PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Kamala Harris would “take her own path” once she wins the 2024 election, putting more daylight between him and his vice president as she works to win over skeptical voters three weeks before Election Day.
“Kamala will take the country in her own direction, and that is one of the key differences in this election,” he said. “Kamala’s perspective on our problems will be fresh and new. Donald Trump’s perspective is old and failed, and quite frankly, completely dishonest.”
Biden’s comments can give Harris more license to carve out her own political and policy positions in the critical closing stages of the presidential race, appearing to go further to keep the two at bay than Harris herself has done. The vice president’s aides have privately expressed some frustration that the 81-year-old president has been too focused on his own legacy — and not on the race to succeed him.
But Harris has faced increasing pressure recently to articulate how she would govern other than Biden, a question that is more difficult than it seems at first glance.
While Biden’s positive ratings remain underwater, some of the biggest parts of his legislative agenda, from infrastructure to lowering the cost of some prescription drugs, are trending, and this could be a sign of some daylight with the president on foreign affairs policy in a time of global crises. as reckless.
Harris herself is loathe to do anything that could be construed as disloyalty to Biden, who elevated her from first-term senator to vice presidency and then handed the reins of his political operation to her, backing Harris when he dropped out. of the race in July.
She has brushed off questions about how she would be different from the Democratic president, saying, “I’m not Joe Biden,” but has offered few details. At the same time, she has tried to seize the mantle of the candidate who would bring positive change to the country, relying largely on the fact that she was from a different generation than both Biden and Trump.
Harris last week in an interview with radio host Howard Stern she couldn’t think of a move made by Biden that she would have decided differently — a phrase Trump prominently featured at rallies and online. She later offered that, unlike Biden, she would choose a Republican for her Cabinet if elected.
On Tuesday, Biden spoke in the hall of the Sheet Metal Workers International Association in Philadelphia, pumping up an array of local candidates, including Sen. Bob Casey, before a lively crowd: Guys in button-down shirts and kente cloths stood next to women leaning on walking sticks. They sat at tables decorated with red, white and blue balloons and ate from plastic plates full of meatballs, kielbasa and sandwiches.
“Every president has to forge his own path, that’s what I did,” Biden told a crowd chanting “Thanks, Joe!” chanted. “I was loyal to Barack Obama and I chose my own path as president. That’s what Kamala will do.”
Biden’s words were particularly poignant because he has done so few political events since leaving of the 2024 race, a stinging decision he said he made for the good of the country, after a disastrous debate performance and mutiny within the Democratic party.
“When I decided it was time to pass the torch to the next generation, I knew it. I knew who I wanted to replace,” Biden said.
He also lashed out at Trump multiple times, calling him a loser, calling out the Republican candidate for his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election that he lost, continuing to fuel disinformation surrounding the election, and embracing the violent mob that tried to undo the results. of the elections on January 6, 2021.
“Every generation faces a moment when democracy must be defended,” Biden said. “This is our moment.”
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Associated Press White House Correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report.