By Matthew Benzmiller

Union leaders were upset at the revelation that many union members voted for Donald Trump and not their favored candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Exit polling showed that from members of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) one in five members voted for Trump. Members of the National Education Association (NEA) had even higher percentages of Trump voters; one out of three. This is despite how hard these unions tried to rally their members for Hillary and the over $100 million unions spent on the 2016 election.

Union bosses made baseless excuses for why so many members voted for President Elect Trump. ATF President Randi Weingarten even tried painting her own member base as sexist for not having voted for Hillary Clinton:

“Frankly I was always concerned about whether the country was ready to have a female president,” she said. “There was an intensity of hatred that male political figures never get. So I think we’re never really going to understand it.”

This is a typical tactic for the left to pull. “If somebody doesn’t agree with a woman, he must be sexist against women!” This is incredibly insulting to the female union members who voted for Trump based on their preference for him as a person and his policies.

Weingarten even went so far to say that she had no regrets at all about supporting Clinton and had this to say about the Democratic nominee competitor against Clinton, Bernie Sanders, who was widely popular among union members: “[Bernie Sanders] was never tested or vetted by anyone, and frankly we have no idea whether he would have actually been able to get through this crucible … either.” We might never get a proper explanation as to what vetting Weingarten was even talking about. Presidential candidates do not have some specific person who vets them based on policies to be eligible to run for office.

Many voters felt disenfranchised when Wikileaks revealed collusion between the Clinton campaign and the DNC, which worked to elect Hillary as the Democratic nominee regardless of how well Bernie Sanders was doing in the primaries. Voters saw Hillary as the political insider, and Sanders as the outsider with radical new ideas. Many viewed Trump as another outsider, so when forced to choose between Clinton and Trump, some Bernie voters chose Trump.

One person knowledgeable about the unions’ campaign said, “I would argue that this was not an election that was won or lost on issues and policies.” He or She could not be more wrong. Many union workers saw the benefits that Donald Trump’s policies would bring to the American worker. Trump wants to enforce US immigration laws, which would raise wages when illegals, who have flooded the market with low wage labor, are deported or are prevented from entering.

Trump is also opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Clinton had called the “gold standard” for trade deals. Workers knew this was not a fair trade deal that could lead to more jobs being sent overseas rather than staying in America.

The overblown and insulting accusations coming from union leaders about their members are most likely coming from the fear that their power may soon be taken from them. When Trump becomes president, he will have House and Senate Republican majorities, paving way for an historic opportunity for labor law reform.