The White House has stayed mum for three weeks about how it plans to ‘recalibrate’ the president’s activities – but Joe Biden’s new role as occasional campaign surrogate, store-minder, and beachgoer is already apparent from his activities.
Biden offered his first detailed comments on what he sees as his role in the 2024 campaign Sunday now that he is no longer the nominee.
It looks to be a schedule wit a circumscribed political role that will keep him relatively close to home, while Vice President Kamala Harris is tasked with hopscotching to different screaming crowds around the country.
Asked if people would see him campaigning around the country during the sprint to the November election, Biden, 81, responded in a new interview: ‘Yes, you will.’
He talked up his role advising to Harris – whose elected role has been to advise him. ‘I talk to her frequently,’ he told CBS, saying she has known her new running mate Tim Walz ‘for several decades’ and considers him a ‘great guy.’
That comes after White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described Biden’s participation in the Harris VP selection process when asked directly by DailyMail.com whether he gave her a recommendation.
‘The vice president sought the president’s advice, and – and, you know, she certainly welcomed – the vice president welcomed his advice,’ she said, calling the pair ‘critical partners.’
‘But she sought his advice. He offered the advice. She welcomed the advice. And I’ll just leave it there,’ she said.
Biden is also teasing a ‘campaign tour’ through Pennsylvania, a state he has tended to assiduously, and where he was trailing Donald Trump in battleground polls before dropping out.
‘I was talking to Governor Shapiro, who’s a friend. We have got to win Pennsylvania, my original home state. He and I are putting together a campaign tour in Pennsylvania. I’m gonna be campaigning in other states as well. And I’m gonna do whatever Kamala thinks I can do to help most,’ he said.
That effort has yet to be announced by the Harris campaign.
Biden’s first event with Harris will be in Maryland, a heavily Democratic state that borders Washington, D.C. It is billed as an official, not a campaign, event.
The VP wants Biden in ‘targeted places where he has the most strength,’ Politico reported last week. That includes with older white voters in states he carried. ‘It’s very hard to see the Harris team wanting him out there on the trail’ after the party pushed him out, one operative told the publication.
There are early indications that the Harris camp believes Biden can contribute by laying low and allowing her to build her own brand. Her favorable rating jumped 10 points in Pennsylvania compared to a month ago in a new New York Times / Siena poll. Her favorability rating hit 51 percent among likely Pennsylvania voters in the the poll.
In a separate Hill / Emerson poll in the state in late July, Scranton-born Biden’s was 37 per cent.
There have been reports that Biden would appear at the Democratic Convention in Chicago for a single day – the first – then leave the stage to other Democratic luminaries. The Clintons, Obamas, and members of the Harris circle are set to be the big draws of the event. It is unclear what role he might play in party fundraising.
Biden repeated his refrain: ‘Watch,’ to questions about his health. ‘Look, I had a really, really bad day in that debate because I was sick. But I have no serious problem,’ he said in his sit-down.
One thing Biden shows no signs of giving up is getting out of D.C. for the weekend. He flew to his home state Thursday, thanking campaign staff and then heading to his Delaware beach house.
His getaway has included a bike ride and some time on the beach with wife Jill and granddaughter Naomi.
It isn’t all play for Biden, as the White House demonstrated last week when the president announced an elaborate prisoner exchange with Russia involving multiple countries that brought Americans home.
Biden was accompanied by Harris when he welcomed them at Joint Base Andrews. The president continues to press for a cease fire deal in Gaza, which if it could be reached might benefit Harris more than any campaign appearance. He signed a joint letter with the heads of Egypt and Qatar Thursday saying there was ‘no further time to waste.’
He issued brief warning to Iran when asked about a feared attack on Israel by proxies. ‘Don’t,’ was his brief response to a question.
He got asked about Gaza, as well as Donald Trump’s claim that he was angry about being pushed out, on his Sunday bike ride. The president smiled and waived as he rode by.