Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien excoriated the Democratic Party for turning their backs on the working class and defended the decision not to endorse nominee Kamala Harris for president, asserting that Democrats are "bought and paid for by Big Tech."
O'Brien made the comments Monday in an episode of "This Past Weekend" with comedian Theo Von, beginning at the 41:00 mark of the interview.
"I'll be honest with you, I'm a Democrat, but they have f----- us over for the last 40 years," O'Brien said. "And for once, and not all of them, but for once, we're standing up as a union, probably the only one right now, saying, 'What the f--- have you done for us?'"
The Teamsters opted against endorsing Harris last month, only the third time in their history they have decided against doing so. Nearly 60% of Teamsters members who participated in an electronic survey supported Trump compared to 34% for Harris. A phone survey also found Trump leading Harris, 58% to 38%.
"If 60% of our members aren't supporting [Democrats], the f------ system's broken," O'Brien told Von. "You need to fix it. Stop pointing fingers at Sean O'Brien. Stop pointing fingers at the Teamsters union. Look in the mirror."
Further, O'Brien said the union is looking for "a return on our investment."
"I'm getting attacked from the left, and we've given — since I've been in office, 2 1/2 years — we've given the Democratic machine $15.7 million," O'Brien said. "We've given Republicans about $340,000, truth be told. So it's like, you know, people say the Democratic Party is the party of the working people; they're bought and paid for by Big Tech."
O'Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention but was not granted a slot at the Democratic National Convention.
"Before, you always had Democrats fighting for working people, and, you know, Republicans, now we kind of see a switch where working people feel like, number one, they've been left behind by the Democratic Party," he said. "Two, you know, the Republicans say they want to be working class [and] represent the working class. They have an opportunity to do it."