Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly stormed out of a campaign meeting with the Teamsters Union, arrogantly declaring that she would win the presidential election “with or without” their support—a comment made shortly before her overwhelming loss to Donald Trump.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien recounted the episode on The Tucker Carlson Show Monday, highlighting the historic decision of the union to withhold endorsing any candidate for the first time in nearly 30 years.
O’Brien revealed that Harris met with the Teamsters for a roundtable discussion only after President Joe Biden exited the race. Despite the importance of the meeting, Harris reportedly answered only four of the union’s 16 prepared questions before abruptly cutting the session short.
“On the fourth question, one of her operatives or staff slips a note in front of me—‘This will be the last question.’ And it was 20 minutes earlier than the time it was supposed to end,” O’Brien recalled. “And her declaration on the way out was, ‘I’m going to win with you or without you.’”
In response, Carlson quipped, “Damn. I thought I was arrogant. That’s really arrogant.”
O’Brien later contacted Biden’s former Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh about the encounter. “Let me ask you a question, Marty. Excuse my French. Who does this f–king lady think she is?” O’Brien remembered asking Walsh, who now heads the NHL Players’ Association.
The union leader expressed disappointment with the Democrats, noting that he had observed President Biden’s decline before his withdrawal from the race. “We had Biden in there and you could just clearly tell he was not the man he was. It was kinda sad,” O’Brien said, though he credited Biden for being a good president for workers.
Weeks before the election, O’Brien announced that the Teamsters—comprised of 1.3 million members—would remain neutral, marking a sharp departure from their historically reliable alliance with the Democratic Party. This decision reflected internal polling that showed union members overwhelmingly supported Trump over Harris, 59.6% to 34%.
The Teamsters had previously backed the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020 and endorsed Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016. However, in this election cycle, their dissatisfaction with Harris became apparent, underscoring a broader shift in union politics.
Harris’s dismissive comment to O’Brien ultimately symbolized her broader struggles to connect with key voting blocs, a misstep that likely contributed to her loss in the general election.
