The awkward Biden-Harris dance

Adjusting to a new dynamic.

Photo by the White House

Somewhat remarkably, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will appear together publicly today for the first time since he ended his presidential campaign and endorsed hers 25 days ago.

Throughout these topsy-turvy weeks, a duo that used to be next to each other almost constantly — “Harris became known in the first few months for often standing by Biden’s side in the frame as he made big speeches,” CNN reported in 2021 — has mostly stayed apart.

Perhaps things would have been different if Biden had not contracted Covid when he was deciding whether to withdraw. But, because his announcement was made in isolation, there was no torch-passing moment for the cameras where Biden handed over the keys to his Wilmington HQ with pomp and circumstance.

Now that Biden and Harris are holding an event together, which swing state will they target? Pennsylvania, where Biden was born and where the election may well be decided? Maybe Wisconsin, where Biden has retained a base of white working-class voters who Harris will need to win? Or how about Georgia, which the two flipped together in 2020, to highlight the racial and generational change that Biden’s withdrawal set into motion?

Nope. Try Prince George’s County, Maryland, an area so uncompetitive that it was Biden’s single-best county in the U.S. in 2020, giving him an overwhelming 89.26% of the vote.

That decision of where to hold her first event with Biden — and when (1:30 p.m., even though many of her recent events have been in primetime) — should give you an idea of how the Harris campaign views Biden as a surrogate. Which is to say, not very highly.

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Biden and Harris are clearly still finding their footing in the awkward dance of a VP running for president outside of the incumbent’s shadow, a time-honored — and often difficult-to-navigate — dynamic.

History is littered with examples of ticket-mates whose relationships fractured once the No. 2 started trying to be No. 1. It’s tricky even in the best of times, when the incumbent is popular. In his seminal book What It Takes, for example, Richard Ben Cramer chronicles Ronald Reagan’s muted endorsement of his VP, George H.W. Bush, at a fundraiser in 1988:

Then he got to the end of the speeh—the last pargraph, matter of fact. Ronald Reagan said to the crowd:

“If I may, I’d like to take a moment to say just a word about my future plans. In doing so, I’ll break a silence I’ve maintained for some time with regard to the Presidential candidates. I intend to campaign, as hard as I can. My candidate is a former member of Congress, Ambassador to China, Ambassador to the United Nations, Director of the CIA, and National Chirman of tjhe Repiublican Party. I’m going to work as hard as I can to make Vice President Bush the next President of the United States.”

There was a round of applause as Reagan said the name, though, alas, he mispronounced it. (“Bush,” he said, like it rhymed with “slush.”) Then the crowd stilled for the big windup.

But there was none. Reagan turned back to the mike, and said: “Now it’s on to New Orleans, and on to the White House.”

That was it? After four years?

It turned out, in the agonizing aftermath…that the White House writers had used some of the more splendid Bush-staff prose, but [Reagan’s wife] Nancy wouldn’t hear of it. (“No! It’s Ronnie’s dinner!”) So the President had to write, in his own block print, what he thought about his Veep—which wasn’t much.

And the heartbreaking thing was, he called in George Bush and showed him! Bush could see it wasn’t much. But he also saw his Big Friend laboring, at his legal pad. What could he say?

“I think that’s great, Mr. President.”

And that’s not even as bad as 1960, when Dwight Eisenhower was asked about the accomplishments of his veep, Richard Nixon, and answered bitingly: “If you give me a week, I might think of one. I don’t remember.” The moment quickly made its way into an ad for Nixon’s rival, John F. Kennedy:

Things grow even more complicated when vice presidents try to distance themselves from their bosses, like Al Gore in 2000, who did not want to be associated with Bill Clinton amid the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Clinton, the Washington Post later reported, “was mystified, and at times angered, by Gore’s refusal to run on the strong economy and other issues in which Clinton felt both he and his vice president deserved credit”; the president “desperately wanted to hit the road in key states” as the election grew closer, “but was told no by the Gore campaign.”

As Biden himself knows, sometimes even the possibility of a campaign can poision things between a president and vice president. His own relationship with Barack Obama has never regained its former chumminess since Obama nudged him against running for the White House in 2016 (and again in 2020).

There are a lot of factors at play here. Presidents are protective of their legacies. Vice presidents want to establish their own identities. There may be parts of an administration they want to highlight — and others they’d rather not speak about. (Bush, for example, wanted Reagan’s support but did not want the cloud of Iran-Contra to hang over him. He ended up claiming that the arms sales ending up happening despite his voicing concerns to Reagan, also a tricky path for a vice president to go down.)

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One key decision in the relationship is whether to deploy the sitting president as a surrogate on the campaign trail. Gore, as stated above, did not view Clinton as an asset and benched him during the 2000 campaign. Bush’s campaign, however, viewed Reagan as almost “another candidate,” the New York Times reported in 1988, sending him to criss-cross the country.

So far, the dynamic that Biden and Harris have settled into has mostly consisted of him staying off the stage.

Last week, while Harris and her running mate Tim Walz barnstormed through five battleground states, Biden’s only public appearance was a speech welcoming the World Series-winning Texas Rangers to the White House. On Saturday, while Harris was campaigning in Las Vegas, Biden was seen getting some shut-eye on the beach.

At next week’s Chicago convention, during which Biden originally planned to be accepting the Democratic nomination, the president is now slated to speak on Monday — the first night — and then skip town. According to CNN, there was discussions about Biden attending Harris’ speech on Thursday, but he is no longer expected to do so.

Meanwhile, Biden is reportedly nursing a range of grudges behind the scenes, per Politico: against Barack Obama, against Nancy Pelosi, against Chuck Schumer. His frustrations with the media are apparent, as they were at an event with content creators last night when Biden raised his voice in response to a reporter. “My policies are working. Start writing it that way, OK?”

According to Axios, Harris is calibrating her message “to break with Biden on issues on which he’s unpopular.” She rarely mentions the president in her campaign speeches, hoping to establish herself as “the change agent in the race” — a difficult feat to pull off as the sitting vice president.

Even facing the same opponent, Harris’ campaign messaging is quite distinct from Biden’s. Harris is more likely to taunt Trump as “weird” than tag him as a threat to democracy; gone also are the frequent references to NATO expansion and other go-to Biden arguments.

Still, when it might benefit the campaign, expect to see Harris side-by-side with Biden, taking advantage of the trappings of the White House. Earlier this month, they were seen together at Joint Base Andrews to welcome home the prisoners freed in a swap with Russia. Today, their event in Maryland will highlight one of Biden’s most popular (though little-known policies), announcing the results of Medicare price negotiations over 10 prescription drugs.

According to the White House, when the new prices go into effect in 2026, Medicare is poised to save around $6 billion in the first year, while Medicare enrollees will save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs. President Biden’s statement announcing the new prices mentioned Harris twice, noting that she cast the tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Reduction Act (which allowed for the price negotiations) as vice president.

So far, Harris’ balancing act has shown some signs of success: a recent Financial Times poll found that voters trust Harris more with the economy than Trump, a feat Biden never achieved. In other surveys, Harris receives much less blame for inflation than Biden. As Democratic voter registrations skyrocket, downballot candidates who were hesitant to appear with Biden are now standing by Harris.

While only 46% of Democrats described themselves as enthusiastic about the election in June, according to Monmouth, 85% do today.

With numbers like that, it is hard to describe Biden as much of an asset for his heir apparent’s campaign. Per Axios, in her upcoming policy proposals, Harris plans to present herself as the candidate of the “future” — a task that becomes more difficult if she is constantly appearing with a president of the past.

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The day ahead

• President Biden and Vice President Harris will deliver remarks on Medicare price negotiations at 1:30 p.m. ET at Prince George’s County Community College in Maryland. Watch here

• Former President Trump will hold a press conference — his second in as many weeks — at his New Jersey golf club at 4:30 p.m. ET. Watch here

• Sen. J.D. Vance will campaign in New Kensington, Pennsylvania at 10 a.m. ET. Watch here

• Gov. Tim Walz has no events scheduled.

• The House and Senate are on recess

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