Instapundit » Blog Archive » YES, THESE ARE DEFINITELY PRESIDENTIAL QUALITY OPTICS IN THE IMMEDIATE LEGISLATION OF A DEVASTATING HUR

YES, THESE DEFINITELY ARE PRESIDENTIAL-QUALITY OPTICS IN THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH OF A BREAKING HURRICANE: Harris greets striking longshoremen and swipes at Trump’s record.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday embraced striking dock workers and slammed former President Donald Trump’s labor policies in her first public comments since a work stoppage at ports on the East and Gulf Coasts began Tuesday.

She said in a statement that “foreign-owned shipping companies have posted record profits” and that union workers deserve “a fair share” of that money. As tens of thousands of members of the International Longshoremen’s Association took to the picket line, Harris also tried to use the moment to draw a contrast with Trump on his employment record.

“As president, he blocked overtime benefits for millions of workers, appointed union busters” to the National Labor Relations Board, she said, “and recently said striking workers should be fired.”

Trump had previously tried to carry out the strike against Democrats. In a statement Tuesday, he said “American workers should be able to negotiate for better wages” and blamed “inflation caused by Kamala Harris’ two votes for massive, out-of-control spending.”

Trump has long benefited from an image among some voters as a successful businessman well equipped to manage the economy. Trump used that impression as he took on President Joe Biden this year, who many Americans blame for inflation and high prices.

But after Biden withdrew from the presidential race, Harris managed to shed some of that baggage, and polls have shown she has narrowed the gap with Trump on who can better handle the economy. However, if this strike continues, the economic fallout from rising prices and commodity shortages could jeopardize that progress.

As Ward Clark writes on a sister site Red state: October surprise! Kamala Harris embraces striking dock workers and owns the resulting economic damage.

Here’s the problem with embracing the strikers: She now owns, fairly or unfairly, all of the economic consequences of this strike. All the rising prices, all the empty store shelves, all the layoffs due to supply chain disruptions; she owns it all. She chose this, and in a month she may learn that when you dine at the devil’s table, you don’t get to choose the menu. And it’s not just raw materials that will be affected; If this strike continues, there are indications that it will also affect the energy sector.

Then there’s the other endorsement Harris just tacitly made: The union boss who threatened to “cripple” the economy lives in a 7,000-square-foot luxury mansion.

Harold Daggett – the union boss who has vowed to “cripple” the US economy if the ports don’t ban automation and sharply increase dockworkers’ wages – had a Bentley convertible parked outside his sprawling New Jersey mansion this week, exclusive photos obtained by The After disclosure.

Photos taken by drone on Tuesday show the British luxury car parked with the hatch open outside what appears to be a five-car garage connected by a covered skybridge to his 7,136-square-foot Tudor-style home.

The colossal two-story mansion – located on a 25-acre estate in Sparta, a leafy enclave 50 miles west of New York City – surrounds a spacious backyard patio with an amoeba-shaped pool. Next to a huge stone pizza oven there is a covered outdoor bar.

A gate on the other side of the patio gives access to what appears to be a free-standing sauna, surrounded by a spacious wooden terrace. An extensive stretch of forest surrounds the property on all sides.

The chic complex is located in a picturesque part of the Garden State, near the Delaware Water Gap, where five-bedroom homes cost as much as $6 million, according to Zillow.

A real estate agent who spoke to The Post said Daggett put the four-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom property on the market in 2004 at a price of $3.1 million before lowering it to $2.9 million. He eventually took it off the market.

Daggett, who is alleged to have ties to the mafia, is president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, a job that comes with a salary of $728,000 per year, on top of an additional $173,000 from ILA-Local 1804-1.

Kamala-approved! Because it is good to be in the nomenklatura. As Clark writes, “That doesn’t look good, not when people are having trouble paying for their monthly groceries. It’s hard to feel much sympathy for a union boss who brings in damn near a million a year when you just ate a mayonnaise sandwich for lunch.