Politics

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A former leader of the right-wing Proud Boys group, Enrique Tarrio, was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Tuesday for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the longest sentence so far in the case.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly imposed the sentence on Tarrio, 39, of Miami, for his role in the riot by then-President Donald Trump’s supporters. His lawyers said he would appeal.

Tarrio had been convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the Capitol riot that sought to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s defeat of Trump in an election Trump falsely claimed was tainted by widespread fraud.

Tarrio’s lawyers said his absence from Washington on Jan. 6, the result of another judge’s earlier order, meant that he had no “direct influence” on the riot.

But in imposing the sentence, the judge said: “Mr. Tarrio was the ultimate leader of that conspiracy. Mr. Tarrio was the ultimate leader, the ultimate person who organized, who was motivated by revolutionary zeal.”

Prosecutors said Tarrio had remained in touch with the Proud Boys group and monitored their actions.

“He was on a tier of his own,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe said, adding Tarrio was a uniquely influential figure among the Proud Boys.

Prosecutors had asked Kelly to sentence Tarrio to 33 years behind bars, saying he helped direct the attack from Baltimore. His attorneys had asked for no more than 15 years.

Kelly last week sentenced another far-right Proud Boys leader, Ethan Nordean, to 18 years. Oath Keepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes in May was also sentenced to 18 years.

In court on Tuesday, Tarrio said he was sorry for his actions. “I am extremely ashamed and disappointed,” he said about violence against law enforcement on that day, adding: “What happened on Jan. 6 was a national embarrassment.”

More than 1,100 people have been arrested on charges related to the Capitol assault. At least 630 have pleaded guilty and at least 110 have been convicted at trial.

Five people, including a police officer, died during or shortly after the riot, and more than 140 police officers were injured. Damage to the Capitol was in the millions of dollars.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was tapped to investigate broader efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has charged Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, for trying to keep himself in power.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh; additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller)

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By Brad Brooks

(Reuters) -The prosecution in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial on Tuesday urged state senators to convict the Republican on corruption-related charges and remove him for using the power of his office for his personal benefit, while his lawyer derided the case as “a lot of nothing.”

Paxton’s lawyer sought to paint the impeachment effort, which fellow Republicans have spearheaded in the state legislature, as an attempt by his political enemies to thwart the will of Texas voters who elected him three times to the post – even after the allegations of wrongdoing were publicly known.

Paxton, also under investigation by the FBI, entered pleas of not guilty as the impeachment trial got underway in the Texas Senate. After senators voted down his pretrial motions to dismiss the charges, Paxton, rose on the Senate floor to hear the 16 articles of impeachment he faces, but did not speak as his lawyer announced his pleas. Paxton, 60, did not return to the Senate chamber after a lunch break.

An ally of former President Donald Trump, Paxton has been suspended from his post since the Texas House of Representatives voted in May to impeach him on corruption charges, including aiding a wealthy political donor and persecuting whistleblowers from his office who accused him of wrongdoing. Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature.

Trump has strongly backed Paxton. The political dynamics in a Paxton trial pitting Republicans against one another echo divisions in the party at the national level as Trump seeks to regain office. The former president leads a crowded field of candidates vying to become the party’s nominee to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 U.S. election despite facing criminal charges in four separate cases.

“This whole case is a whole lot of nothing,” Tony Buzbee, Paxton’s main defense lawyer, told senators in his opening statement.

Buzbee promised to present evidence knocking down every allegation. He portrayed Paxton as the innocent target of establishment Republicans – whose power in Texas has waned as party figures focused on hot-button issues such as curbing abortion and transgender rights and securing the border have gained power.

Republican state Representative Andrew Murr, delivering the prosecution’s opening statement, said the witnesses he would present are diehard conservatives who were Paxton’s hand-chosen top aides but were forced to report him to the FBI because of “Paxton’s slow creep of corruption.”

“Mr. Paxton has been entrusted with great power. Unfortunately, rather than rise to the occasion, he’s revealed his true character and, as the overwhelming evidence will show, he’s not fit to be the attorney general for the state of Texas,” Murr said.

Murr’s team called as its first witness Jeff Mateer, who is a top legal officer for First Liberty Institute, a conservative religious rights group; the former No. 2 official in Paxton’s office; and one of the whistleblowers.

Lawyers from Paxton’s camp repeatedly objected to Mateer’s testimony Tuesday, saying his accounts of discussions with his former boss were private. Most of those objections were overruled.

As attorney general, Paxton backed powerful oil and gas interests and pursued restrictions on abortion and transgender rights. He has led Republican state opposition to the policies of Democratic presidents, and filed an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat.

A two-thirds majority vote in the 31-member state Senate would be needed to remove Paxton from office. The last impeachment trial of a statewide officeholder in Texas was in 1917.

Thirty of the 31 senators will serve as jurors. Paxton’s wife, Angela, is a Republican senator but is not acting as a juror due to concerns over conflict of interest.

The Senate has 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats. If all the Democrats vote to convict Paxton as expected, nine Republicans would need to join them to reach the two-thirds majority required to permanently remove him from office.

Senators rejected a motion to dismiss all the charges by a vote of 24-6, and voted down additional motions to throw out individual charges.

Paxton’s impeachment was triggered by his request that House lawmakers approve a $3.3 million settlement he reached with four former staff members who accused him of abuse of office and were subsequently fired. State lawmakers did not do so.

The House voted 121-23 to impeach him on 20 articles that accused him of improperly aiding real estate developer and political donor Nate Paul, conducting a sham investigation against the whistleblowers in his office, and covering up wrongdoing in a separate federal securities fraud case, among other offenses.

The Senate’s impeachment rules committee set aside four charges involving Paxton’s private business dealings that House charges called obstruction of justice and false statements in official records. The Senate could dismiss those charges or hold a separate trial on them.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; Editing by Will Dunham, Donna Bryson, Andy Sullivan and Jonathan Oatis)

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By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Democratic and Republican leaders of the U.S. Senate expressed support for continued assistance for Ukraine on Tuesday, as lawmakers returned to Washington facing a tight deadline for passing spending bills.

President Joe Biden last month asked Congress to approve about $40 billion in additional spending, including $24 billion for Ukraine and other international needs, in a test of the country’s willingness to keep supporting Ukraine as it fights Russian invaders.

“We also must continue standing with our friends in Ukraine, now more than ever, as the counteroffensive against Putin’s forces is in full swing,” the Senate’s Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said in remarks opening the Senate after its August recess.

“The Senate’s top priority must be keeping the American people safe. And this month we’ll have the chance to do that with supplemental appropriations for urgent national security and disaster relief priorities,” Republican leader Mitch McConnell said.

“We need to continue to invest in America’s defense industrial base, both to support our partners in today’s fight and to help our forces deter tomorrow’s threats,” he said.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters at the White House earlier on Tuesday that the administration was working closely with both the Senate and House of Representatives on the supplemental aid package, which seeks funding through the end of 2023.

Sullivan said the administration believed it would be able to secure the necessary funding. “The conversations have been constructive, they’ve been positive they’ve been substantive and we anticipate being able to work our way through to a sound package so that Ukraine can get what it needs,” he said.

Prospects for Biden’s supplemental request could be less bright in the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority and some on the far right, particularly those most closely allied with former Republican President Donald Trump, have been critical of U.S. funding for Kyiv.

Biden’s request for Ukraine aid comes as lawmakers face an Oct. 1 deadline to pass at least a short-term spending bill or face an embarrassing government shutdown.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, additional reporting by Katharine Jackson; editing by Grant McCool)

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By Brad Brooks

(Reuters) -The Texas Senate on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to reject motions to dismiss impeachment charges against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as it opened a trial spearheaded by his fellow Republicans that could strip him of his job over allegations of corruption and other wrongdoing.

Paxton, an ally of former President Donald Trump, has been suspended from his post since the Texas House of Representatives voted in May to impeach him on 20 corruption charges including aiding a wealthy political donor and persecuting whistleblowers from his office who accused him of wrongdoing.

His fate rests with the 31-member state Senate, which has the power to remove him after a trial that opened on Tuesday on 16 of those articles of impeachment. The trial is expected to last several weeks. Both chambers of the legislature are controlled by Republicans.

The Senate on Tuesday voted on various pretrial motions. Senators rejected a motion to dismiss all the charges by a vote of 24-6 and voted against additional motions to throw out individual charges.

Paxton, also under investigation by the FBI, has denied wrongdoing and has portrayed the impeachment drive as a political witch hunt. Paxton, 60, has been elected to his post three times despite legal woes that stretch back to 2015, handily winning re-election last year.

As attorney general, he has backed powerful oil and gas interests and pursued restrictions on abortion and transgender rights. He has led Republican state opposition to the policies of Democratic presidents and filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat.

Paxton’s impeachment was triggered by his request that House lawmakers approve a $3.3 million settlement he reached with four former staff members who accused him of abuse of office and were subsequently fired. State lawmakers did not act on Paxton’s request.

The state House voted 121-23 to impeach him on 20 articles that accused him of improperly aiding a real estate developer named Nate Paul who donated to Paxton, conducting a sham investigation against the whistleblowers in his office, and covering up wrongdoing in a separate federal securities fraud case, among other offenses.

The Senate has 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats. If all the Democrats vote to convict Paxton as expected, nine Republicans would need to join them to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to permanently remove him from office.

Paxton’s wife, Angela, is a Republican state senator, but was not allowed to vote or participate in his trial due to concerns over conflict of interest.

The state Senate’s impeachment rules committee set aside four charges involving Paxton’s private business dealings that House charges said were obstruction of justice and false statements in official records. At the end of the trial on the 16 remaining charges, the Senate could dismiss those four charges or hold a separate trial on them.

The trial could expose a split among the state’s Republicans that echoes the national party’s divisions over Trump, who is the front-runner for his party’s nomination to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 U.S. election despite facing criminal charges this year in four separate cases.

Jonathan Stickland, who heads a political action committee backed by three billionaire oil tycoons, has vowed to work to ensure that Republicans who oppose Paxton face a well-funded primary opponent in their next election.

That pressure could help Paxton win acquittal, according to Rice University political scientist Bob Stein.

“If senators want to hold onto their seats, let alone do something in the future like run for Congress, they have to watch carefully what they do because of these political donors backing Paxton,” Stein said.

Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson pointed to the lopsided House vote as a sign that Paxton might not hold on to his job.

“There is great security in crowds. The crowd of Republicans that voted to impeach him in the House and those that will likely vote against him in the Senate are going to be harder to punish,” Jillson said.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; Editing by Will Dunham, Donna Bryson and Andy Sullivan)

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By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro arrived at court on Tuesday for a trial on two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress, after refusing to testify or provide documents to the U.S. congressional investigation of the 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Navarro, a China hawk who advised Republican Trump on trade issues and also served on the White House COVID-19 task force, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Jury selection will begin on Tuesday in the trial. It is unclear when opening statements will take place.

Upon arriving at court, Navarro said the case was about executive privilege and the constitutional separation of powers. He also made an appeal for donations to his legal defense fund.

“I am the first senior White House adviser ever to be charged with this crime,” he said.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack wanted to ask him about a “Green Bay Sweep” plan to delay Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory that Navarro later detailed in a book he wrote after leaving the White House.

The committee ultimately issued the findings from its investigation in December 2022 without getting the chance to interview Navarro.

Earlier this year, Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump criminally for trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat after making false claims of fraud.

Navarro has maintained that his refusal to testify or provide documents demanded by a congressional subpoena was sparked by Trump’s invocation of executive privilege, a legal doctrine that shields certain White House communications from disclosure.

He was not able to get Trump to testify and has only produced one letter written by Trump’s attorney after Navarro’s indictment that claimed Navarro had an obligation to assert privilege.

At a hearing on Aug. 28, Navarro testified that Trump made it “very clear” he should not testify before Congress in a phone call that took place 11 days after he received the committee’s February 2022 subpoena.

He said he relayed this message to the committee.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who will preside over the trial, questioned why Navarro could not articulate precisely what Trump said on the call.

“I still don’t know what the president said,” Mehta said at the hearing, adding that the evidence in support of Navarro’s claims was “pretty weak sauce.”

He ultimately rejected Navarro’s request to cite his phone call as evidence during the trial that Trump invoked privilege, finding Navarro had failed to provide adequate details about the substance of the call.

Mehta also found that even if Navarro believed he was immune from testifying, he still had to appear before the committee in response to the subpoena.

Each contempt count Navarro faces has the potential to a carry a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as a fine of up to $100,000.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who left the White House well before the Jan. 6 attack, was convicted on contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena before the same committee in July 2022.

He was sentenced to four months in prison in October, but his sentence was stayed pending appeal and has not been resolved.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington, additional reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Scott Malone and Grant McCool)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges in the Georgia election subversion case, joining two other allies of former President Donald Trump.

Meadows and lawyers John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark all waived formal arraignment, which had been scheduled for Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court.

The three were charged last month along with the Republican former president and 15 co-defendants with trying to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump is the front-runner for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

Meadows went from being one of Trump’s top Republican allies in the U.S. House of Representatives to becoming his White House chief of staff. Meadows attended White House meetings related to attempts to undo Trump’s election defeat.

The indictment alleges he helped to fuel the conspiracy by making false statements about the election and conspired with Trump to develop a plan to disrupt and delay the congressional certification of the electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

It also alleges that he tried to pressure a chief investigator in the Georgia secretary of state’s office, Frances Watson, to speed up the Fulton County signature verification and that he took part in a phone call in which Trump pushed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger declined to do so.

Eastman represented Trump in a long-shot lawsuit to overturn voting results in four states Trump lost in 2020. He has been under scrutiny by both U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office and state prosecutors in Georgia for writing a series of legal memos that claimed then-Vice President Mike Pence could reject electors from certain states to deny Biden a majority of Electoral College votes.

The indictment in Georgia’s Fulton County alleges Eastman was part of a plot to appoint fake electors. Eastman’s legal representative has called the indictment an effort to criminalize lawful political speech.

Clark was a high-ranking U.S. Justice Department official who, in the waning days of the Trump administration, sought to persuade Trump to oust Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen so that he could take over the department and help pursue Trump’s false claims by opening an investigation into voter fraud in Georgia and other states.

The federal indictment brought by Smith against Trump also appears to refer to Clark as a co-conspirator. The indictment cites Clark’s efforts to persuade Rosen to submit a letter to Georgia falsely claiming the Justice Department had detected voting irregularities there.

Trump and his former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pleaded not guilty last week and waived a formal arraignment. The Georgia charges marked Trump’s fourth indictment since he launched his re-election campaign for president in November last year.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu)

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By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) -Alabama’s Republican-backed congressional map illegally dilutes Black residents’ voting power and must be redrawn, a panel of federal judges ruled on Tuesday, boosting Democrats’ chances to win back a U.S. House majority in the 2024 election.

The ruling is the second time the court has thrown out a congressional plan enacted by the Republican-controlled state legislature, and the three-judge panel in Birmingham wrote that it saw little reason to give lawmakers a third chance. Instead, a court-appointed special master will be tasked with creating a new map ahead of next year’s vote.

“We have now said twice that this Voting Rights Act case is not close,” the judges wrote. “And we are deeply troubled that the State enacted a map that the State readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires.”

Under the Republican map, only one of the state’s seven congressional districts is majority Black, even though Black residents make up more than a quarter of the state’s population. The state’s lone Democratic U.S. representative, Terri Sewell, represents that district.

The panel first intervened in 2022, ruling that an earlier Republican plan was illegal. After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the panel’s decision in June, the Birmingham court ordered Alabama legislators to create a second district with either a Black majority or “something quite close” to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The law bars lawmakers from drawing district lines in a manner that discriminates against minority voters.

The latest plan increased the number of Black voters in a second district but fell far short of a majority, prompting civil rights groups to challenge the new map in court once again.

The Alabama case is among several legal battles over redistricting that could result in new congressional maps in at least half a dozen states, enough to determine congressional control in the November 2024 election. Republicans currently hold a slim 222-213 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

A Florida state judge on Saturday ruled that a redistricting plan advanced by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis violated the state constitution by unlawfully diminishing the power of Black voters in northern Florida. The judge ordered lawmakers back to the drawing board, though an appeal is likely.

The Supreme Court also ruled in June that a challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map could advance. A federal court has already ordered lawmakers to draw a second majority-Black district, and a U.S. appeals court is set to review the case next month.

Alabama’s Republican legislative leaders did not immediately comment on Tuesday’s ruling, but they are expected to appeal.

“Alabama openly admits its intention to defy the law and the U.S. Supreme Court,” the plaintiffs who challenged Alabama’s map, including the state chapter of the NAACP, said in a joint statement. “But we will not back down.”

(Reporting by Joseph AxEditing by Colleen Jenkins and Bill Berkrot)

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By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jeff Mason

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden took shots at his likely 2024 rival, Donald Trump, in a Labor Day speech aimed at shoring up support in Pennsylvania, a state he needs to win next year to retain the White House.

A self-described champion of labor unions, Biden addressed union workers on Monday in Philadelphia as he sought to explain his economic policies to a public worried about the economy, despite easing inflation and low unemployment levels.

“It wasn’t that long ago we were losing jobs in this country,” Biden said ahead of a parade marking the U.S. Labor Day holiday. “In fact, the guy who held this job before me was just one of two presidents in history who left office with fewer jobs in America than when he got elected.”

Biden earlier in the day weighed in on the tensions between the United Auto Workers union and the Detroit Three automakers, telling reporters he thought it was unlikely the UAW would strike when its current contract expires on Sept. 15.

That drew a response from union leadership, after the National Labor Relations board on Friday said it would investigate UAW claims that General Motors and Chrysler parent Stellantis were not bargaining in good faith, claims that the automakers deny.

“I appreciate the President’s optimism and I also hope that the Big Three will come to their senses and start bargaining in good faith, but we are ready to do what is necessary come Sept. 15 if they don’t,” said UAW President Shawn Fain in a statement.

Economic issues are likely to play a critical role in the 2024 presidential race, a likely rematch between Biden, a Democrat, and Republican former President Trump.

VOTERS’ ECONOMIC WORRIES

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed that the economy, unemployment and jobs remained Americans’ top concern. A full 60% of Americans, including one in three Democrats, said they disapproved of Biden’s handling of inflation, according to the poll.

Republicans say that Democratic policies helped spark the rise in prices, making Americans pay more for rent, groceries and gasoline under Biden’s watch.

The Federal Reserve has raised rates by 5.25 percentage points since March 2022 and the 30-year mortgage rate now stands above 7%.

Biden played up his record of job creation during his administration and took a dig at Trump, saying Trump’s presidency saw jobs shrink in America as businesses looked to China for workers.

The Laborers’ International Union Local 57 shirts read “We rebuilt Interstate 95 in 12 days,” referring to their work to restore service to a thoroughfare after part of it collapsed in June during a truck crash and fire. Rebuilding crumbling infrastructure has been a part of Biden’s pitch to voters, with a $1 trillion infrastructure law pumping money into projects built with union labor.

U.S. job growth picked up in August, but the unemployment rate jumped to 3.8%, from 3.5%, and wage gains moderated, according to last week’s Labor Department data – signs the labor market is cooling in response to the central bank’s rate hikes.

The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, however, has moved down to 3.3%, from its peak of 7% last summer. Although the decline was a “welcome development,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said late last month, inflation “remains too high” and interest rates may need to move higher.

In an opinion piece published ahead of Labor Day in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Biden highlighted his administration’s proposal to extend overtime pay to some 3.6 million Americans and praised unions for being good for the economy.

Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that are seen as politically competitive and likely to determine who wins the White House in 2024, with the other most competitive states being Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Philadelphia and Jeff Mason in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware; Additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Tomasz Janowski)

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By Jeff Mason

REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware (Reuters) – President Joe Biden travels to Philadelphia on Monday to mark U.S. Labor Day in a political battleground state where the White House hopes his emphasis on worker-friendly policies will help propel Biden to another victory in 2024.

After visiting Florida on Saturday to survey damage from Hurricane Idalia before going to his home state of Delaware, Biden, a Democrat, plans to speak at an AFL-CIO union group event in neighboring Pennsylvania, a state that helped him defeat former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

Biden describes himself as a pro-union president, and the White House has sought in recent months to sell his economic policies under the moniker of “Bidenomics” to a public worried about the economy, despite easing inflation and low unemployment levels.

Republicans counter that Democratic policies helped spark the higher prices that have cost Americans more when paying for rent, groceries and gasoline under Biden’s watch.

The Fed has raised rates by 5.25 percentage points since March 2022 and the 30-year mortgage rate now stands above 7%.

Inflation by the Fed’s preferred gauge, however, has moved down to 3.3% from its peak of 7% last summer. Although the decline was a “welcome development,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said late last month, inflation “remains too high” and the Fed might need to raise interest rates further.

U.S. job growth picked up in August, but the unemployment rate jumped to 3.8% and wage gains moderated, according to data released by the Labor Department last week. The labor market is slowing in response to the central bank’s rate hikes.

The White House notes inflation-adjusted income is up 3.5% since Biden came into office in January 2021, with lower-wage workers benefiting, and the unemployment rate is close to a 50-year low.

In an opinion piece published ahead of Labor Day in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Biden highlighted his administration’s proposal to extend overtime pay to some 3.6 million Americans and praised unions for being good for the economy.

“Every American willing to work hard should be able to get a job, raise their family on a good paycheck, and keep their roots where they grew up,” he wrote. “That’s why Bidenomics is anchored in what’s always worked best for our country: investing in America’s workers, the real heroes of our story.”

Economic issues are likely to play a critical role in the 2024 presidential race.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed that the economy, unemployment and jobs remained Americans’ top concern. A full 60% of Americans, including one in three Democrats, said they disapproved of Biden’s handling of inflation, according to the poll.

Pennsylvania and a handful of other political battleground states that fluctuate between supporting Democrats and Republicans in presidential elections will help determine who leads the country after next year.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Mary Milliken and Deepa Babington)

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By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jeff Mason

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden took shots at his likely 2024 rival, former President Donald Trump, on Monday in a Labor Day speech aimed at shoring up support in a state he needs to win next year to retain the White House.

A self-described champion of labor unions, Biden addressed union workers in Philadelphia as he sought to explain his economic policies to a public worried about the economy, despite easing inflation and low unemployment levels.

“It wasn’t that long ago we were losing jobs in this country,” Biden said ahead of a parade marking the U.S. Labor Day holiday. “In fact, the guy who held this job before me was just one of two presidents in history who left office with fewer jobs in America than when he got elected.”

Economic issues are likely to play a critical role in the 2024 presidential race, a likely rematch between Biden and Trump.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed that the economy, unemployment and jobs remained Americans’ top concern. A full 60% of Americans, including one in three Democrats, said they disapproved of Biden’s handling of inflation, according to the poll.

Republicans say that Democratic policies helped spark the rise in prices, making Americans pay more for rent, groceries and gasoline under Biden’s watch.

The Fed has raised rates by 5.25 percentage points since March 2022 and the 30-year mortgage rate now stands above 7%.

Biden played up his record of job creation during his administration and took a dig at Trump, saying jobs were being shipped to China under the Republican president and Trump’s presidency saw jobs shrink in America.

Some of the workers shouted “four more years” as the president came to stage. Workers and their young children nibbled on pretzels and snow cones.

The Laborers’ International Union Local 57 shirts read “We rebuilt Interstate 95 in 12 days,” referring to their work to restore service to a thoroughfare after part of it collapsed in June during a truck crash and fire.

U.S. job growth picked up in August, but the unemployment rate jumped to 3.8% from 3.5% and wage gains moderated, according to last week’s Labor Department data – signs the labor market is cooling in response to the central bank’s rate hikes.

The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, however, has moved down to 3.3% from its peak of 7% last summer. Although the decline was a “welcome development,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said late last month, inflation “remains too high” and the Fed might need to raise interest rates further.

In an opinion piece published ahead of Labor Day in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Biden highlighted his administration’s proposal to extend overtime pay to some 3.6 million Americans and praised unions for being good for the economy.

Pennsylvania is one of a handful of politically competitive states that fluctuate between supporting Democrats and Republicans in presidential elections.

Biden earlier told reporters he thought it was unlikely that the union representing the three big U.S. automakers would strike later this month.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Philadelphia and Jeff Mason in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware; Editing by Scott Malone and Tomasz Janowski)

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