President Biden and Vice President Harris are scheduled to appear together on Thursday in what will be their most significant joint appearance since VP Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press conference on Monday that Biden and Harris would travel a short distance to Prince George’s County, Maryland, “to remark on the progress being made to ease the burden on the American people.”
Next week, Biden will also attend the Democratic National Convention, an undoubtedly bittersweet affair for the president, who will be visiting Chicago not to accept the nomination but to pass on the baton, until his disastrous debate with former President Trump in late June was overturned.
Biden’s appearances this week and next are a preview of the bigger, more difficult undertaking Harris will have to undertake as the clock ticks toward the election.
She is the first vice president in nearly a quarter century to run for president while also serving as vice president, but unlike her predecessor in that regard, 2000 Democratic nominee Al Gore, she doesn’t have the advantage of a popular boss to give her a political boost.
Biden has mediocre approval ratings, struggles with centrist voters on key issues like the economy and immigration, and has an entirely different problem with Democrats on Israel and Gaza.
There’s also the question of how much Democratic voters want Biden to play a major role in the campaign.
The harsh reality is that Harris became the nominee because Biden’s debate performance was so bad that Democrats decided he had no chance of winning. Specifically, the conflict raised a whole new level of concern about Biden’s cognitive abilities.
It’s hard to pinpoint which parts of the Democratic coalition would be especially excited by Biden’s arrival: Even at his best, Biden has never enthused his base the way former President Barack Obama did, for example.
So difficult questions abound for Harris, her campaign and the White House: How can the campaign use Biden? How can the vice president distance herself from Biden without appearing disloyal? And how can Harris outline her own policy agenda without appearing to openly disagree with the president she continues to serve?
The final dilemma is already emerging.
Harris suddenly announced during a speech in Las Vegas last weekend that she supports eliminating tip taxes on hospitality and service workers, a move that mimicked a similar proposal by Trump and raised questions in the White House about whether Biden supports the move (the answer is yes) and, if so, why he never proposed it himself over the past three years.
There are also appearances to manage: It is unclear whether Mr. Biden will still be at the Democratic National Convention next Thursday night, when Ms. Harris is due to deliver a key speech accepting the nomination. Mr. Jean-Pierre declined to address the issue at his Monday briefing.
Some Democrats have argued that there are elements of Biden’s record that would make Harris acceptable.
They’re looking at the president’s big legislative accomplishments, like the infrastructure bill and the Inflation Control Act, and the elements of those measures that will most clearly provide tangible benefits to people’s lives.
The most commonly cited example is capping insulin costs for seniors on Medicare to $35 a month.
Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh argued that Biden’s record gives Harris a theme to campaign on while also giving her room to lay out her own agenda. The progress of a Biden-Harris administration “provides Harris with a tipping point to position this election as an election about the future,” Longabaugh said.
Longabaugh also argued that Harris has a significant advantage in being able to repurpose Biden’s campaign staff and funds for her own purposes, rather than starting from scratch, as has been the case for other Democratic candidates.
“He’s already entrusted her with a huge amount of political work,” Longabaugh said, adding that “having the political team and campaign infrastructure built into her is a huge asset.”
Still, other Democrats worry that Ms Harris will be too tied to Mr Biden.
An average of polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight found that only 39% of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing, while nearly 56% disapprove. The latest Economist/YouGov poll, released last week, found that just 40% approve of Biden’s handling of jobs and the economy. On immigration, that number dropped to just 33%.
Republicans have said they would welcome Biden making more campaign appearances, but even they acknowledge that is unlikely to happen.
“I think Biden will be used in a very limited way,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist and chairman of the Travis County, Texas, Republican Party.
“I think the risk of his involvement is pretty high. Not just that he’s gone off message or has an episode. He’s also a reminder of the unusual circumstances that led to her being selected as a candidate. His unpopularity is his, not hers, but he’s still holding her back.”
Biden is a proud man and will not want to end his presidency on a weak note.
But even Republicans like Mackowiak don’t expect to see much of him on the campaign trail.
“I don’t think he’ll be completely invisible,” one Republican strategist predicted, “but he will be the most underused president of the modern era.”
This note is a reporting column by Niall Stanage.
