‘I Am Not Abandoning You’: Biden Personally Counseled Randi Weingarten While Slow-Walking School Re-Opening

President Joe Biden personally counseled the head of one of the country’s largest teachers unions on her concerns regarding in-person learning while she slow-walked school re-openings, according to a new book released Tuesday on the White House.

Biden called Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in January 2021 to reassure the teachers union czar that he was on her side as she came under fire for being against the immediate return to in-person learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Franklin Foer’s book, “The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future.” In an effort to keep its peace with the teachers union, the Biden administration then reworked its goal of fully returning to in-person learning within its first 100 days, the book claims.

“I am not abandoning you on schools,” Biden told Weingarten, according to the book. “I want you to know that.”