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Teamsters president Sean O’Brien hit back Wednesday at Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz for suggesting that certain union leaders lacked “courage” by refusing to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
Walz, 60, had told “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart Monday that “some of those union leaders didn’t show the courage they needed to” by sitting out the 2024 election cycle without backing either Harris or former President Donald Trump.
“That’s kind of a knucklehead statement — I show courage every day,” O’Brien, 52, told Fox Business Network, using the Minnesota governor’s own excuse when confronted with his past misstatements. “It’s disrespectful to our members and the process.”
“He’s talking like an educator, like he’s in a classroom teaching a lesson,” O’Brien went on. “The lesson that needs to be taught is that our members don’t need to be educated — our members are educated. That’s the problem with the Democratic Party right now, is they are looking down on our members.”
After endorsing every Democrat for president since 2000, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced last month that it would not make an endorsement for just the second time since 1984.
“I always said this as a teacher: If my kids weren’t getting the lesson, a lot of them, it’s probably because I wasn’t teaching it as well as I needed to,” Walz told Stewart Monday night. “So I’m still of the belief that we have to do a better job.”
Despite that attempt at self-reflection, Walz contended that unions should support Harris, also 60, against “a guy who wants to bust the unions.”
Ahead of its non-endorsement announcement, the Teamsters released electronic survey data showing 59.6% of its rank-and-file members supported Trump for president.
O’Brien made waves over the summer when he agreed to speak at the July Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and was denied the same opportunity at the August Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Trump had strongly courted O’Brien and met with him in January, stoking ire from progressives.
“Both candidates weren’t specific on a lot of issues that were important to us, so we let the local unions and the joint councils…make their decision,” O’Brien told FBN Wednesday.
“What I would do if I was him is actually start talking to our members and find out what the actual problem is,” he later added of Walz.
O’Brien also noted that while President Biden had been the “most pro-union president,” the union likely would not have endorsed anyone had the 81-year-old been the nominee.
“No, I would be in the same spot, I believe,” he told FBN.
Earlier this month, O’Brien asserted on the “This Past Weekend” podcast with comedian Theo Von that Democrats “have f–ked us over for the last 40 years.”
“And for once … we’re standing up as a union, probably the only one right now, saying, ‘What the f–k have you done for us?’”