‘Pro-union’ Biden endorses striking workers’ pay demands in historic visit to UAW picket line in Michigan – live | US Congress

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said it would be “very important” to meet with Joe Biden to avert a government shutdown, and suggested the president could solve the crisis at the southern border unilaterally.

Asked why he was not willing to strike a deal with congressional Democrats on a short-term funding bill to keep the government open, NBC reports that McCarthy replied:

Why don’t we just cut a deal with the president?

He added:

The president, all he has to do … it’s only actions that he has to take. He can do it like that. He changed all the policies on the border. He can change those. We can keep government open and finish out the work that we have done.

Asked if he was requesting a meeting with Biden, McCarthy said:

I think it would be very important to have a meeting with the president to solve that issue.

Joe Biden became the first sitting US president in modern memory to visit a union picket line, traveling to Van Buren township, Michigan, to address United Auto Workers members who have walked off the job at the big three automakers. The president argued that the workers deserve higher wages, and appeared alongside the union’s leader, Shawn Fain – who has yet to endorse Biden’s re-election bid. Back in Washington DC, Congress is as troubled as ever. The leaders of the House and Senate are trying to avoid a government shutdown, but there’s no telling if their plans will work. Meanwhile, more and more Democratic senators say Bob Menendez should resign his seat after being indicted on corruption charges, including his fellow Jerseyman, Cory Booker.

Here’s what else is going on:

Biden concluded his visit to striking UAW workers by endorsing their demands for higher wages:

As the Associated Press reports, he appears to have signed on to the union’s demand for a 40% wage bump:

Joe Biden is now at a United Auto Workers picket line in Michigan and addressing striking workers.

We’ll cover his remarks live here, and you can watch his appearance at the live stream embedded at the top of the page.

The Guardian’s Tom Perkins is outside one of the plants where United Auto Workers members have walked off the job in Michigan, and has this report:

On a damp and windy day in Wayne, Michigan, United Auto Workers (UAW) picketing outside the sprawling plant, one of the original to strike earlier this month, burned logs in barrels for warmth, as horns from passing traffic on the busy highway blared in support.

The strike has pushed into its third week, and Biden’s visit will be followed by a Wednesday stop by Donald Trump at an auto facility in nearby Macomb county in what feels like the unofficial kickoff to the 2024 campaign season. Workers here say the appearance by the president is a boost to morale, and Larry Hearn, a 61-year-old UAW committee member, views it as a “monumental and history-making” visit that marks the first time a sitting US president has joined a picket line.

“We’re out here on the frontline, taking the brunt for everybody, losing money,” Hearn said. “The support feels good. We don’t need him to get in our business and secure us a contract, but his support is enough, it hits home with people.”

The Trump campaign called Biden’s visit to the picket line a “cheap photo-op”, but at least some workers disagree with that assessment.

“As long as Biden is going to come here then do something to help working people when he returns to Washington, then he is welcome,” said Walter Robinson, a 57-year-old quality inspector. “He is going to have to do that if he wants our endorsement. I think he will.”

The UAW has withheld an endorsement so far, but union leadership has been critical of Trump, who has sought to capitalize on the strike and siphon support from the majority-Democratic unions. Trump visits a non-union shop tomorrow, which was not lost on those outside the Wayne plant.

“That’s where his loyalties lie,” Robinson said “If he wants to be with working people who are struggling, then he would be here. I don’t know who he is playing for – is he playing for working people, or corporations?”

Trump gets a lot of support among union members because of “guns, gays and taxes”, Robinson said, and inflation has not helped Biden.

“That resonates with a certain sector of people,” he added, estimating that there is about a 60-40 split in support at the plant for Biden and Trump.

“He has to go to a non-union plant because if he came here we wouldn’t let him in,” Hearn said. “If he pulled up in his motherfuckin’ motorcade right now, we would not let him in.”

Hearn said he is a Democrat and most union members will say they are, but added: “You never what someone is going to do when they get behind the [voting] booth.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Joe Biden will make the first visit by a US president to a union picket line in modern times this afternoon, when he joins striking United Auto Workers members in Michigan.

“This is the most pro-union president in modern times,” Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One during the flight to Wayne County, Michigan. “President Joe Biden’s continuing to show his support for union workers, in this case, autoworkers. This is something that he believes and you see that in his economic policy, and it’s in the big pieces of legislation that he’s gotten to pass and also sign, that he puts workers at the center of it.”

Jean-Pierre declined to say which picket line Biden would visit. His itinerary takes him to the Detroit area, where the big three American automakers are headquartered, and where UAW members at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis plants and distribution centers have walked off the job amid protracted contract negotiations.

At her ongoing press briefing on Air Force One, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre continues to dodge when asked if Joe Biden believes Bob Menendez should resign his Senate seat.

“This is a serious matter. We take this very seriously. As I said yesterday, we think the senator did the right thing by stepping down from his chairmanship” of the foreign relations committee, which he did last week, she said. “As it relates to resigning, that is something that’s up to him and the leadership in the Senate. But, look, we take this very seriously.”

Reporters continued trying to get her to reveal the president’s thoughts, but the effort was fruitless.