President Biden is trying to maintain relevance in the political conversation in the final sprint to Election Day

NEW CASTLE, Del. — As President Joe Biden Now that his fifty years in elected office are nearing an end, he does not seem content to quietly leave the political scene.

With one week to go Election DayBiden plans to promote his administration’s record and advocate for American support Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats on the ballot – whether they want him or not.

He is determined to keep up a busy schedule during the final sprint to November 5, even though many in his company seem to be keeping their distance from him.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Biden downplayed the fact that he has not campaigned side by side with Harris since their joint campaign appearance on Labor Day in Pittsburgh, and that he has had few public campaign appearances with Democrats in competitive races.

“I did a lot of surrogate work, and the fact is, I also had to remain president at the same time,” Biden told reporters. after casting his early vote Monday in his home state of Delaware.

Biden said he and Harris still “talk all the time.” He added that he has also made several visits to battleground states in his official capacity in recent months, and that he plans to do more campaigning in Pennsylvania in the coming days, including his hometown of Scranton, where he grew up as a child.

Officials say Biden also plans to attend a campaign-related event in Maryland on Tuesday with U.S. Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks, make a series of campaign calls on Thursday and return to battleground Pennsylvania on Friday to highlight Democratic support for unions to bring.

Biden said the Harris campaign is asking him to go “where they think I need to go to help them the most.”

He had promised to campaign hard for the Democrats after their departure. Yet few Democrats have invited him to campaign alongside them since he ended his reelection bid.

The dynamics meant that the outgoing president had to do this choose his spots carefully as he tries to remain a relevant voice in a chaotic political season.

Trump took to his social media platform on Monday to mock Harris and the Democrats for keeping Biden at arm’s length.

“The Democrats have not only massively humiliated and embarrassed Crooked Joe Biden, but are now demanding he stay away from Lyin’ Kamala’s campaign,” Trump said on Truth Social. “It’s not good enough that they took the presidency away from him like you take candy away from a baby, but now they have to embarrass him even more by telling him to ‘GET LOST’.”

To be fair, not all Democrats are avoiding Biden.

Two Democratic Senate candidates, incumbent Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Delaware Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, campaigned alongside Biden this month. Both have deep ties to the president.

Biden stopped at a breakfast spot near his home outside Wilmington on Monday with Rochester, a longtime ally who is vying to become the first Black woman to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate.

The night before their breakfast, he formally endorsed Blunt Rochester in a short video that her campaign published on social media. In his endorsement, Biden praised Blunt Rochester for being “Delaware through and through.”

The House of Representatives lawmaker has known Biden for about thirty years and has a strong preference for winning the seat in Democratic-dominated Delaware.

At various times in recent weeks, Biden has used campaign trips in friendly settings to troll Trump.

On Saturday, Biden ended a largely standard campaign speech at a union hall in Pittsburgh before launching into a sharp attack on Trump backer Elon Musk. He accused the billionaire tech mogul of working illegally when he first came to the United States to study.

The “richest man in the world is now his ally, right?” Biden said, referring to a recent Washington Post report that questioned Musk’s status while he was a student at Stanford University. “Well, the richest man in the world turned out to be working here illegally when he was here” as a student.

Musk, born in South Africa, denies the allegations.

Last week, during a visit to a campaign office in New Hampshire to meet with Democratic volunteers, Biden borrowed some of Trump’s sharp rhetoric.

“We need to lock him up,” Biden told the volunteers, before quickly amending his remarks to note that he meant Democrats need to “lock him up politically.”

Blunt Rochester joined Biden on Monday as he waited in line for about 40 minutes at a busy voting location not far from his home.

Biden thought he had one more election in him before he decided to do so end his campaign in July amid Democrats’ growing concerns about his chances of defeat Trump.

He chatted with voters as he stood in line to cast his ballot, and helped push an elderly woman in a wheelchair in front of him. He handed his ID to an election worker, who had him sign a form and announced, “Joseph Biden is going to vote now.”

Outside the polling station, Biden told reporters the moment was more “sweet” than bitter. He expressed confidence when asked if he thought Democrats — including Harris — would win.

“I think we will,” he said.

—

AP reporter Colleen Long in Washington reported.