NY union leader pledges support for Trump: 'I see a wave coming'
Steamfitters Local 638 manager Bob Bartels joined 'Fox & Friends' to discuss why he is backing Trump despite being a lifelong Democrat and how the blue-collar vote will play a role in November as Americans battle various economic woes.
A union leader in New York warned workers are turning their backs on the Democratic Party and will support former President Trump in November as they battle various issues stemming from the economy and crime.
Steamfitters Local 638 manager Bob Bartels, who is a lifelong Democrat, joined "Fox & Friends" to explain why he sees change on the horizon for the blue-collar vote and why workers are fed up with the Biden administration's policies despite Trump's legal woes.
"Nothing changes my opinion because… I want to see what's done for America. I want what's right for America. I want what's right for the citizens, and my members want that also," Bartels told Brian Kilmeade on Thursday.
"They are very agitated. They are living week to week, some of them are not affording their bills, and I think things need to change."
"Members have basically told me, ‘Listen, we want to vote for this guy,’ so when the time is right and I have a bigger poll to be done, we will make that decision, but I will do whatever my members want me to do."
Bartels' comments came after Trump visited a construction site in New York City where he was met with praise from hundreds of union workers.
"We're very close in New York, I understand, and we're leading in the country by a lot," Trump said. "A poll just came out a little while ago, as you saw yesterday, that we were up in every swing state and up by a lot in every swing state, so, I think we're going to do very well, and we're going to make a play for New York."
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 25: Former U.S. President Donald Trump greets union workers at the construction site of the new J.P. Morgan Chase building on April 25, 2024 in New York City. The former president met with union members ahead of the start of his hush money trial where David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher, is scheduled to return to the witness stand. Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
"Normally a Democrat will win New York," he continued. "Biden is the worst president in history, and we have some very bad people here, but we have the greatest people, and they're right behind me, and they all want us to run, and we're going to we're going to run very hard in New York."
Bartels said Trump's legal woes have no impact on his decision to vote for him in November given the severity of the challenges Americans are currently facing.
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"I see a wave coming, as a matter of fact, and… nobody that I speak to likes what's going on in America right now," he said.
Trump's visit comes as he attends the seventh day of his criminal trial in New York City stemming from charges out of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's investigation. The Supreme Court is also hearing arguments Thursday on whether former President Donald Trump is immune from prosecution in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case.
Despite the former president's busy court schedule, a Wall Street Journal survey released earlier this month indicated Trump with the edge over the president in six of the seven states polled: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.
According to the survey, Trump holds a six-point lead over Biden in North Carolina in a ballot that also includes third-party and independent candidates. Trump has a five-point lead in Arizona, a four-point edge in Nevada, and three-point advantages in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The former president edges the White House incumbent by a single point in Georgia, with the two tied in Wisconsin.
"I put out a poll in my union. President Trump is leading Joe Biden three to one on my presidential poll out of my 9,000 members," Bartels said. "We are very tired of the situation with groceries, inflation, gas prices, illegal immigration, crime. We are living it every day in New York City."
Fox News' Brooke Singman, Aubrie Spady and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
