After helping Democrats to unceremoniously get him tossed off the top of the ticket, Kamala Harris has snubbed Joe Biden, saying she does not want his help on the campaign trail. Apparently, the VP does not want voters reminded of the failed presidency of her former boss as Election Day looms.
Biden has been trying to get out and campaign for Harris in the home stretch of the 2024 election but keeps getting told by her campaign that she’ll get back to him, Axios reported over the weekend.
“He’s a reminder of the last four years, not the new way forward,” an unnamed campaign staffer told the outlet.
As of this writing, with less than two weeks to the election, there aren’t any publicly scheduled events for both Harris, 60, and Biden, 81, to stump together prior to Election Day.
The sitting president has been on the campaign trail a few times, including on Oct. 15, when he delivered remarks to the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee Autumn Dinner, last Monday when he stumped in New Hampshire, and Saturday, when he campaigned in Pittsburgh.
Biden’s solo outing in Pittsburgh surprised some on Harris’ team, Axios reported.
This apparent slight against the president is significant considering Biden’s endorsement of Harris immediately after he announced he was dropping out of the race helped her quickly lock up the Democratic nomination with almost no fight.
“There is always speculation in political circles, but this is not accurate,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement about the report.
“We are in close touch with the campaign to determine when, where, and how the president can be helpful.”
Additionally, some of Harris’ allies were riled by the president’s off-the-cuff remarks that “we gotta lock [Trump] up.”
“Politically, lock him up — lock him out, that’s what we’ve got to do,” Biden quickly clarified, but the remark fed fodder to former President Donald Trump and other Republican critics.
Moreover, Biden has generally garnered less attention and fanfare compared to other prominent Democrats, such as former President Barack Obama, who was just in Georgia last Thursday and Michigan last Tuesday, among other recent stops.
Biden has also reportedly been mulling campaign work for Democrats facing Senate races in Delaware and Maryland.
Looming over Biden, reportedly being kept at arm’s length, are his dismal ratings, with a 40.8% approval to 56.6% disapproval score, per the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.
Harris has navigated questions about Biden carefully, publicly hailing his record and largely refraining from disparaging him despite a flood of polling pegging him underwater with the public.
“To be very candid with you, even including Mike Pence, vice presidents are not critical of their presidents,” Harris previously told NBC News, referring to Trump’s veep and describing the approach as a “tradition.”
She famously said in The View that there is “not a thing” she would’ve done differently than Biden” and has yet to clarify how four years of Harris-Walz will be any different or better for the American public than the last four dismal years of Biden-Harris.