President Joe Biden arrived in Pittsburgh on Wednesday afternoon, the middle stop on his three-day pre-primary tour across the nation’s most populous swing state.
Shortly after 1 p.m., Mr. Biden arrived at Pittsburgh International Airport. He was greeted by Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
He is scheduled to speak at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers union, which endorsed the president last month. When he arrived at United Steelworkers union headquarters, he was met by two groups of protesters, one opposing his economic program and the other calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, according to White House pool reports.
The president last month sided with the steelworkers and said it was “vital” for U.S. Steel to remain “domestically owned and operated.” That followed the announcement that a Japanese corporation, Nippon Steel Corp., had agreed to buy the iconic American company. U.S. Steel shareholders approved the deal earlier this month.
The administration on Wednesday announced new steps to prevent China from dumping below-cost steel into the United States, including tripling tariffs and seeking an investigation by the U.S. trade representative.
“President Biden understands that American steel built our nation,” said Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council.
Mr. Biden arrived in Pittsburgh from Scranton, where he was born and raised; he visited his childhood home on this trip. Then after a Wednesday night stop in Washington, D.C., he was scheduled to return to Pennsylvania to campaign in Philadelphia.
This is the eighth time that Mr. Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Pennsylvania in 2024. The Pennsylvania primary is Tuesday.
Mr. Biden’s trip came after his all-but-certain Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, held a weekend rally in Schnecksville in the Lehigh Valley, an indication of how competitive Pennsylvania will be this fall. Mr. Biden leads Mr. Trump by one-tenth of one percentage point, according to the Real Clear Politics poll average.
The president won his native state over Mr. Trump in 2020, and whichever candidate carries Pennsylvania this fall likely will be the next president. To win in November, the Biden campaign is building “the infrastructure necessary to communicate with voters in every part of the state,” according to campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.
Pittsburgh houses the first campaign office opened in the state — and campaign workers, in tandem with local campaigns and union members, already have knocked on more than 1,600 doors in Allegheny County, she said.
In both Scranton and Pittsburgh, Mr. Biden made the economy the center of his address, even though it remains an albatross around the president’s neck, according to opinion polls.
Mr. Trump was preferred over Mr. Biden, 48%-39%, when asked which candidate was best able to handle the economy, according to an April Franklin & Marshall College Poll. And in that same survey, 45% of Pennsylvania voters said they were worse off than a year ago, while just 17% said they were better off.
But that’s not stopping Mr. Biden from trying to change the perception. While the president was traveling on Tuesday to Scranton, his first stop on his Keystone State tour, his campaign released a digital ad in the state talking about “Scranton Joe” and highlighting his efforts to bring the city he grew up in out of the economic downturn brought on by the pandemic.
“President Biden has never forgotten where he came from – it’s why he’s fighting every day to make life better for middle-class families across the country,” campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said. “As Donald Trump promises to cut taxes for his billionaire friends while he cuts our Social Security behind closed doors at Mar-a-Lago, President Biden’s traveling the country to talk about his vision to make the economy work for everyday people like the ones he grew up with in Scranton – not just for those at the top.”
On Air Force One into Scranton on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre highlighted the drop in the state’s unemployment rate from 7.4% under Mr. Trump to 3.4% under Mr. Biden, $16 billion in funding for the state under the bipartisan infrastructure law, a $35 monthly cap on insulin for Medicare recipients, and the Affordable Care Act expanding coverage to 420,000 more Pennsylvanians.
“President Biden is investing in Pennsylvania, and it’s working,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. “The president will remain focused on the historic economic progress from the last three years. And this week, you’ll hear directly from him in stops across the state on how his administration is doing exactly that.”
Mr. Biden and his campaign have sought to contrast his policies with those of Mr. Trump, whose 2017 tax law gave 65% of its benefits to the richest 20% of taxpayers and 52% to the top 10%, according to the Tax Policy Center. Many of the provisions expire next year, and Republicans have called for making them permanent.
“Trump is running again on the same failed trickle-down policies,” Mr. Biden said in Scranton. “Nothing has changed. Just a few months ago — at a closed-door event in Mar-a-Lago — he told his billionaire donors ‘You’re rich as hell. We’re going to give you tax cuts.’ Folks, they laughed about it — not because they didn’t think it happened — but because they know it will happen.”
The Pennsylvania chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the group funded by conservative billionaire businessman Charles Koch, said Mr. Biden has nothing to boast about.
“President Biden continues to visit the Keystone State — on the taxpayers’ dime, no less — to try to convince Pennsylvanians that his heavy-handed, budget busting ‘Bidenomics’ agenda is working,” said Emily Greene, deputy state director. “But the message isn’t going to take hold because ‘Bidenomics’ is not working for Pennsylvania. We want him to stop campaigning on failed policy and he should stop visiting Pennsylvania until he can come up with real solutions for working families who are paying on average $11,400 more a year to maintain their standard of living since the president took office.”
Mr. Biden’s choice of the steelworkers headquarters for his Pittsburgh address was no accident. The union first backed the president in 2020.
“President Biden proved time and again during his first term that he stands with working families,” International President David McCall said last month when the union backed the incumbent.
The steelworkers so far have donated $1 million during the 2024 elections, all of it to Democratic candidates or progressive groups, according to the research group OpenSecrets.
The union’s PAC has given the maximum $10,000 apiece to Western Pennsylvania’s two Democratic representatives, Chris Deluzio of Aspinwall and Summer Lee of Swissvale, Federal Election Commission filings show. Both lawmakers expressed concerns after the U.S. Steel sale was announced, as did U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who is up for re-election this fall and received $9,000 in PAC donations from the union.
Jonathan D. Salant: jsalant@post-gazette.com, @JDSalant
First Published: April 17, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: April 17, 2024, 6:25 p.m.
