President Joe Biden has offered to stump on behalf of his number two, Kamala Harris, in the waning days of election season, only for Harris to give him the cold shoulder, reports indicate.
Several outlets have reported that the Harris campaign is keeping Biden at arm’s length. The following are a smattering of headlines that have been published in just the last few days:
“Harris stiff-arms Biden in final stretch” — Axios,”Kamala Harris Is Ghosting Joe Biden, Who Wants To Campaign With Her” — Times Now,”Wishing he could do more, Biden fades into campaign’s background” — Politico, and”Kamala Harris keeps snubbing President Biden’s requests to campaign for her: report” — the New York Post.
While the Axios headline uses a football metaphor, the report actually compares the relationship between Harris and Biden to “a slow-moving break-up.” Sources familiar with the situation told the outlet that anytime Biden offers to campaign on her behalf, Harris’ people offer the same response: “We’ll get back to you.”
“He’s a reminder of the last four years, not the new way forward,” another unnamed source told the outlet.
‘There’s really not anything he can do to help at this point.’
With just over a week left before Election Day, Biden and Harris have no joint public appearances on their schedule, and Biden’s stop in Pittsburgh to meet with various
union leaders on Saturday reportedly took the Harris team by surprise.
“I have walked the picket line, and so has Kamala,” Biden said during a 20-minute speech at the Allegheny-Fayette Labor Council apprentice training center, according to
TribLive. “This is about decency versus lack of decency. This is about character.”
While Biden’s overall approval rating has been in the tank for some time, Scranton Joe still enjoys some enduring support among blue-collar,
Catholic areas of the Rust Belt, particularly Pennsylvania. He also appears to do well with some seniors, a reliable voting bloc.
Harris could likely use those votes. Most polls on
RealClearPolitics show former President Donald Trump with a slight lead in Pennsylvania, a state with a whopping 19 electoral votes. In 2020, Biden
officially bested Trump in the Keystone State by 1.2%.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates denied that the Harris team did not know about Biden’s trip to Pittsburgh and insisted that Biden stands ready to help Harris in any way he can. “We are in close touch with the campaign to determine when, where and how the president can be helpful,” Bates told Axios.
However, in a recent “Days Ahead” email sent by the Harris team, which listed a series of campaign events, Biden’s stops in Pittsburgh were not mentioned.
At a stop in New Hampshire last Tuesday, Biden also ruffled a few feathers after he railed about locking Trump up. “We gotta lock him up,” Biden said.
Perhaps recognizing that he may have overstepped and admitted a deliberate lawfare campaign against a political rival, Biden
quickly added, “Politically lock him up. Lock him out. That’s what we have to do.”
Thus far, Biden’s overtures have reportedly failed to ingratiate him with Harris and her team, even as RCP averages suggest she currently trails Trump in other key battleground states, including
Arizona,
Georgia,
Michigan, and
Wisconsin.
“I don’t think it’s all that useful to the campaign,” one Democrat said of Biden’s campaign events, according to Politico. “But there’s really not anything he can do to help at this point. Maybe some of these events around policy accomplishments make a difference on the margins. But at best, they’re probably a wash.”
Neither the Harris campaign nor the vice president’s office responded to a request for comment from Axios. The New York Post likewise reached out for comment.
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Biden, Kamala harris, Rust belt, Trump, Polls, Battleground states, Politics
