Kamala Harris’ labor split screen: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the policy deskevening bulletin that brings you the latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill from the NBC News Politics team.

In today’s edition, we examine the pros and cons of Kamala Harris’ support from organized labor. Moreover, senior political analyst Chuck Todd writes that the current level of political discourse is unsustainable.

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The main union won’t endorse, but Harris has other plans to boost labor support

Megan Lebowitz, Alexandra Marquez and Natasha Korecki

Vice President Kamala Harris failed to secure a major union endorsement, but her campaign is relying on the organizing muscle of key labor groups in her corner to make a push in the rapidly diversifying Sun Belt.

On Wednesday, the influential Union of Teamsters refused to endorse the presidential race, Megan Lebowitz and Alexandra Marquez report. Both candidates were sympathetic to the group — union leaders met with Harris on Monday and former President Donald Trump earlier in the year. But the development hit Harris particularly hard because the Teamsters had endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 2000, including Joe Biden four years ago.

Ahead of the announcement, the Teamsters also released polling data showing that more rank-and-file members favored Trump over Harris.

“No major candidate has been able to make a strong commitment to our union to ensure that the interests of working people always come before Big Business,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement.

Still, Harris won the endorsement of nearly every other major union in the country (the International Association of Firefighters remains a notable standout). While a candidate’s labor credentials are often viewed through the lens of white working-class voters in the Rust Belt, Harris’ campaign is focused on women and people of color in the Sun Belt.

Workers with the Service Employees International Union, the Culinary Workers Union and the AFL-CIO are among the groups that labor leaders say have been especially energized since Harris rose to the top of the Democratic ticket. Natasha Korecki reports.

All together, labor leaders predict thousands of union members will be deployed to key states to knock on doors and work phone banks on Harris’ behalf. Large groups are expected to travel from blue states like California, Illinois and New York to important battlegrounds like Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.

“It’s a special moment for our members, especially when we think about women of color who often feel invisible, often undervalued, disrespected and humiliated,” said SEIU President April Verrett. “This is a really special moment where our members can see themselves reflected in a woman who has been a champion for a long time, who can be the leader of this country.”

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What if we can’t get together?

By Chuck Todd

There is a strange feeling in the political ecosystem about the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump. We collectively underreacted—and perhaps there are perfectly reasonable explanations for that.

Still, I fear that some of the backlash is due to the fact that we are now so close to election day that some people are calibrating their responses based on whether what they say will help or hurt their partisan cause rather than push back. they ask themselves critically how we got here.

Unfortunately, I think the wider electorate and the media are more concerned about this larger question than the elected leaders we lead our democracy. It is frustrating to watch the efforts to use this episode for political gain, which only feeds division, not heals it.

Just look at Trump’s initial reaction to the arrest of a man armed with a rifle seen on the perimeter of the golf course. Unlike the July shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, when he and his team took a “let’s keep cool heads” approach and left some of the more heated rhetoric to other Republicans, that hasn’t been the case this time. Instead, the Trump campaign is treating this apparent assassination attempt as an opportunity, not a moment for reflection.

Let’s face it: The current level of political discourse is unsustainable for this democracy. Maybe it won’t break us this year, maybe next. But unless we choose to rise above it, either by electing deescalators rather than purveyors of zero-sum political pugilism, or by demanding that big tech companies stop creating algorithms designed to incite and divide, we will break — and it will break. it will be dangerous. It happened in this republic before and don’t think that it can’t happen again.

The problem with political discourse in America right now is that we’re all stuck in the mirror booth of the social media funhouse. It is not what we see and how we look is not who we are. And yet here we are.

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That’s all for the Policy Desk for now. If you have feedback – like it or not – send us an email politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com

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