Source: Politics<\/p>\n
BOSTON \u2014 Help Raphael Warnock from afar: Check. Earn some union credibility: Also check.<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden returned to Boston on Friday for a whirlwind afternoon that began with a Prince William meeting and ended with a fundraiser for the vulnerable Democratic senator ahead of Tuesday\u2019s Georgia runoff election.<\/p>\n
But it was the union-sponsored phone bank that underscored the dual purposes of Biden\u2019s hastily thrown-together trip \u2014 finding a safe way to help Warnock and showing off his union support hours after he signed a controversial bill averting a freight rail workers\u2019 strike.<\/p>\n
A grinning Biden was met with a standing ovation and a \u201cwe love you, Joe\u201d at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 in Dorchester as photographers clicked away. A few union members wore \u201cIBEW FOR JOE\u201d t-shirts. A plastic bag full of buttons with Biden\u2019s name on them sat on a table by the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you\u2019re doing really makes a gigantic difference,\u201d Biden told the room. \u201cWe need that 51st vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IBEW provided friendly territory for Biden. It\u2019s a few blocks from Labor Secretary Marty Walsh\u2019s home in Boston\u2019s Dorchester neighborhood. The union hosted Vice President Kamala Harris for an abortion-access roundtable in August. Lou Antonellis, the Local 103 business manager, told reporters that \u201cthe president has already established himself as the most pro-labor, pro-worker president in the history of the United States.\u201d He declined to answer questions about the president\u2019s handling of the rail strike.<\/p>\n
While Biden basked in the glow of the IBEW\u2019s goodwill, the phone bank for Warnock was relatively brief. Members began making calls only about 45 minutes before the president entered the room. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who joined in alongside fellow Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, could be heard talking to someone who said they were in New York. Press were ushered out of the function room after the president took a few selfies and made a few calls. A few minutes after he left, many of the dialers picked up boxes of leftover pizza and headed for the door.<\/p>\n
Biden likely made up for it at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser \u2014 the original reason for his return to Massachusetts less than a week after he left Nantucket \u2014 with Warren and Markey at a private residence in Boston\u2019s pricey Beacon Hill neighborhood where he reiterated the need for Democrats to gain the upper hand in the Senate that\u2019s currently split 50-50.<\/p>\n
Biden has no plans to visit Georgia ahead of Tuesday. Instead, by campaigning for Warnock some 1,000 miles away, the president is continuing his successful midterm strategy of helping from a distance. Biden aides told the Associated Press that Warnock\u2019s campaign requested the Boston trip. And deep-pocketed Massachusetts is as good a place as any to help replenish the coffers Senate Democrats\u2019 campaign arm drained by pouring millions into Warnock\u2019s runoff election against Republican Herschel Walker.<\/p>\n
Yet Biden drew the most attention Friday for his meeting with the Prince of Wales at the John F. Kennedy Library for a mostly private meeting in which the two took in the \u201cspectacular\u201d skyline view and shared \u201cwarm memories\u201d of the late Queen Elizabeth II, according to pool reports.<\/p>\n
The two also share an affinity for the late president. The British royals were concluding a three-day tour of Boston on Friday that culminated in their Earthshot climate innovator prize awards \u2014 an initiative named after Kennedy\u2019s famed \u201cmoonshot\u201d speech. Biden delivered remarks on his administration\u2019s similarly named cancer moonshot initiative during a visit to the library in September.<\/p>\n