Joe Biden’s endorsement of the right of workers at an Amazon facility in Alabama to unionize was the culmination of weeks of private talks with labor organizers and Democratic officials who viewed the standoff as an early test of the president’s commitment to their cause.

Unions are hoping the message, delivered by a video over Twitter, is a sign that organized labor will have staying power in the Biden White House and that it fuels support for a broader overhaul of federal labor law and expansion of union rights.

Democrats approached Biden advisers early this year to voice support for the factory workers. Discussions between White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, unions, and allied operatives took further shape in early February and continued through recent weeks. Those involved said they wanted Biden to weigh in with a forceful statement in support of the drive to become the first unionized Amazon facility in the U.S.

The White House, meanwhile, was undertaking a legal review to ensure any statement would be consistent with the president’s commitment to maintaining the independence of the National Labor Relations Board. Officials would not say when the review concluded. However, Klain privately indicated last week that he was looking to feature the president in a video message. Outside pressure for Biden to engage only grew from there.

That great sigh of relief you heard on Sunday was the sound of Democrats and the media welcoming Donald Trump’s return to public attention with his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. What would Washington Post writers do without him?

As for Republicans and Mr. Trump, the future isn’t as clear as the press and the former President would like. The CPAC crowd cheered his speech, which was largely a collection of greatest political hits. But if CPAC represented America, Mr. Trump would still reside in the White House, not Mar-a-Lago. He lost to Joe Biden, the old Democratic war horse, by seven million votes. He also lost five states he carried in 2016, even Georgia.

That’s the cold GOP reality as the former President seeks to dominate the party from exile and tease a 2024 comeback. Mr. Trump boasted about his record vote total for an incumbent President, and he took credit for every GOP success down the ballot in 2020. His estimable polling advisers, John and Jim McLaughlin, made the same case in our Letters column on Monday.

We welcome the debate, but if 2020 was so fabulous, why are Republicans shut out of power up and down Pennsylvania Avenue? They have zero influence over the $1.9 trillion spending extravaganza they rightly deplore. Democrats are slowly erasing the Trump legacy on taxes, deregulation, energy, education, and so much more.

About Lt. Governor Daniel J. McKee
Daniel J. McKee was sworn in as the 69th lieutenant governor of Rhode Island on Jan. 6, 2015. As lieutenant governor, Dan is focused on creating more economic opportunity for all Rhode Island families and building solvent communities.

As a small businessman and elected official, he has spent his adult life advocating for positive change in Rhode Island. His record is one of strong fiscal management, visionary education initiatives and thoughtful economic development.

His tenure at the State House had been marked by the same leadership approach. He is using the lieutenant governor's office to support small businesses, improve the state's economic situation and be a champion of Rhode Island's cities and towns, which have been underrepresented.

He served as Chair of the National Lieutenant Governors Association, co-chair of the NLGA's Energy Committee and a member of its Education Committee.

Dan is a lifelong Rhode Islander who graduated from Cumberland High School. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science and education from Assumption College in Massachusetts and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He has owned and operated successful small businesses in the Blackstone Valley for three decades. Dan has been a member of the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Cumberland-Lincoln for 25 years and served as a youth basketball coach.

Dan and his wife Susan have two grown children, Matt and Kara.

http://www.ltgov.ri.gov/about/

Washington (CNN)The Senate voted 64-33 on Monday to confirm Miguel Cardona, a former public school teacher, as secretary of education.

He faces the monumental task of helping guide school districts to safely provide in-person instruction as teachers' unions in some places across the country are fighting reopening plans.

President Joe Biden has pledged to reopen most schools by May, within his first 100 days in office, and is pushing Congress to approve another $170 billion in education funding.

Cardona, whose family is from Puerto Rico, enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top of Connecticut's public education system. He began his career as fourth-grade teacher in Meriden, in the same district where he attended school. Cardona soon became a principal and then assistant superintendent of the district before being named state commissioner in 2019.