A series of recent exchanges suggest that President Joe Biden is subtly undermining — or at least failing to support —Vice President Kamala Harris in her campaign to succeed him for a four-year term. This theme grew especially pronounced in dueling remarks — elicited by the media frothing up controversy — about the appropriate response to two devastating hurricanes, in which Harris was indisputably worsted.
NBC News reported on Monday that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) had declined calls from Harris about Florida’s recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene because they “seemed political.” Harris instantly responded, telling reporters on the tarmac — a rare interaction for her — that “moments of crisis … should really be the moment that anyone who calls himself a leader, presidential politics aside, put the people first. DeSantis was “playing political games,” she said, which “is utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish.”
At a hurricane response press conference that afternoon, DeSantis offered a contrasting perspective. “I didn’t know that she had called,” he said when asked. “I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me. And their characterization of it was something that they did … in terms of saying it was political.”
DeSantis explained that, contrary to Harris’s insinuations, he was working quite effectively with the Biden administration. “Biden called me a couple days ago with Helene when I was on the helicopter,” he said. “We got the approvals that we need. If there’s something else that we need, I’ll hop on the phone very quickly, whether that’s the FEMA administrator or the president.” Harris, notably, was not on his quick-dial list.
When a third straight reporter asked a politically-charged question, DeSantis cut him off. “This is not a time for politics,” he declared. “We have had to respond to a Category 4 hurricane [Helene]. We’ve had to prepare and now respond to something that may hit maybe as a major hurricane [Milton]. … That should be the focus.”
In a “Fox and Friends” appearance Tuesday morning, DeSantis sharpened his criticism. “It’s not about you, Kamala. It’s about the people of Florida. My focus is exactly where it should be, and I can tell you this, I’ve worked on these hurricanes under both President Trump and President Biden; neither of them ever tried to politicize it,” he declared. “She has never called on any of the storms we have had since she’s been vice president until apparently now. Why all of a sudden is she trying to parachute in and inject herself? … I have zero time to entertain these political games.”
“We’ve been on an emergency footing for two weeks straight,” added the Florida governor. “Round the clock, 24/7 we’ve been working — my office, our Division of Emergency Management — helping people prepare for Hurricane Helene, helping effectuate rescues of people after Hurricane Helene. … That’s been my sole focus. My focus has not been on dealing with Kamala Harris.”
In a Wednesday interview on CNBC, DeSantis reiterated that Harris “has no role in this process. [In] all the storms I’ve dealt with under this administration, she has never called in Florida or offered any support. She’s trying to inject herself into this because of her political campaign.”
Give round one to DeSantis, but surely there’s more to the story. Surely President Biden would be asked for his side of the story, and surely he would back up his 2020 running mate, his current vice president, and allegedly his handpicked successor, and leave DeSantis looking petty and foolish, right?
It’s best to have the reply straight from the donkey’s mouth. “The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and I [he] said [verbal stumbles] I know you’re doing a great job. It’s all being done well. We thank you for it. And I literally gave him my personal phone number to call,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday. “Every governor, from Florida to North Carolina, has been fully cooperative and supportive and acknowledged what this team is doing and they’re doing an incredible job.”
Biden repeated this sentiment on Wednesday, “All I can tell you is, I’ve talked to Governor DeSantis. He’s been very gracious. He thanked me for all we’ve done. He knows what we’re doing, and I think that’s important.”
National Review’s Charlie Cooke summarized the whole exchange, “Thus, courtesy of her own bad judgment, was Harris cast as a petty nonentity throwing stones from the outside.”
This was not the back-slapping “atta-girl” the Harris campaign thought they had a right to expect from America’s senior-in-chief. Did Biden pick up the wrong party’s talking points for media interviews? Have his political instincts dissolved into senility? Or is the former head of the Democratic party playing a subtler game?
Although the hurricane spat is the most obvious instance of Biden’s same-party sabotage, it is hardly the only recent example.
Harris has repeatedly tried to distance herself from the unpopular administration in which she serves by repeating the line, “I am not Joe Biden” — though she struggles to explain how her policies would differ. Harris has pitched her candidacy not as an incumbent’s romp but as an “underdog” triumph.
How has Biden responded to the Harris campaign’s attempt to treat him as political poison? He keeps giving Harris rhetorical bear hugs. “As vice president, there wasn’t a single thing that I did that she couldn’t do, and so I was able to delegate her responsibility on everything from foreign policy to domestic policy,” said Biden on September 25.
On October 4, Biden gushed that he and Harris are “in constant contact” and “singing from the same song sheet.” Lest someone should miss the continuity, he added, “She was a major player in everything we’ve done, including passage of legislation, which we were told we could never pass. And so, she’s been — and her — her staff is interlocked with mine in terms of all the things we’re doing.”
Biden’s October 4 remarks came during a rare surprise appearance at a White House press conference that occurred simultaneously with Harris’s speech at a rally in Michigan. CNN was broadcasting the Harris rally live, but they switched their coverage to Biden’s press conference, leading the network hosts to suggest that Biden was “clearly overshadowing” Harris.
Several days earlier, Biden declined to block a dockworker strike that threatened to cripple trade through all ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Biden’s decision could have cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars per day, afflicting voters with new economic woes just in time for holiday shopping season and Election Day — with obvious repercussions for the incumbent’s party at the polls. (Fortunately for Harris, the International Longshoremen’s Association “took one for the team” by agreeing to only a 62% pay raise over six years instead of the 77% raise they demanded.)
“Biden seems to be popping up at awfully inconvenient moments with notably off-message statements almost tailor-made to be unhelpful to Harris,” noticed National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar. “Is Biden shivving Harris during hurricane season on purpose? The most obvious answer is that it’s impossible to know. … But it is clear nevertheless that he feels personally betrayed, that he was stabbed in the back and replaced by Harris.”
Biden largely cleared the field of primary challengers and secured nearly every delegate in the Democratic presidential primary. However, after Biden’s disastrous performance in his June debate against Donald Trump, party leaders became convinced he had no shot at winning the general election. They conspired behind the scenes to oust him, and he eventually agreed to withdraw from consideration and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, in his place.
Due to overwhelmingly favorable media coverage, this undemocratic, sly dealing largely escaped without any negative consequences, at least any immediate and disastrous ones. However, it appears that his unceremonious ouster did hurt Biden’s feelings. As a lame duck president with little political future, Biden has nothing left to lose by airing his grievances. Thus, it seems, one unforeseen consequence of the Democrats’ deft defenestration of their party leader is that he remains able and willing to snipe at his replacement for the remainder of the campaign.
The Democrats could have avoided this burr in their saddle. They could have honestly faced the reality of Biden’s advanced age at a much earlier point. They could have held a truly open primary instead of circling the wagons. They could have refrained from kicking their leader off the party bus for political expediency. Sometimes, the course of action that seems to yield the greatest short-term benefit actually proves costlier in the long run.
Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.