http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/white-house-conservative-media-claim-that-were-hiding-bidens-big-labor-speech-is-wholly-inaccurate/White House: Conservative Media Claim That We’re Hiding Biden’s Big Labor Speech Is “Wholly Inaccurate”
The White House is pushing back hard on reports this morning from Fox News and at least one other conservative media outlet who are suggesting that at the White House’s request, the public won’t be able to have access to what Vice President Joe Biden says in his big speech to the AFL-CIO today in Miami.
The reports are “wholly inaccurate,” Biden spokesperson Elizabeth Alexander emails me.
The larger context here is key.
The reports are part of a larger conservative media attack on labor as a kind of precursor to the big fight over the Employee Free Choice Act, a top priority for labor that’s intensely opposed by conservatives and will be addressed today by Biden.
So Fox and other outlets have been working hard to discredit labor, airing stories about how the AFL’s conference today is being held in a “swanky” resort that many working folks would be unable to afford — even though it turns out that this resort was chosen because its construction was a major union success story.
Fox and other outlets kept up the assault this morning, suggesting that the White House was trying to hide Biden’s big labor pow-wow today by barring cameras from the event. “We asked why we couldn’t come in, and the answer we got from the union people was, `It’s on the order of the White House,” the Fox anchor complained.
Turns out, though, that this particular meeting will be more accessible to the public than it might have been — thanks to the White House. The AFL-CIO tells us that their meetings are traditionally closed to the press entirely. But Biden’s office asked the union to make an exception and allow a pool of print reporters to attend the event, Biden spokesperson Alexander says.
“A full transcript of the Vice President’s remarks will be sent out this afternoon,” Alexander says.
Biden’s speech could be a major moment in the Employee Free Choice fight, so stay tuned.