Kamala Harris’ labor split screen: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, we explore one positive and on negative development for Kamala Harris’ support from organized labor. Plus, chief political analyst Chuck Todd writes that current level of political discourse is unsustainable.

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A key union won’t endorse, but Harris has other plans to boost labor support

By Megan Lebowitz, Alexandra Marquez and Natasha Korecki

Vice President Kamala Harris failed to secure the endorsement of a major union, but her campaign is banking on the organizational muscle of the key labor groups that are in her corner to provide a boost in the rapidly diversifying Sun Belt.

The influential Teamsters union on Wednesday declined to issue an endorsement in the presidential race, Megan Lebowitz and Alexandra Marquez report. Both candidates had courted the group — the union’s leaders met with Harris on Monday and with former President Donald Trump earlier in the year. But the development is a particular blow to Harris, as the Teamsters had endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate in every election dating back to 2000, including Joe Biden four years ago. 

Prior to the announcement, the Teamsters also released survey data showing more rank-and-file members preferred to endorse Trump than Harris.  

“Neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement.

Still, Harris has won the endorsement of just about every other major labor union in the country (the International Association of Fire Fighters remains a notable holdout). And while a candidate’s labor bona fides are often viewed through the lens of white working-class voters in the Rust Belt, Harris’ campaign has their sights set 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 who labor leaders say have become especially energized since Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, Natasha Korecki reports. 

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

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

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What if we can’t unite?

By Chuck Todd

There’s been an odd numbness in the political ecosystem regarding the apparent second attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. We’ve collectively underreacted — and perhaps there are perfectly reasonable explanations for that.

Yet I fear some of the underreaction has to do with the fact that we are now so close to Election Day that some people are calibrating their responses through the prism of whether what they say will help or hurt their partisan causes, rather than stepping back and asking themselves critically how we got here.

And unfortunately, I think, the broader electorate and the media are more concerned about that larger question than any of the elected leaders we have collectively put in charge of our democracy. It’s frustrating watching the effort to exploit this episode for political gain, which is only feeding the divide, not healing it.

Just look at Trump’s initial response to the apprehension of a man armed with a rifle who was spotted on the perimeter of his golf course. Unlike after he was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, when he and his team embraced the approach of “let’s have cooler heads prevail” and left some of the more heated rhetoric to other Republicans, there has been none of that this time. Instead, the Trump campaign appears to be approaching this apparent assassination attempt as an opportunity rather than as a moment to reflect. 

Let’s be honest: The current level of political discourse is unsustainable for this democracy. Maybe it doesn’t break us this year, maybe not next. But unless we choose to rise above it, either by electing de-escalators rather than purveyors of zero-sum political pugilism or by demanding that the big tech companies stop creating algorithms that are designed to incite and divide, we will break — and that break will be perilous. It has happened to this republic before, so don’t assume it can’t happen again.

The problem with political discourse in America right now is that we are all stuck in a social media funhouse mirror booth. What we see isn’t what is, and how we’re seen isn’t who we are. And yet, here we are. 

Read more from Chuck →

That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at [email protected]

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