Associated Press
On the last day of August, President Joe Biden was asked about his fall campaign plans. He promised a Labor Day appearance in Pittsburgh and said he would be “on the road from there on.”
Biden did campaign with Vice President Kamala Harris on Labor Day, but he largely has been a campaign no-show since. Beyond that, sometimes his official events push hers to the background.
Case in point: After Hurricane Helene, Harris scrapped campaign events in Las Vegas to hurry back to Washington for a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But as Harris stepped to a podium in the command center, Biden was delivering his own storm response comments from the Oval Office, pulling the political spotlight away from his intended successor.
The lack of presidential campaigning and occasional schedule clashes could matter not just for Harris but as Democrats try to hold control of the Senate and retake the House and compete in races further down the ballot.
Even former President Barack Obama announced he will campaign for Harris. Obama will appear in Pittsburgh on Thursday and plans to spend the remaining time before the Nov. 5 election traveling to battleground states. He also recorded ads promoting Democratic Senate candidates in Michigan, Maryland and Florida.
It is not uncommon for a lame-duck president to struggle with finding the right balance between fulfilling the job and carving out a role in a would-be successor’s campaign. Biden’s situation is unusual because he was seeking a second term until his dramatic departure from the race left Harris with a condensed time frame for her own run.
“I think he’s doing his job as president,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday. “I think that’s the most important thing.”
Hurricane Helene has complicated matters in the short term. Biden canceled a campaign stop in Pennsylvania this past week and he and Harris made separate trips Wednesday to the Carolinas and Georgia, respectively, to survey the damage and offer support.
That time, their remarks did not overlap. But on Friday, while Harris was speaking about the importance of unions outside Detroit, Biden caused a stir by making a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room. It was the first of his presidency.
Biden has taken official trips to battleground states and he will be in suburban Philadelphia on Tuesday to campaign for Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. The Harris team had no comment on its hopes for Biden’s campaign role.
The president was born in Pennsylvania and maintains a strong connection to its union leaders and blue-collar voters, and former Democratic National Committee chief Donna Brazile said she would “put him on a bus” to campaign there.
“I would make sure he is out there in the closing weeks and days of the campaign,” Brazile said. “He connects with people she will need.”
Biden and Harris have appeared together at several other official events, including a recent one at the White House on combating gun violence, and at a health care-related event in August where Biden said, “We cannot let Kamala lose.” Both have been in the Situation Room frequently to discuss the growing conflict in the Middle East.
On Labor Day, when Biden and Harris made their lone joint political appearance since the vice president took over the top on the ticket, the White House asked that Biden introduce Harris. The break with protocol was meant to highlight her record of supporting union workers.
“If you elect Kamala Harris as president it will be the best decision you will have ever made,” Biden told the crowd.
But when he finished speaking, Biden began shaking hands with those around him — an awkward moment because Harris had yet to have her turn at the podium.
It is an open question whether Harris really wants Biden’s help, given that Democratic voters say they are far happier with her than they were with Biden as their nominee. Harris has praised the administration and her work in it, while also seeking to show distance on some key issues.
Biden’s campaign absence could now be compounded as his administration deals with the recovery effort after Helene and the expanding conflict in the Mideast.
“You don’t need to campaign when you’re just doing your job,” said Nikki Fried, chair of the Democratic Party in Florida. Biden visited parts of the state on Thursday, demonstrating, as Fried put it, that “the full force of the federal government stands with the people during times of heartbreak and uncertainty.”
But then there are always big demands on a president’s time — from the U.N. General Assembly meetings last month in New York to Biden’s upcoming travel to Germany and Angola. Though the White House says there will be more political events after that, the trip means he will not have time to turn his attention to campaigning for Harris until at least mid-October — just three weeks before Election Day.
Fried thinks Biden will make it work.
“Joe Biden loves being on the campaign trail,” she said. “You can see him walking around and talking to voters and to communities, and it certainly puts an extra lift in his step and a smile on his face.”
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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
25 comments
Bobblehead Kammy
October 5, 2024 at 5:09 pm
Come on AP. The Demo machine, the media, and such are attempting to portray Kammy as a fresh candidate and hoping to separate her from the last nearly four disastrous years of this administration. Of course the zombie force has amnesia. Then again the way Joe walks and talks I honk he is headed for Universal Studios and will be a Halloween Horror Night character. Night of the Living Dead comes to mind.🤣
Billy Rotberg
October 5, 2024 at 6:01 pm
The walking corpse https://youtube.com/shorts/9iDk5o3ZvhY?si=OGiEnVYq5JiEJoi1
Bobblehead Kammy
October 6, 2024 at 10:20 am
Dana Carvey nailed his impression of Joe Biden on SNL. It was funny not mean spirited like the Alec Baldwin imitations of Trump years back.
Bobblehead Kammy
October 5, 2024 at 5:09 pm
think
Billy Rotberg
October 5, 2024 at 6:00 pm
Joe is too busy eating ice cream and looking for children to sniff
Jojo
October 5, 2024 at 6:05 pm
Don’t be disgusting.. it just shows your under education
Billy Rotberg
October 6, 2024 at 12:09 pm
That’s what Biden does. Apparently you are blind and have not seen the hours of video of Biden sniffing kids, their mothers and eating ice cream.
A day without Libturds
October 6, 2024 at 12:30 pm
You libturds are truth deniers. Creepy joe will always be creepy Your libturd supremacist gibberish is lame.
Jojo
October 5, 2024 at 6:04 pm
Oh I don’t know… he’s running the country???
Stupid reporter
Ron Ogden
October 5, 2024 at 9:56 pm
There are four reasons the Dems want to keep Biden away from the trail. Put them in any order you wish:
1/ After months of telling us how good he was doing, they know things are going really poorly in the country and the world and they don’t want him to screw things up worse with displays of angry defensiveness.
2/ Things are going really bad right now in the country and world and he is, after all, the president and he might be called upon in the next couple of weeks to make very serious decisions on very serious topics. He does have to do his job, God help us all.
3/ Obama is riding in to save the day and the two of them can’t stand each other, and Kammy can’t handle that kind of mess on top of trying to lead a campaign without any previous experience, or
4/ They know that Joe just doesn’t cut it with anybody any more so why haul his puckered ass out and expose it to ridicule. Some geriatric Demis really don’t want to see the old crook hurt any worse than they already hurt him this summer, especially when it won’t do anyone any good.
Ocean Joe
October 6, 2024 at 8:52 am
Nothings perfect, but a great jobs report, stock market is strong, fears of recession are merely fears, and with all the hurricane damage we have an administration that cares about all Americans regardless of how they voted. Trump’s handling of the pandemic was the chaos Jeb! and others warned about.
Regardless, you and Bobblehead are the folks Trump was talking about when he talked about Fifth Avenue. Continue to worship the guy. He stole your party out from under you and you dont even know it.
Bobblehead Kammy
October 6, 2024 at 9:21 am
No mention of the millions allowed in by Kammy and Joe. When was the last time Iran attacked Israel twice in one year? Inflation is rampant. Besides fuel prices there are so many other examples of prices gone crazy. FEMA funds diverted to care for people that haven’t paid a penny in taxes.
yew oweme
October 7, 2024 at 12:25 pm
MAGA MARK , as usual your post is full of lies. do you ever tell the truth?
A day without Libturds
October 6, 2024 at 12:28 pm
You are literally a trash possum defending DEM garbage. Swallow more bs. You love the taste!
SUCKER!!!
yew oweme
October 7, 2024 at 12:31 pm
LIPTURD, are you still at it. do you not know how to act in a civil way? no you don’t. you are jealous of the success of the dems . how pitiful of you.
My Take
October 6, 2024 at 12:20 am
Melania is notably missing from the other campaign.
I wonder why
Bobblehead Kammy
October 6, 2024 at 6:11 am
She did a sit down with Fox yesterday. I wonder why.😜
Tom
October 6, 2024 at 6:33 am
The grift – she’s hawking a new book, bible, shoes, watch, NFT, used knickers … could be anything. If there’s a buck in it, there a trump in it.
Bobblehead Kammy
October 6, 2024 at 7:50 am
Then there is the Biden family. All millionaires. Heck Hunter sat in the board of Burisma collection big bucks and can’t read or write the local language. Talk about grift.😜
Tom
October 6, 2024 at 12:46 pm
Really? When it comes to grifting, trumps trump everyone. Even his niece is in on it and she claims to hate him. Carlo Ponzi would be jealous.
My Take
October 7, 2024 at 2:07 pm
Where is Melania ON THE CAMPAIGN?
Or in the courtrooms for that matter.
Phil Morton
October 6, 2024 at 5:36 pm
Major hurricane damage across 6 states, Israel bombing everybody, Putin doing Putin stuff al over the world. Hey, let’s go do a campaign rally and have some fun. Not Joe’s way of governing.
Bobblehead Kammy
October 7, 2024 at 9:53 am
Are you going to tell me Joe is governing? Dude is working on his tan in Delaware.
The Sage "E"
October 7, 2024 at 9:32 pm
Good evening beloved undecided voters,
Please use exreme caution with these A. P articals because the A. P. is “IN THE TANK” for another term of The Harris Admimistration.
The Country cant sustain its self under a HARRIS ADMINISTRATION 2.0.
Please for your family’s sake seek out a reliable news source.
Thank you beloved undecided voters,
“E”
yew oweme
October 7, 2024 at 11:08 pm
EARL, your garbage talk is not helping anyone.
Comments are closed.