Republicans attack Biden policies after he joins picket line with striking UAW members

After President Joe Biden joined members of the United Auto Workers in Michigan on the picket line Tuesday, Republicans attacked his administration’s economic and green-energy policies.

In a historic moment for the president, Biden showed support for picketers on the 12th day of their strike against the Detroit three automakers, backing their call for a 40% pay raise and acting on his self-proclaimed label as the “most pro-union president in history.”

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Republicans scoffed at Biden’s visit, criticizing his administration’s push for a wide transition toward electric vehicles that some believe will disrupt employment in the U.S. auto industry.

“Joe Biden spent less than 20 minutes with UAW strikers, and less than an hour and a half in Michigan,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Now he’s off to California for a fundraiser, where he’ll no doubt promote his EV mandates that are destroying UAW jobs and empowering Communist China.”

GOP members have used Biden’s climate and infrastructure agenda, which includes a large amount of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act for electric vehicle rebates and incentives, as a wedge issue.

Rep. John James (R-MI), who recently met with UAW strikers, claimed Biden’s subsidization of electric vehicles would take money away from autoworkers. The strikes are largely affecting Midwestern cities, including those in Michigan’s 10th Congressional District, which James narrowly won in 2022.

“Beijing Biden doesn’t care about UAW autoworkers. Beijing Biden cares about his climate change, leftist Green New Deal agenda,” James said on Fox Business on Tuesday.

“When he comes down in advance of President Trump’s trip because he’s terrified of being upstaged. He needs to justify why the penalties that his administration is going to level on the automotive companies would crater these union folks bonuses,” James said.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to speak to autoworkers in Michigan on Wednesday, forgoing the second GOP primary debate as he did the first.

In the days leading up to Trump’s visit with UAW strikers, his attacks against Biden’s trip increased with a slew of posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, and a campaign release on Tuesday.

“This is nothing more than a PR stunt from Crooked Joe Biden to distract and gaslight the American people from his disastrous Bidenomics policies that have led to so much economic misery across the country,” Trump’s campaign statement in part reads.

The former president claimed Biden is only meeting with strikers because he announced his visit prior. Trump plans to attend despite UAW President Shawn Fain making it clear that Trump is not welcome on the picket line and stating that the union is “fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers.”

“When [Biden] slowly walks to pretend he is a ‘picket,’ remember he wants to take your jobs away and give them to China,” Trump posted Monday on Truth Social.

Former Vice President Mike Pence echoed statements from his fellow Republicans, blaming the strike on Biden’s economic agenda, calling Bidenomics a “total failure” and stating Green New Deal policies are “waging war on the combustion engine industry.”

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“What’s driving the pressure for the strike is the fact that ‘Bidenomics’ is a total failure,” Pence said on Newsmax on Tuesday. “Wages are not keeping up with inflation, and autoworkers are feeling it.” 

“The Green New Deal policies that are using mandates and subsidies, many of which go to China for battery manufacturing, are literally waging war on the combustion engine industry in this country,” the Republican presidential candidate said.