Biden tells UAW members in Michigan: 'The whole country owes you'
Warren — President Joe Biden touted U.S. manufacturing Thursday during his first campaign stop in Michigan of 2024, saying organized labor was a major reason why the country has the "strongest economy in the whole damn world."
Biden, a Democrat who's seeking his second term in the White House, spoke Thursday afternoon in front of a crowd of about 200 people at a United Auto Workers hall in Warren.
"Remember when they told us, 'Manufacturing is dead in America,' 'China is going to eat our lunch,'" Biden said. "Well, guess what, man? We don’t taste that good.”
Biden's visit to the UAW Region 1 hall in Warren — where union members will be volunteering at a phone bank ahead of the Feb. 27 presidential primary election — came amid protests nearby of his handling of the Israel-Hamas war that looms over Biden's reelection bid in the battleground state.
On one wall of the union hall, yard signs were organized to say “UAW 4 Joe.”
“We're going to fight like hell,” UAW President Shawn Fain told union members. “And we're going to ensure that Joe Biden is the next president.”
However, about 200 protesters calling for a ceasefire of Israel's military actions in Gaza were nearby when Biden entered the union hall. One banner referred to Biden as "Genocide Joe."
Biden’s motorcade didn’t pass in front of the protesters on its trip to Warren from an earlier stop in Harper Woods.
Speaking to UAW members a week after the union endorsed his reelection, the president focused on an economic message just months after the UAW won 27% general wage increases over the life of a new four-year contract with the Detroit Three automakers following a targeted strike.
“Wall Street didn’t build the middle class. Labor built the middle class," Biden said. “When labor does well, everybody does well.”
Biden's remarks on Thursday focused heavily on his support for the UAW. He made only a handful of comments about policy, including criticizing trickle-down economics.
"The whole country owes you," Biden said to the UAW members. "They really owe you.”
But the nearby protesters had a different message for Biden.
Halimah Al-Qadi of Ypsilanti, 57, said at the protest that she would support neither Biden nor former Republican President Donald Trump this year, even though she voted for Biden in 2020.
Al-Qadi said she is opposed to "unconditional support" for Israel by the U.S. government.
"That's billions of dollars that should be spent here because we have a lot of problems here that need to be fixed," Al-Qadi said. "Those dollars are going overseas to support a cruel, brutal occupation of people. And anybody who's occupied has a right to resist."
Abdul Bari, 57, of Detroit, said he showed up at the protest to show "opposition to Joe Biden even coming (to) our state."
Bari called Biden a "war criminal" and condemned him for "refusing" to call for a permanent ceasefire in Israel's war against Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terror organization.
Before heading to Michigan, Biden issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory, imposing financial sanctions and visa bans in an initial round against four individuals, the Associated Press reported.
'He is heartbroken'
During a media briefing on Wednesday, Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden's press secretary, said the president continues to believe Israel has a right to defend itself as long as it's done in accordance with international humanitarian law.
"At the same time, he is heartbroken by the suffering of innocent Palestinians," Jean-Pierre said of Biden.
Asked Thursday aboard Air Force One if Biden would meet with any Arab American leaders in Michigan during this trip, Jean-Pierre said she didn't have "any meetings to speak of at this time."
However, Jean-Pierre also said that "senior Biden administration officials will travel to Michigan in February … 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."
She did not share details of any upcoming trips but said White House officials were "planning to go out to Michigan in the next couple of days, if not several weeks."
Biden's trip to Michigan came eight days after the UAW endorsed his reelection and six days after some Arab and Muslim American leaders in Dearborn said they pulled out of a planned meeting with Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.
On the eve of Biden's visit, several local pro-Palestinian groups seeking a ceasefire held a rally Wednesday night at Fordson High School in Dearborn. More than 300,000 Middle Eastern and North African people live in Michigan, according to U.S. census data.
More:'Not welcome here': Arab leaders cancel Dearborn meeting with Biden campaign manager
Stumping in Harper Woods
Earlier Thursday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain greeted Biden on the tarmac at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, and Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters also arrived on Air Force One with Biden.
The president's caravan first went to They Say Restaurant, a Black-owned sports bar on Vernier Road in Harper Woods.
Ivery Toussant Jr., a Harper Woods City Council member, joked Biden’s visit was going to put the suburban enclave of 15,000 residents on the map.
“We’re all going to vote for him,” Toussant said.
Regina Williams, a Harper Woods City Council member who was at They Say on Thursday, described the city as a “small community.”
“We’re really honored,” Williams said of Biden's visit.
After the union hall visit in Warren, Biden and his motorcade stopped at Simple Palate restaurant on Van Dyke Avenue, where reporters were not allowed inside.
Across the street in an Arby's parking lot, a group of about 20 protesters caught up with the president and could be heard chanting "shame on you" and “How many kids did you kill today?”
Battling for blue-collar workers
Biden's visit to Detroit's blue-collar suburbs came just days after Trump began stepping up his attacks on Fain, the leader of the UAW, in the wake of the union endorsing Biden.
In a Monday post on Truth Social, Trump labeled Fain "a weapon of mass destruction on auto workers and the automobile manufacturing industry."
"He bought into Biden’s 'vision' of all electric vehicles, which require far fewer workers to make each car but, more importantly, are not wanted in large numbers by the consumer, and will all be made in China," Trump added in a separate post on Sunday.
Fain has said Trump doesn’t care about the American worker.
In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in Michigan by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points, 51%-48%.
Biden’s visit is a tacit acknowledgment that he will have to work to win Michigan again, where recent polls show him trailing Trump.
A Detroit News poll last month showed Biden trailing Trump by 8 percentage points in a head-to-head matchup. By contrast, a Detroit News poll from January 2020 showed Biden ahead of Trump by 7 points.
On Thursday, Republicans and conservative activists staged a protest of Biden's visit outside of the Shell gas station in Clinton Township, focusing their critiques of the president's economic record.
“When you talk to people, even if they're not political … what they definitely know is the impact it's had on them personally,” Americans for Prosperity-Michigan State Director Annie Patnaude said of the cost of gas. “We've talked with everyone from grandma's raising grandkids and nurses and guys with lawn-care businesses and just their reaction is gas is too high. Obviously, it's come down somewhat, it happens to be an election year I will make note.”
Trump last visited Michigan on Sept. 27, when he gave a speech at Drake Enterprises, a parts supplier in Clinton Township that is not unionized. Trump's speech came amid a historic six-week strike by the UAW against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
"Your current negotiations don’t mean as much as you think," Trump said of the UAW's targeted strike strategy.
During Thursday's visit, Biden portrayed the UAW's action as critical to boosting wages for other workers.
"Supporting you is the easiest thing I've ever done," Biden told the UAW members, noting his father managed a GM dealership in Delaware during his youth.
"Y'all are the ones that brung me to the dance. And I never left ya."
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Staff Writers Melissa Burke and Louis Aguilar contributed.