Biden briefly barnstorms metro Detroit, visits UAW hall in first Michigan campaign stop of year

President Joe Biden made his first Michigan campaign stop of the year on Thursday, with a quick multistop tour through metro Detroit that included a brief speech at a UAW training hall in Warren where he praised the union workers as "the best in the world" and said their efforts have improved conditions for workers across the economy.

"When labor does well, everybody does well," Biden told the audience in a 7?-minute speech at the Region 1 George Merrelli Technical Training Center, where he received a standing ovation from workers.

The visit — Biden's first to Michigan since walking a picket line in Belleville in September as the UAW struck General Motors, Ford and Stellantis in an unprecedented move for a sitting president — came as the president is ramping up his reelection campaign even in the face of lagging poll and job approval numbers, including in Michigan, a key swing state he most likely will need to win to remain in the White House. But there are signs the coalition in Michigan that helped Biden win in 2020 has fractured in response to his unequivocal support for Israel in its war in Gaza.

With workers chanting, "Joe, Joe, Joe," Biden celebrated economic gains made during his presidency, including continued low unemployment and strong hiring rates and wage gains following the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We now have in large part because of you and organized labor, the strongest economy in the whole damn world,” he said. “Inflation’s coming down. Jobs are growing.”

He also said a manufacturing renaissance is underway, commenting, “Remember they told us ‘manufacturing’s dead in America. China’s going to eat our lunch?’ Well, guess what man, we don’t taste that good.”

He told UAW workers "the whole country owes you."

Biden's visit to the battleground state came a week after the UAW endorsed him after initially withholding its support, even though most other major unions had already voiced support for the president. Even after Biden, a self-professed "car guy" and longtime supporter of unions including the UAW, walked the picket line in support of the union's effort to get better wages, benefits and job security out of the Detroit Three automakers, the union's brass withheld its endorsement, saying it needed to be earned.

That endorsement came last week, with a clearly pleased Biden accepting it at a speech in Washington, saying, "The days of working people being dealt out of deals in this country are over as long as I am president."

UAW President Shawn Fain — who previously gave a rousing speech endorsing Biden as a friend of the working class and slamming his likely opponent in this year's election, former President Donald Trump, as a member of the "billionaire class" and a "scab" — introduced Biden at the Region 1 training center hall on Thursday, saying the union's main goal is to keep the pro-labor president in office.

"It's a very clear choice in this election," Fain said. "We're going to fight like hell."

Unsurprisingly, Fain's full-throated endorsement of Biden led to social media insults from Trump, who called him a "dope" and "a weapon of mass destruction" for the auto industry and called on union members to get rid of him. But Fain battled back on cable shows and elsewhere, citing what he characterized as Trump's lagging record in aiding workers' rights.

On the heels of the UAW's successful strike against the Detroit Three, the union leader — who is no stranger to being verbally aggressive when the situation calls for it — could prove to be an important ally for the Biden campaign in the industrial Midwest.

On Thursday, Biden greeted the crowd receiving a standing ovation. "Supporting you is the easiest thing I've ever done," he said. Calling them "the best workers in the world," he reiterated in his brief speech that unions built the middle class and noted that the UAW's strike resulted not only in their wages and benefits getting better but nonunion automakers improving worker conditions, too.

Before Biden met with UAW members, many in the union hall were making phone calls on Biden's behalf ahead of Michigan's Feb. 27 Democratic primary. One wall featured union posters spelling "UAW” with red and blue signs beneath that read "4 Joe” and substituted the “o” in “Joe” with the union’s logo. Several elected officials were on hand, including Michigan state House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter and Warren Mayor Lori Stone.

Ahead of the UAW stop, Biden landed in Michigan at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township, being met by Fain, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel and others. U.S Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, both D-Mich., accompanied him on Air Force One, as did U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, a longtime friend of Biden's and his wife, first lady Jill Biden.

After that, Biden stopped at a Black-owned Harper Woods eatery They Say, greeting diners and taking selfies.

"We need a man like Joe Biden. We need a man that will stand his ground and make sure that we are still America,” said Thurston Rogers, 80, of Detroit, who is a frequent diner at the restaurant and was surprised to see the president show up Thursday afternoon. Rogers plans to support Biden this year.Biden made a third stop after the UAW hall at the Simple Palate restaurant in Warren, where he was expected to have what his campaign characterized as a "kitchen table" conversation with local autoworkers, including one of the UAW members with whom the president walked the picket line in Belleville and three members of a family — a woman and her two adult children — who are all UAW members.

Facing criticism on war, other policies

But Biden's visit wasn't without its critics. Pro-Palestinian protestors furious that the Biden administration hasn't done more to demand that Israel call a cease-fire to its attacks on the Gaza Strip following Hamas' attacks on Israel in October, gathered not far from the UAW hall. A heavy police presence amassed as protesters shouted chants like "Biden Biden can't you see/you are on a killing spree" and "shame on you."

Some Arab American Democrats recently turned down a meeting with Biden’s campaign, including Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who said he remained open to meeting with members of Biden’s administration. "From our perspective, we don't like to categorize this issue strictly as it pertains to the upcoming elections, because it dehumanizes us," he said during an interview on PBS NewsHour earlier this week.

Hammoud did not call on his constituents to withhold their votes for Biden this fall, but other Arab Americans in Michigan have. The eve before Biden’s visit, protesters held "abandon Biden" signs during a rally in Dearborn. "We are not interested in conversations with this campaign and this administration," Dearborn attorney Amer Zahr told the crowd.

Biden, however, is still expected to try to take steps to quell strong feelings against his administration among southeast Michigan's large Arab American and Muslim community centered on Dearborn because of its support of Israel in attacking Gaza.

In response to criticism from Arab Americans in Michigan regarding Biden's stance, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated the president's position that Israel has a right to defend itself within the bounds of international law during a news media briefing Wednesday. “At the same time, he is heartbroken. Heartbroken by the suffering of innocent Palestinians … who have been caught in the middle of this conflict sadly obviously between Israel and Hamas," she said.

Talking to reporters on Air Force One on Thursday ahead of Biden's campaign visit, Jean-Pierre said that senior administration officials will be visiting Michigan in the days and weeks to come ahead of the state's Feb. 27 primary, "to hear directly from community leaders on a range of issues that are important to them and their families, including the conflict in Israel and Gaza."

In a move supported by Fain, the UAW has joined calls for a cease-fire, though it didn't come up in the meeting Thursday or during last week's endorsement. Meanwhile, Biden made news just before leaving Washington for Thursday's trip to Michigan, signing an executive order to sanction Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank who have "perpetrated violence" and otherwise intimidated Palestinians there. It comes after a 17-year-old American was killed while learning about his heritage in the West Bank last month.

Despite recent moves by the administration to urge Israel to scale back operations in Gaza, many Arab Americans and Muslim families in Michigan's large community remain furious that Biden and his allies aren't doing more to stop the war and save innocent families with some 27,000 Palestinians killed in four months.

Meanwhile, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, a former Michigan GOP chair, issued a statement saying Biden has "empowered China, outsourced jobs and played politics at the expense of union workers in Michigan and across the country." She also criticized not-yet-finalized rules for cars and trucks that, if implemented as originally proposed, could put far greater pressure on automakers to sell electric vehicles whether that's what the buyers want or not.

U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Caledonia, also said Biden's policies have led to higher inflation, though that rate has begun to come down. "President Biden can try to sell ‘Bidenomics’ but Michigan families are not buying it because it’s too expensive,” he said.

Free Press staff writers Niraj Warikoo and Christina Hall contributed to this report.

Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler

Contact Clara Hendrickson: [email protected] or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, previously called Twitter, @clarajanehen.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Biden makes first Michigan visit for 2024 campaign