Sept. 2, 1964 - James R. Hoffa said today that he would attempt to block the election of Robert F. Kennedy as U.S. Senator from New York.
Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, charged that Kennedy was “temperamentally and morally unfit” to hold public office.
The union leader made his remarks following a meeting with Teamster officials to discuss election strategy. Hoffa and Kennedy have been at odds since 1954.
At that time, Kennedy, as counsel to a Senate committee investigating labor-management relations, began a campaign against corruption and coercion in labor unions. He centered his attack on the leadership of the Teamsters, the largest union in the nation.
The short, stocky labor leader has blamed Kennedy for all his difficulties with the law in the last 10 years. These include convictions for jury tampering and conspiracy to misuse pension funds of his union. He has appealed both convictions.
In announcing his opposition to Kennedy, Hoffa said he planned to “discuss Mr. Kennedy’s record in public life and his violation of his oath of office from New York to Buffalo and outside that state, too.”
“I have an affidavit in my pocket,” he continued, “that proves he informed witnesses to hide until my trial was over. He deliberately permitted wiretapping, letter watching, and the hiding of evidence in that [jury tampering] trial.”
Hoffa’s move threatens a major split in the union’s ranks in New York City, where John O’Rourke, president of Joint Council 16, which includes 175,000 union members, has already endorsed Kennedy.
A top Teamster official, reached in New York by telephone, said of Hoffa’s decision: “It he’s that stupid, he’s really gone. He’s living in another world.”
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