Biden comes to grips with a diminished role on the campaign trail

By Kayla Tausche, MJ Lee and Kevin Liptak, CNN

Washington (CNN) — President Joe Biden’s role in the 2024 presidential campaign in the final weeks of the election has been moved even further out of the spotlight as recent campaign trail gaffes prompted a range of responses – from eyerolls to outright anger – from some Harris campaign aides.

Planning for a range of Biden events had been up in the air late last week as the campaign worked to reassess how best to use the incumbent, who now plans to make several solo stops this week, including an infrastructure speech in Baltimore and an address to union members in Philadelphia and an appearance in his hometown of Scranton..

Biden’s impromptu attack on former president and GOP nominee Donald Trump in New Hampshire spurred a flurry of coverage outside the scope of the event, raising concerns among Harris aides and allies about singular comments getting amplified in the final stretch of the race.

“We got to lock him up,” Biden had said, while speaking off the cuff to campaign workers in Concord, New Hampshire, before quickly pivoting to try to clarify his remarks. “Politically lock him up. Lock him out. That’s what we have to do.”

Then, speaking in Arizona on Friday, Biden referred to former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived being shot in the head at a 2011 campaign event, in the past tense, suggesting she was no longer alive.

While aides have previously brushed off such slips as “vintage Biden,” noting the president’s proclivity to misspeak, they also acknowledge there’s no room for error amid the frenzied news cycle and fragile balance of the race that has raised the stakes for each event in the final days.

“We’re in ‘Do No Harm’ mode,” said one official involved in discussions of Biden’s role.

As the campaign entered the post-Labor Day home stretch, Biden’s senior-most aides acknowledged that his role would be diminished, both due to the need to familiarize voters with Harris and to distance her from an outgoing president whose approval rating has been underwater for much of his term. But they express surprise at just how little Biden has been utilized in a race that’s become something of a referendum on his presidency.

A Harris’ campaign spokesman said the vice president is thankful for what Biden has done for her so far.

“Vice President Harris is grateful for President Biden’s support and appreciates that he is campaigning for her,” said Ian Sams, a Harris campaign spokesman.

Andrew Bates, senior deputy press secretary at the White House, said Biden’s best role in the Harris campaign is “demonstrating leadership as president” while Harris is on the trail.

“As President Biden has said himself, he knows that every President needs to ‘cut their own path’ and he will continue to coordinate with the campaign on where and how he can be helpful, like he has done in recent days mobilizing the labor unions he has worked with for decades,” he said.

After so long in politics, Biden is fully aware of the delicate decisions that govern campaign seasons. He has long said – usually as a joke – that he’s willing to campaign for or against his favored candidate, “whichever will help the most.”

With days until voting closes, the president’s schedule this week doesn’t reflect a surrogate in high demand. After suggesting in September he would be on the road regularly for Harris in the final months, Biden has been largely absent from the campaign trail in the closing stretch. A tour of Pennsylvania alongside Gov. Josh Shapiro, which Biden teased earlier this fall, doesn’t appear to have materialized. An event Biden helmed with union workers over the weekend was not promoted by the Harris campaign, which omitted the appearance from its top surrogate recaps, though it was approved and supported by the Harris operation.

Biden has a few “campaign calls” scheduled this week, where he hopes to rally various groups telephonically behind Harris. He’ll attend a union event on Friday in Philadelphia, the hometown of his wife, for an official White House appearance rather than a campaign rally.

Such is the existence of an unpopular incumbent on the way out. He joins a club that includes Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as presidents mostly kept off the campaign trail as their party looks to turn a page.

Soul searching

As he’s watched from the sidelines of the race that he was in a little more than three months ago, Biden has embarked on some soul-searching, those close to him say, reflecting on both the long arc of his career and its abrupt end – his decades as a beloved party operative and, more recently, persona non grata.

Biden, these people say, remains firm in his view that he would be able to defeat his predecessor in November if he remained at the top of the Democratic ticket.

But if the president’s tone has shifted at all since July on anything, it has been on the issue of his own age.

Once defiant on his mental and physical fitness in the face of questions from reporters, concerns within his own party and a blistering critique by former special counsel Robert Hur, Biden has become much more circumspect on his abilities, multiple sources told CNN.

In private conversations, the president in recent weeks has more readily acknowledged that self-reflection about his age – and everything that is required of the presidency – had indeed been a part of his decision-making process over the summer. First lady Dr. Jill Biden, who had supported Biden staying in the race until the end, recently admitted in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” that exiting the race was “the right call.”

Biden himself has hinted more at the role that his age played in his decision-making – at times sheepishly and with an injection of humor – including recently in an interview with the hosts of ABC’s “The View.”

“I stepped down because I started thinking about it,” he said. “It’s hard for me to even say how old I am. I’m serious. I give my word. It’s like – ‘Holy God, that can’t be right. This can’t be right.’”

Diminishing role

While the president has largely stuck to White House events and travel, the campaign has utilized another Biden on the road – the first lady.

In the past week, Jill Biden has traveled to Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, including stops with fellow educator Gwen Walz.

Asked Monday by reporters whether he would appear with Harris on the campaign trail this week, the president acknowledged he’s taking direction from the campaign.

“We talk all the time, and they’re asking me to be where they think I should be,” he said.

Biden said he’s done “a lot of surrogate stuff,” but chalked up his absence from the trail to his day job.

“The fact of the matter is that I’ve also had to be president at the same time. So, I’ve been to all the battleground states, I’ve been campaigning, but I also have to continue my job as president,” he said.

A long, emotional good-bye

People close to the president say he has not yet come to terms with his popularity as a politician, which deteriorated markedly during his time in office as the cost of living soared. Before dropping out of the 2024 race, Biden’s approval rating hit 36%, according to Gallup.

During his participation in White House events, Biden has appeared wistful – a descriptor used often by his aides – and at times has choked up at the magnitude of the office.

While presenting the National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medals to several dozen creatives, he teared up while recounting the lyrics to “My Country Tis of Thee.” Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter, and Jon Meacham, presidential historian who has helped write some of most consequential speeches, could be seen wiping their eyes in the East Room as they looked on.

Biden’s core belief, one longtime aide says, is that he’s served as “a damn good president.”

But privately, this aide says, Biden has struggled with the question that’s plagued his West Wing: Why hasn’t it mattered to voters?

With his final months in office, Biden is expected to try to reframe that narrative through a series of speeches on issues like the economy and a series of summits with world leaders that affirm the US’ relationship with key allies. He’ll greet heads of state in Peru at the APEC summit and G-20 leaders in Brazil in late November. And in December, he’ll visit Africa to highlight efforts to counter China’s inroads there.

The post-election burst of activity is expected to release Biden’s kinetic energy that’s been under wraps as Harris has stepped into the spotlight. When Biden has tried to share that spotlight during the height of the campaign, wires and messages have gotten crossed.

In early October, Biden made a spontaneous inaugural visit as president to the White House Press Briefing room – something that sources said he had expressed interest in doing to his team weeks ago – to tout unexpectedly good jobs data and the end to a port worker strike. But Biden’s surprise appearance took place at the exact moment Harris was taking the stage at a campaign rally in Detroit, leading major television networks to change their feed from her remarks to the president.

White House officials insist there was no malice involved.

“He was just excited,” one official said.

CNN’s Arlette Saenz and Nikki Carvajal contributed to this report.

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