Speaking during his appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, New York union leader Bob Bartels, manager of Steamfitters Local 638, spoke about why formerly lifelong Democrats like him are starting to turn their backs on the Democratic Party and turn instead toward former President Donald Trump, for whom they will vote in November, largely over matters like the economy and crime.
Mr. Bartels said, during his speech, “Good evening, everyone. My name is Bobby Bartels. I’m a proud member of steam for this local union, 638, and like many of my fellow union members, I’ve been a Democrat my whole life, and like so many of my fellow union members, we have come to expect empty promises from Democratic politicians.”
He continued, speaking about one of Trump’s greatest triumphs, “In 1986, after a decade of Democratic politicians mismanagement, Central Park’s iconic woman ice rink had fallen into an unusable state of disrepair. Politicians made promise after promise to fix the rink, and yet they did nothing. That’s when Donald Trump stepped up.”
Continuing with the story, Mr. Bratels said, “He wasn’t mayor, he wasn’t running for anything, but he was a guy who cared about people and he knew how to get a job done. He put his money and his reputation on the line and committed to getting it built. He did it using skilled local union labor like the men of local 638, the i
together, we worked tirelessly on that project, completing it on time and ensuring kids would be skating that fall on that rink.”
Then, mocking Biden’s allegedly quite short work hours, as the crowd roared with deafening cheering, Bartels said, “And a quick note to President Biden that involved working outside the hours of 10 am and 4 pm.” That is a reference to President Biden reportedly only being able to work, due to his age and tiredness, between 10 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon.
Building on that with a heartwarming story, he said, “Early one hot, summer morning on that job, I saw Donald Trump visiting the site. I yelled out, ‘Are you here to buy us coffee?’ President walked right over. He wasn’t president of time, but he walked right over, grinning, and handed me some cash and told us it was too hot for coffee. Go buy sandwiches and drinks for everyone.”
He then said, “Now more than ever, we need a president who knows how to get things done. We have an open border inviting illegal immigrants to take our American jobs and lower our wages. Out of control. Inflation is squeezing budgets, and both violent crime and drug epidemic, epidemic are pushing people out of our cities, all while Democrats do nothing.”
Concluding with a statement about why his union will be voting Trump, he said, “That’s why this union, union Democrat will be voting Trump along. So that’s why this union Democrat, along with many of my local union members, will be voting Trump this November, so that we can take back the middle class, take back the country and rebuild the middle class that my union has helped build over so many years. God bless America. Thank you.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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