'Messy' dockworker strike is putting Trump in a bind: MSNBC analyst

Tom Boggioni
October 1, 2024 

The dockworker strike on both coasts of the U.S. is a problem for President Joe Biden as well as Donald Trump, who is banking on Teamster support for his third run for presidency.

That is the opinion of former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) who noted that the former president may feel "boxed in" when he tries to make hay out of the labor crisis just weeks before the election.

Speaking with "Morning Joe" host Willie Geist, the Missouri Democrat noted Trump's entanglement with Teamster boss Sean O'Brien who spoke at the Republican National convention weeks ago and subsequently refused to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, which led to a revolt among some local chapters who would subsequently offer their endorsements to the vice president.

According to panelist Andrew Ross Sorkin, "I don't know if you saw this statement from the Teamsters last night. And I think speaks to very thing about this election: It says the U.S. Government should stay the 'F' out of this fight and allow union workers to withhold their labor for the wages and benefits they have earned."

"I mention this because it is going to create a real divide and I think it is going to be interesting as we get close to the election how this administration and how Vice President Harris deals with this and labor, if you will, and what we see from former President Trump and how those things come together and how that therefore plays out on the public stage."

Asked for her opinion by host Geist, who observed Trump thinks of himself as a "big union guy," McCaskill replied, "It's messy and it could become a big problem in the election."

"Having said that though, Trump is kind of boxed here," she continued. "Because if Trump tries to take the side of big business and the shippers, he's got a whole bunch of rank-and-file guys in unions that are going to remain loyal to him, but if he comes out against the workers and say the government should stop the workers' ability to bargain, it's going to cause him real trouble."

"And the reason that the Teamsters are speaking up is because the Teamster leader is in trouble; he's in big trouble, because he didn't endorse Harris and he's got all these locals abandoning the national, which is unprecedented," she elaborated. "In my time in politics I've never seen locals abandon a national like they have in Teamsters. So this is messy and complicated."

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