Biden charts course for final months of presidency

President Biden is charting a course for his final 135 days in office, ramping up his public appearances as he seeks to cement his legacy and support Vice President Harris’s White House bid.

After a lengthy summer vacation on beaches on opposite coasts, Biden hit the road for three separate trips upon returning to Washington, all in key battleground states. He appeared with Harris in Pennsylvania on Labor Day Monday and capped the week with trips to Wisconsin and Michigan to tout his administration’s investments in rural communities.

A senior White House official said Biden would be on the road regularly in the coming months and would pursue additional action on student debt relief, lowering housing costs and eliminating junk fees, which are among some of his key domestic priorities.

But perhaps most important to his legacy will be ensuring Harris’s victory over former President Trump in November.

“President Biden has given his political life to make sure that Trump is beaten in November. He sure as hell does not want to waste such a sacrifice,” said former Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.), a Biden ally.

The president has seen his favorability rating rise since he announced on July 21 that he would not seek a second term. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll published Tuesday showed Biden’s approval rating was at 48 percent, up from 41 percent in late June. A Quinnipiac University poll published in late August showed Biden with a 45 percent approval rating, his best mark in that poll since mid-2021.

He’s also been met with chants of “Thank you Joe” when out on the campaign trail with Harris, including during his speech at the Democratic National Convention, a stark contrast to his stops while running for reelection when crowds were much more subdued.

White House aides are hoping to utilize this newfound energy to simultaneously remind voters of his accomplishments and make the case that there’s more to be done, and that Harris is the one who can follow through.

The senior White House official said Biden will be traveling the country “telling the story about all the progress we’ve made, and what we need to do going forward.”

Biden can be helpful for the vice president with certain demographics, like talking to labor groups in Pennsylvania on Monday. Pennsylvania is considered a home state, along with Delaware, for Biden and while it’s a critical state for Harris to win in November, she could get a boost from his popularity there. The president won Pennsylvania in 2020 after Trump won it in 2016.

“She wants to talk about the administration’s accomplishments and it’s helpful to have him come in every so often because it gives her an opportunity to stand next to him as his loyal partner and for them to tout things like prescription drugs, infrastructure,” a Harris ally said.

The ally added that the cadence of appearing together publicly every few weeks is a good strategy while Harris is still charting how to run her own campaign because it doesn’t appear like her potential presidency would be another four years of the Biden administration. 

“I don’t think it would make sense for him to be doing it all the time because she needs to show it’s not just a continuation,” the ally said.

The president also has goals he wants to accomplish before leaving office, especially on big ticket issues that would add to his political legacy.

“The president will likely campaign with Vice President Harris when Harris thinks it’s helpful, and when Biden has availability. Harris has to walk a fine line between being the sitting VPOTUS, acknowledging and appreciating Joe Biden’s political sacrifice, and being a presidential candidate in her own right,” said Carney, a senior policy adviser at Nossaman LLP. 

“Coordinating between official duties and political campaigning is a delicate balance that, if done well, can propel Harris’ chances and solidify Biden’s legacy,” he said.

Aside from hitting the campaign trail, Biden has a challenging to-do list before January.

For starters, he’s made reaching a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza his first priority, a deal that would leave a stamp on his legacy after facing criticism, anger and divisions within the Democratic Party for how he’s handled Israel during the war. 

Biden has said since February that he is hopeful for a cease-fire deal and for weeks has said he thinks they are on the verge of a hostage deal – but setbacks continue to pile. Biden on Monday said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure a hostage deal, adding pressure to the Israeli leader after six hostages were found dead just before they were to be rescued.

In other international affairs, Biden at the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month will have some of the last of his bilateral meetings with world leaders, many of whom he has known and worked with for decades.

Last month, Biden was able to meet one legacy goal with the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Marine Paul Whalen, among others, from Russian imprisonment. 

On the domestic side, Biden will work to seek credit for his accomplishments, highlighted through the Investing in American tour that the administration launched this week. Biden spoke with people impacted by his investments like infrastructure and competitiveness on Tuesday and the series will continue in the next few weeks.

But some domestic priorities still haven’t been met, like passing an assault weapons ban or wider-ranging student loan forgiveness. 

When asked about trying to do more on curbing gun violence in his final months as president, Jean-Pierre on Wednesday, following a deadly shooting at a Georgia high school, again called on Republicans to work across the aisle on legislation and “to find ways to protect our kids, protect communities.”

Biden allies argue that Biden has a lot on his plate in the last few months of his presidency, all ultimately aimed at helping Harris win in November.

“Five months left without a campaign to run lets the president and his team build on and build out wins, burnish legacies and help ensure the vice president wins in November,” said Scott Mulhauser, former senior aide to then-Vice President Biden.

He added, “He gets to tout all the impressive work he’s done to drive change for the better from infrastructure to jobs to semiconductors, climate and more and make the case for all that would be to come with a Harris presidency to further those accomplishments.”