With VP Kamala Harris hogging the national spotlight and her boss nowhere to be found, it’s easy to forget that the country still has a president. But we do, and his feelings are hurt. Harris can’t put enough miles between her campaign and her role in the Biden administration’s failed policies, and the President is feeling more than a little left out.
After all, his “selfless sacrifice” allowed Harris to step in and pinch-hit for him.
Biden has reportedly told his close friends that he feels “left behind” as other Democrats quickly support Kamala Harris, their new presidential candidate, in her fight against Donald Trump. NBC reported that Biden feels like his achievements in the White House are being ignored, leaving him with “very mixed” feelings about how things have turned out this summer.
But Harris faces a tricky situation: She can’t promise to solve the nation’s top issues, like crime, inflation, and border security, without criticizing the policies of the Biden-Harris administration. However, she must also support those same policies to show her “achievements” during her three and a half years in power.
Those “achievements” include unchecked inflation, the southern border invasion, and foreign policy mistakes, including the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Harris claims she is focused on the future. She points out that she isn’t Biden and says her presidential bid ushers in a “new generation of leadership.”
But ever helpful, Biden told the harpies on The View last week that he delegated everything to Harris during their term in office. “As Vice President, there wasn’t a single thing that I did that she couldn’t do, and so I was able to delegate her responsibility on everything from foreign policy to domestic policy.”
Harris has learned that aligning with the administration’s decisions in her campaign is a damaging gamble. After bragging that she was the “last person in the room” with Biden when he decided to pull forces from Afghanistan, she said she was proud of the decision. Just a few weeks later, House Republicans released a report condemning the Biden administration for its disastrous mission that left 13 American armed service members dead at an Afghanistan airport.
Ever since Harris was chosen to replace her boss as the Democratic nominee, her advisers have discussed how to handle whether she would continue Biden’s policies. A big part of their strategy is showing who Harris is, separate from Biden.
During a 40-minute speech about the economy last week in Pittsburgh, she didn’t mention Biden’s name at all. While she used to say things like “our country has come a long way since President Biden and I took office,” now she says “we” when talking about the work of the Biden-Harris administration.
Biden may not know what day it is, but he recognizes that he has been relegated to the back burner of American history. According to sources close to the President, Biden is hurt and frustrated that Harris hasn’t mentioned him in her campaign speeches lately, even when discussing the economy.
Remember, Biden genuinely seems to think his economic policies “are working” and that he should get credit.
People familiar with his comments said he was hurt when Harris mentioned him during her debate with Trump…and appeared to be throwing him under the bus. “Clearly, I am not Joe Biden,” she emphasized.
In September, a poll by RMG Research found that 57% of registered voters feel they are not better off under the Biden-Harris administration than four years ago under former President Trump. Only 25% of Americans rate the economy under Biden-Harris as “excellent or good,” according to a Pew Research survey.
A person familiar with Harris’ strategy said she struggles to balance ownership of her part in Biden’s policies and her desire to position herself as her own person. She doesn’t want to be seen as a new version of Biden and doesn’t want to hitch her campaign to his wagon. After all, his wagon is missing a wheel and lying in a ditch by the side of the road.
A campaign official for Harris explained that they need to show people who she is and what she would do. The official also noted that, like when Biden was running, there “isn’t much interest in hearing about his accomplishments.”
Ouch. His biggest burn isn’t from the sun on his beach vacations. It’s from his own party.