From the very start of Teamsters president Sean O’Brien’s closing speech Monday night at the Republican National Convention, it was clear O’Brien’s address was not going to be a normal one.
Typically, to speak at a political convention, you have to endorse the party’s presidential candidate. (Just ask Ted Cruz how unusual it is to speak without actually endorsing the chosen candidate.)
But for O’Brien, his keynote Monday night was less about making the case to the Teamsters Union that members should support Trump and Republicans, and more about making the case that Trump and Republicans should support the Teamsters.
O’Brien praised Trump for having the backbone to invite him to speak at the convention, while also criticizing Democrats, who he claimed called him a “traitor” for accepting a speaking role at the GOP convention. O’Brien additionally said, “Trump was one tough SOB” after his attempted assassination on Saturday.
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But notably absent from his speech was an endorsement of Trump, or a commitment that he and his group were recommending the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — one of the largest unions in the country, with 1.4 million members — vote for Trump.
Instead, O’Brien shrewdly played footsie with the GOP while avoiding some very notable magic words.
He gave props to Sens. Josh Hawley, Roger Marshall and J.D. Vance for meeting with him, and O’Brien praised Trump for appealing to working-class voters. But he also said anti-union attitudes in the GOP needed to change.
“I know from a career in negotiating that you get nowhere by slamming your fists on the table. The first step is to listen. The Teamsters and the GOP may not agree on many issues, but a growing group has shown the courage to sit down and consider points of view,” O’Brien said.
Near the end of his speech, O’Brien even claimed that corporations were committing economic terrorism by hiding behind what he called “toothless laws which are supposed to help workers but are manipulated to benefit corporations.”
And while there was plenty of applause during some parts of his speech, O’Brien seemed to receive a tepid response when he criticized the Chamber of Commerce.
“We need to call the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtables what they are: They are unions for big business,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien even managed to get a dig in at another foe of his: Sen. Markwayne Mullin.
O’Brien and Mullin have repeatedly sparred at Senate hearings, with both men challenging each other to fight right there in the hearing room.
Near the end of his speech, O’Brien said he had a line that will “shock you.”
“To paraphrase Sen. Markwayne Mullin: ‘It’s time for both sides of Congress to stand their butts up,’” he said, in reference to Mullin telling O’Brien to stand up so they could fight.
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Ryan Hernández is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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