Biden’s counting on union support. Some are in no hurry.

President Joe Biden regularly professes his love for unions. But some of them aren’t ready to commit just yet.

A handful of national unions — collectively representing more than two million truck drivers, firefighters, postal workers, and others — have yet to publicly back Biden’s reelection, even as many others have endorsed the president considerably earlier than in previous cycles. The reluctance comes as unions are expected to play a big role in amplifying the Biden campaign’s pitch to working-class voters, particularly in must-win states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. 

It’s a friction that’s surfaced despite Biden having largely delivered on his vow to be the most labor-friendly president in decades.

For now, Biden allies say they are confident the president's pro-union bona fides will mean strong support for him as the campaign unfolds. It is likely that many, if not all, of the holdouts will eventually line up behind Biden, particularly as the campaign season dials up.

It took until spring 2012 for organized labor, including many of the same noncommittal unions, to coalesce around former President Barack Obama’s reelection bid after having an occasionally-strained relationship with that White House.

It may be several months before some of the same unions make their plans official this time around. Four years ago, the United Auto Workers came out for Biden in April, the United Steelworkers followed suit in May and the Teamsters waited until August to endorse the Democratic ticket, months after Biden locked up the Democratic presidential nomination.

Some labor officials remain sore about the Biden administration’s intervention to prevent a nationwide rail strike in 2022, and many blue-collar unions are cognizant of their memberships’ drift toward Republicans in recent years. Other left-leaning contingents within organized labor have expressed dissatisfaction with Biden over his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict — and explored long-shot ways to vent that frustration.

“We just didn't see a particular benefit for early endorsements or jumping in until we address some unfinished business with this current administration,” American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein said in an interview.

He declined to say what those issues include, though APWU’s contract with the U.S. Postal Service is up for renewal later this year.

The situation also highlights work Democrats need to do to rally a key plank of their political base that saw its biggest hope for paradigm-shifting changes to labor law — the PRO Act — stymied by centrists within the party.

“There is a myth in our country that unions are monolithically left-wing organizations,” said Seth Harris, a key labor adviser during Biden’s 2020 campaign and presidential transition before serving as a member of the National Economic Council. “It behooves the leadership to listen to members. But ultimately the case here is very clear that President Biden is the right answer for unions, and they have benefited immensely from him.”

Biden’s track record on issues important to unions is strong.

He tapped a former union leader to helm the Labor Department for the first time in nearly a half-century, stocked the National Labor Relations Board with top appointees with union backgrounds and oversaw a spate of rule changes that collectively bolster organized labor’s hand against employers.

Biden also put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of a presidential task force on worker organizing, walked a picket line with striking autoworkers and headlined conventions for the AFL-CIO. In turn, the federation gave Biden its earliest presidential endorsement in history, following similarly expeditious commitments from influential unions like SEIU and the National Education Association.

“President Biden knows that the middle class built America and that unions built the middle class,” Biden-Harris reelection spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement. “He is proud to be the most pro-union president in history and looks forward to continuing to work with workers across America to ensure working Americans get a fair share of the wealth they’re helping to create.”

Still, several unions who endorsed him over Trump in 2020 remain on the sidelines — and at least one is welcoming Trump to make a pitch to its members.

Perhaps most conspicuously, the head of the 1.3 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Sean O’Brien, met with Trump privately earlier this month before announcing that the former president agreed to sit down for a roundtable discussion at its D.C. headquarters that will include the union’s leadership and rank-and-file members.

In a social media post, O’Brien said the Teamsters’ goal is “making sure our members’ voices are heard as we head into a critical election year.”

The union held a round of meetings with presidential candidates in December, positioning them as a forum to hear out Democrats, Republicans and independents running in 2024.

“They were genuine in their communication and their openness,” former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the sole GOP candidate to appear at the initial roundtables, told POLITICO. “I reminded them that the Teamsters endorsed Ronald Reagan for his second term. And of course, they reminded me that he also fired a bunch of air traffic controllers, which was sort of an interesting exchange.”

It's a far cry from the Teamsters’ approach four years ago when, under different leadership, it conditioned support on presidential wannabes signing a pledge to back relief funding for beleaguered pension funds, legislation expanding collective bargaining rights and worker-centric trade deals.

Biden was one of several Democrats at the time who signed the pledge, and one of his first major legislative achievements — the American Rescue Plan — included tens of billions of dollars in pension aid.

In December 2022, the administration extended roughly $36 billion of that to the Central States Pension Fund, a Teamsters plan spanning more than 350,000 workers and retirees that was on the brink of a steep benefits reduction. O’Brien attended the White House announcement.

The Teamsters are not the only union Biden embraced closely during his first three years who are playing hard-to-get.

The International Association of Fire Fighters was one of Biden’s earliest backers last time around, endorsing him just days after the former vice president entered the race in April 2019. At the time, IAFF was led by Harold Schaitberger, a longtime Biden ally who retired in 2021.

The union, now under Edward Kelly, has since kept its endorsement plans under wraps. An IAFF spokesperson did not return a request for comment.

Nevertheless, Biden has maintained his bond with IAFF, joining its annual conference last March and announcing a $22 million FEMA grant this December alongside Kelly. The White House recently announced a proposed update to a 1980s-era safety standard that would enhance protections for firefighters and other first responders.

Biden also has given a bear hug to the United Auto Workers. But the union repeatedly rebuffed questions about whether it would endorse him during last fall’s strike against Detroit automakers.

Still, Biden took the unprecedented step of joining one of its picket lines and later donning a red UAW shirt alongside union chief Shawn Fain in November championing the planned reopening of a Stellantis plant in Belvidere, Illinois, a product of the collective bargaining battle.

At the same time Fain, who regularly denounces the “billionaire class,” has criticized Trump in harsh terms — all but ruling out an endorsement of him. The UAW declined to comment on its endorsement process.

Other union leaders have also sent strong signals that their decision to withhold their endorsements, at least for the moment, won’t create an opening for the current Republican frontrunner to win them over.

“None of this should be interpreted that somehow our executive board or union will endorse a former president who openly wants to destroy the public postal service and the institution that we're so proud to be part of,” said Dimondstein, of the postal workers union.

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DA defends qualifications of a prosecutor hired in Trump’s Georgia election case

ATLANTA — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Sunday defended the qualifications of a special prosecutor she hired for her case against Donald Trump and others over efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia after a defense lawyer accused Willis of professional impropriety.

In her first public remarks since the accusation was made in a court filing, Willis offered a vigorous defense of her leadership of the office and pushed back against critics. She was received warmly by the congregation of Big Bethel AME Church as she spoke at a service a day before the holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Willis thanked leaders of the historically Black church in Atlanta who “didn’t care what they said about me” and told her “the invite was still good” to speak.

The allegations were in a motion filed last week by Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide. The filing alleges that Willis was involved in an improper romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the outside lawyer she hired, and questions Wade’s qualifications for the job.

The motion seeks to have the indictment dismissed and to disqualify Willis and Wade and their offices from further prosecuting the case.

At the church, Willis did not address the allegations of an improper relationship. She did not speak to reporters after the service.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said during a hearing Friday that he is awaiting a response from the district attorney’s office and expects to set a hearing on the motion in February. Other defense attorneys in the case, including Trump attorney Steve Sadow, have said they want to look into the allegations before deciding whether they want to join the motion.

Willis said her father, who she said met and spent time with King, told her that he saw the civil rights leader at low moments, saddened because people were cruel and unsupportive. Her father told her that King “was not a perfect man, but he was a great man, willing to answer God’s call.”

At a low point in the past week, she said, she “penned a letter to my heavenly Father.” She framed much of her speech at the church as a conversation with God, describing herself over and over again as flawed, imperfect and hard-headed.

“You did not tell me as a woman of color, it would not matter what I did. My motive, my talent, my ability and my character would be constantly attacked,” she said.

She appeared to choke up briefly at times and talked about the loneliness and stress of her job, saying she has come to think it is “not normal if I don’t have two death threats a week” and that she’s regularly called racial slurs.

She revealed that on Christmas night, she got an emergency call saying police had surrounded her house because a man had called 911 saying he had shot a woman there. She said she experienced “pure, unimaginable fear,” believing her older daughter was dead in her home until the incident was revealed to be “a cruel hoax.”

Willis said she hired three special prosecutors for the election case: a white man, a white woman and a Black man. They are paid the same hourly rate and no one has questioned the qualifications of the two white lawyers, she said.

While never mentioning Wade by name, she called him a “superstar, a great friend and a great lawyer.” She cited his accomplishments and past professional experience and said, “I’m just asking, God, is it that some will never see a Black man as qualified, no matter his achievements?”

Merchant wrote in her motion that she can find no evidence that Wade, whose law firm website promotes his experience in civil litigation, including car accident and family law cases, has ever prosecuted a felony case. She questioned his qualifications to try this case.

Merchant’s filing offered no proof of the alleged relationship or trips that she said that Willis and Wade had taken together.

Merchant also alleges Willis did not get necessary approval from county leaders to hire Wade and that no special prosecutor’s oath had been filed for him.

Pete Skandalakis, a former district attorney who is executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council, said district attorneys do not have to seek permission before hiring a special prosecutor. McAfee previously said when another defendant raised the issue that it did not appear Wade was required to file the oath.

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RFK Jr. defends Kennedy administration wiretap of Martin Luther King Jr.

ATLANTA — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday defended his family’s role in authorizing government surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr., calling it a necessary step amid the political tensions of the Civil Rights era.

Kennedy’s provocative comments came as the independent presidential candidate was on a campaign trip to Atlanta on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

In an exclusive interview with POLITICO, Kennedy said that his father, Robert F. Kennedy — who authorized the wiretapping of King as attorney general — and President John F. Kennedy permitted the eavesdropping because they were “making big bets on King, particularly in organizing the March on Washington.”

“They were betting not only the civil rights movement but their own careers. And they knew that Hoover was out to ruin King,” said Robert Kennedy Jr., referring to J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director at the time.

He argued that the Kennedy administration had a legitimate reason to go along with Hoover’s determination to surveil King. The FBI director saw King as a dangerous radical with Communists in his inner circle.

“There was good reason for them doing that at the time,” Kennedy said, “because J. Edgar Hoover was out to destroy Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement and Hoover said to them that Martin Luther King’s chief was a communist.

“My father gave permission to Hoover to wiretap them so he could prove that his suspicions about King were either right or wrong,” he continued. “I think, politically, they had to do it.”

By defending his family’s participation in what is widely considered a shameful episode in presidential history, Kennedy may complicate his efforts to present himself to the electorate as a political truth teller who stands up for marginalized constituencies.

The attorney and anti-vaccine activist has attempted in his campaign to reach out to Black voters and other racial minorities that typically lean toward the Democratic Party. His renowned lineage has so far seemed to be an asset in that effort.

But Kennedy’s relationship with his family is complicated and strained, with some of his relatives speaking out against his candidacy and his fringe views that in many cases appeal to the right.

On Sunday, Kennedy was on the campaign trail in Atlanta with Angela Stanton-King, a former Republican congressional candidate and Donald Trump supporter who now works for Kennedy’s campaign.

Declassified government records revealed that the FBI engaged in a sustained campaign of surveillance and harassment targeting the Civil Rights movement, to a far greater extent even than was publicly known at the time. Most notoriously, the FBI sent King a letter suggesting that the Civil Rights leader should kill himself.

Betty Medsger’s 2014 book “The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI” characterized the FBI’s campaign against King as a “yearslong multifaceted operation designed to destroy King.”

Medsger added: “The plot involved office break-ins, use of informers, mail opening, wiretapping, and bugging of King’s office, home and hotel rooms.”

Robert Kennedy Jr. said on Sunday that his father and uncle would have been fully aware of Hoover’s hostility to civil rights organizations: The FBI director was “a racist,” Kennedy said, and “left no doubt where he stood on those issues.”

He claimed, however, that his uncle as president would have fired Hoover in a second term, had he not been assassinated in the fall of 1963.

Kennedy also said he believed that President Kennedy had alerted King to the eavesdropping in a private conversation.

David Cohen contributed to this report.

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Iowa principal who risked life to protect students during a school shooting has died

DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa principal who put himself in harm’s way to protect students during a school shooting earlier this month died Sunday, a funeral home confirmed.

Caldwell Parrish Funeral Home & Crematory confirmed the death of Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger after the family announced it on a GoFundMe page.

Marburger was critically injured during the Jan. 4 attack, which began in the school’s cafeteria as students were gathering for breakfast before class. An 11-year-old middle school student was killed in the shooting, and six other people were injured. The 17-year-old student who opened fire also died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

The day after the shooting, the state Department of Public Safety said Marburger “acted selflessly and placed himself in harm’s way in an apparent effort to protect his students.”

News of Marburger’s death was first posted on a GoFundMe page for his family. The post, by Marburger’s wife, Elizabeth, said he died at about 8 a.m. Sunday, and said: “Dan lost his battle. He fought hard and gave us 10 days that we will treasure forever.”

The news that Marburger died triggered a flood of support on the Perry Facebook page with nearly 200 people posting condolences within the first hour after it was posted.

In a Facebook post on the night of the shooting, the principal’s daughter, Claire Marburger, called her father a “gentle giant” and said it wasn’t surprising that her father tried to protect his students.

“As I heard of a gunman, I instantly had a feeling my Dad would be a victim as he would put himself in harms way for the benefit of the kids and his staff,” his daughter wrote. “That’s just Dad.”

Marburger had been principal since 1995.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation spokesman Mitch Mortvedt said after the shooting that Marburger did some “pretty significant things” to protect others, but didn’t release details. Perry Superintendent Clark Wicks said Marburger was a “hero” who intervened with the teenage gunman so students could escape.

An 11-year-old sixth grader, Ahmir Jolliff, was killed in the shooting. Authorities said he was shot three times.

The shooting happened just after 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 4, shortly before classes were set to begin on the first day back after winter break. Mortvedt said the shooting started in the cafeteria, where students from several grades were eating breakfast, then spilled outside the cafeteria but was contained to the north end of the school.

Authorities said the suspect, identified as Dylan Butler, had a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. Mortvedt told The Associated Press that authorities also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device in Butler’s belongings, and that experts advised “it was something that they needed to disarm.” It was rendered safe.

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Los Angeles Times endorses Schiff for California Senate seat

The Los Angeles Times’ editorial board endorsed Rep. Adam Schiff in the competitive race to replace the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, citing the California Democrat’s “extraordinary leadership” in protecting the country — and democracy — from former President Donald Trump.

The Times praised all three Democrats in the race, describing Schiff, Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Katie Porter as “smart, experienced, savvy members of the House who could represent California well in the Senate.”

But Schiff, the Times said, “stands out for his extraordinary leadership over the last several years in helping to protect the nation’s institutions, the rule of law and American democracy itself from former President Trump.”

Schiff rose to national prominence when he was tapped by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who has endorsed Schiff in his Senate bid) to lead the first impeachment investigation into Trump for allegedly withholding aid to Ukraine on the condition that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy open an investigation into Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

“Schiff, who has the support of more than 60% of the California House delegation, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seems the most ready to lead statewide,” the Times’ editorial board writes.

Schiff later served on the high-profile House Jan. 6 committee, laying out Trump’s role in fomenting the attack that day on the Capitol.

Beyond his experience taking on Trump, Schiff is “a team player, practiced in the art of compromise and someone who, despite the vilification from Trumpland, has the respect of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. That’s important for California,” the Times said in the endorsement.

A special election will be held March 5, with the top two vote-getters advancing regardless of party affiliation. Democrat Laphonza Butler, who was appointed to fill the vacancy after Feinstein's death, is not running.

Schiff holds a slight lead in the expensive Senate race, according to a new poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. He has the support of 21 percent of likely voters, followed by Porter with 17 percent and Republican Steve Garvey with 13 percent, according to the poll.

Garvey is a former baseball star with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. The Times wrote that he “has no legislative experience and has never held public office. … The U.S. Senate is the major league of lawmaking. Why should Californians want a rookie to represent them?”

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Georgia prosecutor under scrutiny in Trump case was held in contempt last year

Just three days after Georgia prosecutors indicted Donald Trump last summer, one of the lead prosecutors on the case faced some legal trouble of his own.

The prosecutor, Nathan Wade, was held in contempt for defying a court order in an acrimonious divorce proceeding with his wife. Wade, a judge in Cobb County, Ga., ruled, had “willfully” failed to turn over documents about his income — including, his wife later said, income from his work on the Trump case.

Wade’s divorce became abruptly intertwined with the Trump prosecution this week, when a lawyer for one of Trump’s co-defendants alleged in a court filing that Wade has been having an affair with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Shortly after the allegation became public, Wade’s wife, Jocelyn, served Willis with a subpoena seeking her testimony in the divorce proceeding.

The lawyer who alleged the affair has not offered proof, and Willis has said she would respond in court documents. A lawyer for Wade declined to comment.

Even aside from the salacious allegation, the contempt ruling against Wade in August 2023 shows that he was fighting his own deeply personal legal battle — and getting admonished by a judge — as he was helping run one of the most consequential criminal cases in American history: the indictment of Trump and numerous allies for their bid to subvert the state’s 2020 election results.

Wade is himself a divorce lawyer — the website for his Atlanta law firm touts “decades of experience” handling divorce cases. He has little experience running complex, high-profile criminal prosecutions, and Willis’ decision to hire him as a “special prosecutor” in the Trump case has come under intense scrutiny in recent days.

It’s unclear if Wade was fined or received any other punishment under the contempt ruling. He appears to have eventually turned over the income documents in question, according to court records.

But any finding of contempt represents a serious and uncommon rebuke from a judge, experts on Georgia family law said.

“This is bizarre,” said Randall Kessler, an Atlanta divorce lawyer who formerly chaired the American Bar Association’s Family Law Section. “The judge basically said, ‘Shame on you.’”

“To actually be found in willful contempt, it’s not a good position,” said Yaniv Heled, a professor at Georgia State College of Law who focuses on family law. “It’s not a place where you want to be with the judge.”

A special prosecutor in the spotlight

Wade joined Willis’ team as an outside contractor on Nov. 1, 2021. The next day, he filed for divorce from his wife of more than 24 years, Joycelyn Wade.

In the two years since then, he has been paid nearly $700,000 from the Fulton County district attorney’s office for his work helping to lead the Trump case, according to a court filing from his wife.

On Jan. 8, a lawyer for Mike Roman, a former 2020 Trump campaign official who is charged alongside Trump with a racketeering conspiracy to subvert the election, filed court documents in the criminal case accusing Wade and Willis of having a “clandestine” romantic relationship. Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, also alleged that the two used some of Wade’s earnings from the Trump case to vacation together. Merchant is seeking to have Willis and Wade disqualified and to have the case dismissed — an outcome that legal experts say is unlikely. Trump and Roman have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the case, said in court Friday that he expects to hold a hearing on Merchant’s allegations in early February. The case does not yet have a trial date.

In the meantime, the allegations are roiling a sprawling and highly sensitive case. Trump has amplified the allegations on social media, even as his lawyer, Steve Sadow, told the judge that he was “leery” of joining Merchant’s call for Willis’ disqualification. The district attorney herself may become a witness in Wade’s divorce proceeding. And new scrutiny of the legal documents in the divorce — a case file that has since been sealed — offers details about how Wade disobeyed a court order amid a drawn-out dispute over his income.

Throughout 2022 and 2023, lawyers for Wade’s wife accused Wade of failing to turn over documents showing how much money he made — a common exchange of information in divorce proceedings.

The information Wade did provide “was so woefully inadequate as to be useless,” his wife’s lawyers wrote in court papers.

Wade, for his part, said he had provided all required documents. Wade’s lawyer accused Wade’s wife in court papers of “being stubbornly litigious and dragging the matter out for no stated reasons.”

‘Willful contempt’

On May 10, 2023, Judge Henry Thompson, who is overseeing the divorce, concluded that Wade had “inadequately responded” to his wife’s discovery requests. He ordered the prosecutor to turn over a host of financial documents, including all income statements since 2016. If Wade didn’t comply, the judge threatened, he could face contempt and sanctions.

Three months later, the judge determined that Wade hadn’t complied. On Aug. 17, 2023, during the same week that Wade helped obtain an indictment in the Trump case, the judge issued an order finding Wade in “willful contempt” of his directive. If he wanted to avoid sanctions, the order added, he needed to deliver the material within 10 days.

There is no indication in the documents reviewed by POLITICO that Wade was sanctioned.

But over a month later, Wade’s wife moved to reopen discovery — meaning she believed her husband still hadn’t given her all the information she needed.

And, the motion added, she had just learned that her husband was working on the Trump prosecution.

“Plaintiff has not produced one single document evidencing this income,” the motion read. “Plaintiff has not produced one single bank statement indicating where those funds have gone.”

On Oct. 24, 2023, the judge granted her motion to reopen discovery. Less than two months later, Wade’s wife told the divorce court that her husband had earned almost $700,000 for his work on the Trump case since May of 2022. She added that he had given her “nearly nothing” in financial support — a claim that Wade’s lawyers disputed in court papers.

Kessler, the Atlanta divorce lawyer, said it’s unusual for judges to hold people in contempt during divorce proceedings. That’s because they give the parties so many chances to comply.

“It is rare that it gets to this level,” he said.

But Kessler added that he thinks it’s unlikely Wade was scheming to keep his income from the Trump case a secret. That’s because the work was so public-facing, drawing national media attention.

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Congress readies ‘laddered’ March funding patch as shutdown looms

Congressional leaders will move next week to pass a two-tiered stopgap into March, with six days left until the first of two government shutdown deadlines.

The new funding patch would keep federal agencies running on two different timeframes, like the current stopgap. Funding for some federal agencies would expire March 1, while funding for others would run through March 8, according to a source familiar with the proposal.

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