Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that President Joe Biden is heading to the picket line with auto union workers this week because he's "deeply pro-worker" — not because he's trying to get ahead of former President Donald Trump.
"I think this is President Biden being who he is," Buttigieg said in an interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press," describing him as "the most unapologetically pro-worker, pro-union president we've ever had."
The White House announced Friday that Biden would head to Michigan on Tuesday to meet with striking United Auto Workers union members. "The President will join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create," is said in a statement.
Sources recently confirmed to NBC News that Trump planned to deliver a prime-time speech to autoworkers Wednesday as counterprogramming to the Republican presidential primary debate, which he is not attending.
Asked by host Kristen Welker whether if Biden was trying to get ahead of Trump, Buttigieg said he was going because he stands with the union, and "that's going to be on display, I think, when he's on those picket lines."
He added the administration wants "the auto sector to succeed, as well," and said it is "pushing the parties to get to a win-win deal that does right by workers."
Asked for specifics about what a win-win deal would look like and whether the administration was in favor of a proposed four-day workweek, Buttigieg stayed away from details, except to say: "When you have record profits in this industry, there ought to be record pay and record benefits going to the workers who are creating that value. That's only fair."
Biden was invited to join the striking workers by UAW President Shawn Fain, whose leadership Trump has blasted.
In an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., praised Biden's decision to stand with the workers as a "historic, historic event."
"We have never seen in modern history a president show up to a picket line like this," she said.
