You’d think that having a sitting president on your side would be seen as a rather sizeable upper hand in the last hours of your own campaign for the White House.
Not so for Kamala Harris.
On Sunday, as the Democratic nominee made her final push for election, Harris rounded up a star-studded crew of political big names and deployed them to the tightest swing states:
Barack Obama attended a rally in Wisconsin. Bill Clinton was on the trail in North Carolina. Even the current First Lady, Jill Biden, was out for Harris, greeting voters in Pennsylvania.
But Joe Biden was nowhere to be seen.
You’d think that having a sitting president on your side would be seen as a rather sizeable upper hand in the last hours of your own campaign for the White House. Not so for Kamala Harris.
He was hidden away in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware – a comfortably Blue state – enjoying a long lunch at his golf club with an old friend.
Days before, Biden had embarrassed Harris with yet another gaffe – appearing to refer to Donald Trump’s supporters as ‘garbage’. Publicly, the White House insisted he hadn’t in fact said what everyone had heard.
But, behind closed doors, the message from the Harris campaign to Joe was clear: Stay away.
Certainly, Biden’s life has changed dramatically in the past three months. After entering the year insisting he was fit enough to run again and beat Trump, Biden finally dropped out of the race on July 21, endorsing Harris as his replacement the same day.
Within hours, Biden, 81, had become what he – and his highly ambitious wife – had always feared: a lame-duck president.
After four years at the center of the political universe, Biden was suddenly out of the spotlight – as the world moved its focus to a younger, more ebullient candidate.
This rapid relegation to the political periphery appears to have been actively – perhaps brutally – encouraged by Harris’s team.
Last month, according to a report by Axios, the Harris campaign has been rebuffing the president’s repeated offers to help her on the trail.
The answer from Team Harris each time: We’ll get back to you.
Privately, Jill Biden has described the situation as ‘tough’ for her husband.
Last week, Biden had embarrassed Harris with yet another gaffe – appearing to refer to Donald Trump’s supporters as ‘garbage’. Behind closed doors, the message from the Harris campaign to Joe was clear: Stay away.
In late August, at a White House reception, the president joked that he needed a new job, before appearing to tear up a little during his speech.
Elsewhere, he’s been seen wandering around stiffly, with some noting he appears ‘lost’.
Insiders tell the Mail that the president has been ‘watching more television’, with his seven grandchildren giving him recommendations for what to stream on Netflix.
Even his most sympathetic allies would say it is fair to characterize him as a little lonely.
In early October, Jill left her husband to campaign across five key states for Harris. As she departed the White House, the president stood alone outside the Oval Office, waving goodbye as her motorcade drove away.
For her part, the First Lady is keeping busy. She still teaches English two days a week at Northern Virginia Community College. But when she’s out campaigning for Harris, it is notable that she barely mentions her husband.
Harris has been at pains to emphasize that her presidency would not be ‘a continuation of Joe Biden’s’.
Biden’s record on the immigration crisis, inflation and foreign wars is something Harris has awkwardly tried to distance herself from, despite also insisting she has been an active Vice President.
Of course, Biden still has his daily briefing books to keep him occupied, but aides say his focus has now shifted to the future – including on deciding the location of his presidential library and restarting the Biden Foundation, his charitable endeavor.
He has mentioned Syracuse University (New York), the University of Delaware and Washington D.C. as three potential locations for a Biden Presidential Center.
He has ties to all of them. (He got his law degree at Syracuse, his undergrad at Delaware, and spent his professional life in D.C.)
There’s more competition. Scranton’s mayor, Paige Cognetti, has said she will make a bid to host Biden’s library.
In early October, Jill left her husband to campaign across five key states for Harris. As she departed the White House, the president stood alone outside the Oval Office, waving goodbye as her motorcade drove away.
The University of Pennsylvania – where Biden once taught – is likely to make a bid, too.
With interest in the president waning at home, he has shifted focused to an international goodbye tour.
In Germany last month, he was awarded the ‘Order of Merit’ – one of the country’s highest honors.
In December, he’ll make a trip to Sub-Saharan Africa. He’ll also attend his final G20 meeting in Brazil later this month. And he’s expressed interest in a trilateral summit with the leaders of Japan and South Korea.
Biden is in an unusual position. Most lame ducks have termed out and know they don’t have another four years, using their second term to shape their legacy.
Others have spent the months leading up to their departure fighting to win re-election before ultimately losing.
Until this summer, Biden had planned for another four years – until that disastrous TV debate with Donald Trump.
‘I doubt that Biden had really plotted out what would end up being his last 100 days or last few months,’ Professor David Redlawsk, a political scientist at the University of Delaware, told the Mail.
As such, Biden’s official diary has been notably empty. For 43 of the 75 days since he dropped out of the race, he hasn’t had any scheduled public events. Nor did he hold a single press conference during his Germany trip last month.
Such is the interest in Biden’s apparent lack of activity, his White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, carries a special ‘lame duck’ file to help her address any media questions about her out-of-action boss.
Meanwhile, many of his White House staffers have already decamped to new jobs, some on Capitol Hill, some in the private sector.
Biden’s Chief of Staff, Jeffrey Zients, also appears to have more time on his hands, with reporters spotting him out in D.C. personally buying lunches for his team and slipping out of the White House gate to enjoy time outside – something that would have been unthinkable just six months ago.
Zients has been tasked with starting the transition process, meeting with the Harris and Trump campaigns to make logistical arrangements for whoever wins.
The Bidens will have their personal belongings packed up in the coming weeks and staff will have to ensure all records are turned over to the National Archives.
Biden also has to fill out post-job paperwork, like any other American leaving employment.
Biden’s Chief of Staff, Jeffrey Zients (right), also appears to have more time on his hands, with reporters spotting him out in D.C. personally buying lunches for his team and slipping out of the White House gate to enjoy time outside.
As a former president, he gets healthcare for life and an allowance to set up an office. He’ll also be eligible for two different federal pension programs due to his long tenure in the Senate and his time as president. Combined, these could pay him $413,000 a year.
Jill Biden is said to be particularly focused on cementing a legacy for her husband.
Last month, she unveiled an updated public tour of the White House complete with new rooms for the public to view and interactive videos, in which the president and First Lady address visitors.
The Bidens are pushing their ‘Moonshot’ initiative, aiming to dramatically reduce cancer deaths. It is an issue close to their hearts: Biden’s son Beau died from the disease in 2015 aged 46.
And then there will be a list of ‘lasts’ in the White House: a final round of holiday parties, a farewell state dinner, one more Thanksgiving turkey to pardon.
In recent months, celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz has been spotted with the Bidens – both at Camp David on the weekend in July when Joe pulled out of the race, and in Florida, taking photos of Biden as he reviewed damage from Hurricane Helene last month. It is not yet clear what project these photos are being reserved for.
Speaking to ABC’s Good Morning America news show last month, Jill Biden addressed the difficulty of the recent months.
‘It will be tough to maybe step away from [the White House],’ she said. ‘We’re starting a new chapter of our lives, a new journey. We’ve been in politics 50 years. I think we’re ready for the new journey.’
