Last Updated on 07/09/2024 by Arun jain
President Biden began the final phase of his political career this week, freed from the rigors of running for re-election, apathetic, liberated and — in some cases — resigned to find himself once again in a supporting role.
After a two-week summer vacation, Mr. Biden is campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris, now atop the Democratic ticket, and traveling the country to promote his administration’s accomplishments.
But for a man who spent decades seeking the top job, only to abandon his bid for re-election under pressure from his own party, these final months before the November election are bittersweet, his allies say.
“For my entire career I’ve been either too young or too old, never in between,” Mr. Biden told a crowd of union workers in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Friday. The president, who was not yet 30 when he first won. In 1972, a Senate meeting cracked that he had served for “374 years”.
Earlier in the week, Mr. Biden appeared uneasy about alienating conservatives when he attacked Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — the home state of Republicans — for not voting for the Inflation Reduction Act, the president’s signature law.
And during an event with Ms. Harris in Pittsburgh on Monday, Mr. Biden didn’t seem particularly eager to leave the spotlight. He spoke eight minutes longer than the vice president, even though he said he “on the side“Go ahead.
David Axelrod, a former senior aide to former President Barack Obama, said, “It’s complicated because this is not what he planned for September. He described the president as relaxed, candid and — to borrow a term from Ms. Harris’s allies — unencumbered.
“He’s not doing a lot of ‘Well, I shouldn’t say that anymore,'” Mr. Axelrod said. “And that’s probably good.”
Harris campaign Mr. Biden deployed Targeted — mostly in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, where he still appeals to white, working-class voters and union members.
But Ms. Harris will try to forge her own political identity.
Last month, in their first joint public appearance since Mr. Biden dropped out of the race, Ms. Harris is clearly from Largo, Md.
She thanked all the elected officials by name. She set the tone for the event. As she spoke, he stood quietly off to the side, his arms folded in front of her, almost as if he were the vice president again. He played the role for eight years under Mr. Obama, but he thought he had a role to play.
Allies of Mr. Biden insist that he is still president, and that he is still navigating crises at home and abroad, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. In blunt terms, he told reporters on Monday that he did not think Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was doing enough to bring the hostages home.
Three days later, he accused Republicans of failing to address gun violence after two students and two teachers were shot and killed in the deadliest episode of school violence in Georgia history.
“We need more than thoughts and prayers,” Mr. Biden said. “Some of my Republican friends in Congress will eventually have to say: ‘Enough is enough. We have to do something.'”
And while the pressures of the campaign may have eased, Mr. Biden is still dealing with personal trouble as his son, Hunter, has to deal with it. The possibility of time behind bars In federal tax cases.
Mr. Biden has spent much of his time burnishing his own legacy and delving into the past, nothing new for a president known for embracing storytelling. (He often adds an emphatic “No joke!” in the middle of a story.)
But now, in the final months of his presidency, Mr. Biden appears to be looking back a little more than usual. This week, he described the joy he felt during his first Senate race when a steelworker named Hughie endorsed him. He told stories about his great-grandfather working in the mines in Pennsylvania. He shouted to his friends in the Senate, reminding voters who grew up in the same neighborhood as Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey.
“The literal weight of the world is not just on his shoulders,” said Quentin James, an ally of Mr. Biden and co-founder of Collective PAC, which aims to rally black voters. “I think it’s being able to unfilter. To lighten up.”
On Friday, he spoke with former President Donald J. took a particularly blunt tone toward Trump, the man he was forced to keep out of the White House.
Choking up at the memory of his son, Beau, who served in Iraq and later died of brain cancer, Mr. Biden said he was angered by comments attributed to Mr. Trump that American soldiers killed in combat were “losers” and “suckers.” “
“I mean from the bottom of my heart, I’m glad I wasn’t there,” Mr. Biden said. “I think I would have done something.”
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