — When it comes to a negotiation, that is something for the parties to decide on. That is something for them to discuss."
After several similar questions all trying to get a commitment out of the White House, Jean-Pierre said, "Oh my goodness. You're going to ask the same question? I'm not going to change my answer."
Based on Jean-Pierre's refusal to support the union workers strike, Americans can assume that the President is picketing with workers for publicity reasons with the presidential election just around the corner.
Both Trump and Biden have a lot of skin in the auto worker strikes as Michigan is going to be a key battleground state that Trump win in 2016 then lost in 2020.
The candidate that can win Michigan will likely also win the presidential election. So Trump is traveling to give a speech supporter the striking workers and their demands while President Biden is picketing but refusing to take an official stance.
Trump coming out and openly supporting the workers will likely earn him a lot of goodwill with workers. As for Biden, picketing for the photo op while refusing to endorse the workers will only damage him in the eyes of American workers.
