Vice President Kamala Harris is downsizing President Joe Biden’s role in her campaign as she struggles to paint herself as an agent of change.
While Harris is barnstorming the country with a concoction of varied political allies, including former President Barack Obama and former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the Democratic Party’s commander in chief will be absent, according to NBC News.
“He’s out there doing the job as president, and she’s out there campaigning,” a Harris campaign official said. “It’s clear voters want something new.”
Biden’s campaign appearances on behalf of Harris throughout her presidential campaign have already been few and far between, but with two weeks to go until Election Day, they’re set to end altogether.
“The most important role he can play is doing his job as president,” Harris campaign officials reportedly said.
The news comes as critics have pressed Harris over how she would chart a “new way forward,” as her campaign slogan says, since she has been Biden’s vice president for nearly four years.
With voters expressing significant dissatisfaction over the economy, immigration, and foreign policy, Harris has long walked the line between touting her record as vice president and distancing herself from the Biden White House.
“Harris has to be establishing herself as a change agent, and it’s hard to do that with a sitting president at her side,” one Democratic strategist noted.
During a contentious interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier last week, Harris sparred with the host about how she has attempted to portray herself as an agent of change.
“Your campaign slogan is ‘A new way forward’ and ‘It’s time to turn the page.’ You’ve been vice president for 3 1/2 years. So, what are you turning the page from?” Baier asked.
Pivoting to an attack on former President Donald Trump, Harris replied that she hoped to “turn the page from the last decade in which we have been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump that has been designed and implemented to divide our country.”
Pushing back, Baier responded, “If you’re turning the page — you’ve been in office for 3 1/2 years,” to which Harris replied, “And Donald Trump has been running for office.”
“But you’ve been the person holding the office,” Baier said. Harris reiterated that “over the last decade,” she believes Trump has shown “he is unstable, that he is dangerous.”
BAIER: What are you turning the page from?
HARRIS: First of all, turning the page from the last decade in which we’ve been burdened by the kind of rhetoric from Donald Trump designed to divide our country pic.twitter.com/QK6Cl9cIT4
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2024
The back-and-forth came as the Trump campaign has used Harris’s status as vice president to paint her into a corner.
Speaking during the vice presidential debate about Harris’s plans to enact “all these great policies” if she wins the election, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) argued that “because she’s been the vice president for 3 1/2 years, she had the opportunity to enact all of these great policies.”
“If Kamala Harris has such great plans for how to address middle-class problems, then she ought to do them now, not when asking for a promotion, but in the job the American people gave her 3 1/2 years ago,” he added. “And the fact that she isn’t tells you a lot about how much you can trust her actual plans.”
But last Wednesday, Harris told voters: “Let me be very clear: My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency.”
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During a rare campaign stop for Harris on Oct. 15, Biden told attendees at the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee Autumn Dinner that “every president has to cut their own path.”
“That’s what I did. I was loyal to Barack Obama, but I cut my own path as president,” he said. “That’s what Kamala is going to do. She’s been loyal so far, but she’s gonna cut her own path.”