Staff Reports
It seems President Joe Biden is doing his best impersonation of a loyal lapdog while simultaneously tossing Vice President Kamala Harris under the campaign bus. Amid rumors swirling about friction between their teams — with whispers that Biden’s camp is actively sabotaging Harris’s chances on the campaign trail — the president decided to jump into the fray. His mission? To convince voters that Harris is nothing like him, even as he attempts to lay some verbal smackdown on former President Donald Trump for allegedly refusing to face her in another debate.
At a recent campaign event in Philadelphia, Biden proclaimed that Harris would “cut her own path” if she were to secure the presidency. What a comforting thought, especially considering that her current campaign strategy seems to revolve around recycling Biden’s own policies. But hey, according to Biden, this is all just a clever little ruse. Harris has been a “loyal” vice president, he insists, and she’ll unveil a “fresh and new” perspective if she manages to oust Trump. Perhaps this “fresh and new” perspective involves creatively rebranding the very policies that voters are growing tired of.
Joe Biden stepping out to help Kamala campaign. @RuthlessPodcast pic.twitter.com/s2p8XBobaT
— John Ashbrook (@JohnAshbrook) October 15, 2024
This whole selling point about Harris needing to chart her own course is already overcooked. The public is waiting for her to address the crucial question: what exactly will she do differently from Biden? So far, their campaign trail looks more like a highlight reel of Biden’s policies rather than any innovative leaps forward. It’s been noted that her website might as well be a carbon copy of the Biden campaign’s—complete with the same tired slogans and ideas. The result? A comical disconnect between what Biden wants voters to believe and what the voters are actually seeing—and it’s hardly attracting the attention needed to close the gap with Trump.
And then there’s Biden’s attempt to take a potshot at Trump. Instead, it sounded like he might have misfired in his great effort to back Harris. The president claimed that she “beat Trump so badly” in their previous debate that the former president is now quaking in his boots at the thought of facing her again. Let’s put that into perspective: dishing out compliments while simultaneously throwing shade at Harris appears to be a bold strategy, but it lands with all the grace of a lead balloon.
It’s hard to fathom how this chaotic dynamic will play out on the national stage. With Biden trying to paint Harris as a strong contender while simultaneously deflating her arguments, any savvy observer can see the pitfalls in this strategy. If Harris truly is going to tread her own path, she might need to start by unfollowing Biden’s timeline rather than mimicking it. Otherwise, the recipe for campaign disaster is firmly in the oven, and the smell is getting harder to ignore.
