AFL-CIO head: Trump election threats ‘pose a clear and present danger’

Union officials are reportedly planning to fight back against any election resistance or ballot interference that may come this year, citing President Trump’s recent rhetoric about voting. 

NBC News reports that AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka plans to gather with other union leaders later this week to discuss contingencies should there be any domestic interference in the election.

“Trump’s threats pose a clear and present danger to the election, our democracy and the future of the country,” Trumka wrote in a letter to union presidents reported by the network.

Trumka, whose union has endorsed Democratic nominee Joe Biden, has planned an “emergency meeting” with the heads of major unions for Friday, NBC reported.

Leaders of unions that are expected to meet include the Service Employees International Union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the National Education Association, all of which have endorsed Biden.

The Hill has reached out to the AFL-CIO for comment.

Trump’s path to victory in 2016 was boosted by support among white working-class voters, though union leaders maintain that Trump’s actions over the past four years have repelled union members. Still, union leaders cautioned about the uncertainty of the election.

“First of all, we’re not drinking anybody’s Kool-Aid about the polls,” Tefere Gebre, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, told NBC about recent polling data showing Biden in the lead.

The network reported that while union officials played down efforts to prepare for confrontations at polling sites, some outside groups have been more open about election plans.

The Working Families Party has put support behind an initiative called Election Defenders in which thousands of people are trained and sent out to work the polls.

An invitation to the initiative stated, “Election Defenders will be working to provide safe supports for voting (such as PPE and water), and election and voter defense, de-escalating white supremacist intimidation tactics and signaling to a network of groups and lawyers if and where trouble breaks out.”

During the first presidential debate with Biden, Trump urged his supporters to go out to polling places and make sure ballots aren’t “manipulated.”

His call to action sparked concerns that members of his base could lead a potential surge in voter intimidation. Such practices were outlawed by the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, which prohibit people from intimidating or interfering in someone attempting to vote.