Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Teamsters leaders, including President Sean O’Brien, on Sept. 16 as the union holds back an endorsement for the presidential contenders.
O’Brien was criticized after he spoke at the Republican National Convention in July, the first time in the union’s 121-year history that its leader addressed the RNC. The Teamsters chief has been reportedly holding out for a meeting with Harris before making his endorsement.
He met with former President Donald Trump in January, and at the RNC, he praised the GOP leader in the wake of the attempt on his life.
Some Teamsters members were reportedly angered by his appearance at the GOP convention, and so, too, appeared to be Democratic bosses, as O’Brien was rejected from speaking at the Democratic National Convention the next month.
The possible animosity between the two sides raises the stakes ahead of the Sept. 16 meeting. The 1.3 million-member group represents truckers and UPS drivers and is the only large, non-law enforcement union yet to endorse Harris.
Speaking to CBS News on Sunday, O’Brien said his union’s membership is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, and he seeks to serve all of his members “equally.”
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“We want the opportunity to sit down with Vice President Harris,” O’Brien said. “I said to someone the other day, ‘You don’t hire someone unless you give them an interview.’ This is our opportunity to ask her about Teamsters-specific issues and also labor issues. Until we have that meeting, we will wait to make that determination.”
The Harris campaign told the Washington Examiner on Sunday it had accepted an invitation for a meeting with the Teamsters, and they were scheduling it. Sept. 16 appears to be the day on which they settled.