GOP Rep. attacks AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka's 'socialist policies' in bizarre statement following his death
Richard Trumka, the longtime leader of the influential AFL-CIO, died on Thursday at age 72. As a labor activist at the head of such a powerful union federation, condolences and remembrances quickly began rolling in from countless union leaders and Democratic lawmakers, reports NPR.
One Republican, however, had a slightly less warm and fuzzy way of eulogizing Trumka. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) wrote that her "heart goes out to his family," but, "that said," criticized what she called the "socialist policies endorsed by the AFL-CIO."
Her statement stood in stark contrast to those from lawmakers like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who said in an emotional speech on the Senate floor that Trumka "had in his veins, in every atom of his body, the heart, the thoughts, the needs of the working people of America ... The working people of America have lost a fierce warrior at a time when we needed him most."
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Foxx's statement garnered criticism from people like Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman and readers who pointed out that her opposition to labor movement priorities championed by the AFL-CIO kind of went without saying.
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