With his legacy on the line – and Harris keeping him at a distance – President Biden returns to Pennsylvania

It wasn’t the way Vice President Kamala Harris wanted to spend the week before the election.

Barreling toward Election Day in a neck-and-neck race, Harris was answering for comments President Joe Biden made that appeared to called supporters of former President Donald Trump “garbage.”

Harris distanced herself from the quote, as she has from Biden throughout her shortened campaign. Biden clarified he was referring to a shock comedian who made a disparaging comment about Puerto Rico, not to all Trump supporters. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable,” Biden said. “That’s all I meant to say.”

Now the 81-year-old president, whose career spans 50 years of campaigns, is stepping up his political activity and headed to the most important swing state in the race with just four days to go until Election Day.

Friday, Biden is to hold an official White House event in Philadelphia focused on unions. Saturday, he’ll attend a political event in his hometown, Scranton. Neither Harris nor Sen. Bob Casey, a longtime Biden ally, is likely to be within earshot. Harris is not scheduled to be in Pennsylvania either day and Casey, who has similarly distanced himself from the president, is set to be campaigning in Beaver County when Biden visits Scranton.

Biden, who stepped away from his party’s nomination in July, has a legacy on the line. According to those who know him well, he feels he can help Harris in Pennsylvania in the winnowing days of the race, even amid gaffes that have made Democrats wary of what he might say in the spotlight.

“He loves campaigning — he is eager to continue to be an important part of this campaign,” said Biden’s friend and fellow Delawarean Sen. Chris Coons. “… I think Joe Biden is coming to Scranton and to Philadelphia because he is beloved, he has a strong record, and he wants to continue to be part of the fight against Donald Trump.”

With a race this close and just four days to go, minimizing the risk of any surprise is the goal, said Larry Ceisler, a Philadelphia-based public affairs strategist.

“At this point, it is really all about Kamala Harris, and she needs separation from Biden,” Ceisler said. “The speeches and rallies now have to be about her, and they have to be inspiring. [Barack] Obama, [Bill] Clinton, and others are better suited for that task than the president. The appreciation from the Democratic base is still there, but the need for him to show up is not.”

The “garbage” comment was just the most recent instance of a verbal clanger. Speaking about Trump in New Hampshire earlier this month, Biden told Democratic campaign workers, “We got to lock him up.” He quickly caught himself to add: “Politically lock him up. Lock him out. That’s what we have to do.”

After a hero’s welcome at the DNC, where he was lauded for stepping away from the nomination under intense party pressure, Biden has been less present on the campaign trail. Harris has kept her boss at arm’s length as she tries to win a deadlocked race while Biden remains unpopular with the majority of Americans, many of whom blame his administration for inflation.

Biden joined Harris in Pittsburgh in September. He and first lady Jill Biden stumped for Harris in mid-October. During that visit, Biden headlined a Philadelphia Democratic City Committee dinner, chaired by longtime friend and former U.S. Rep. Bob Brady.

He did his part to help Harris differentiate herself, saying in Philadelphia: “I was loyal to Barack Obama, but I cut my own path as president. That’s what Kamala is going to do. She’s been loyal so far, but she’s going to cut her own path.”

For Biden, there’s a lot on the line — and a long connection with the state that could determine who succeeds him.

“What’s at stake for him is what’s at stake for everyone in this country,” Coons said, noting a Trump victory would be a stark departure from the priorities of the Biden-Harris administration, particularly in ways that relate to Biden’s legacy, like his work to repair relationships abroad and galvanize support for Ukraine.

Coons warned that Trump tax cuts could give fewer people access to the Affordable Care Act, a hallmark of Obama’s and Biden’s time in office. Coons said he sees a risk to manufacturing jobs, which increased under Biden, if Trump abandons investments in electric vehicles.

Biden was often called the third senator from Pennsylvania while he was in Congress, and he spent so much time here on the campaign trail that Pennsylvanians had something of a direct line to the White House.

Biden, who is Irish Catholic, lived in Scranton until his family moved to Delaware when he was 10, but the city became the theme of his 2020 race as he cast himself as a champion of the working class and unions.

“Scranton is a place that climbs into your heart and it never leaves,” Biden said in April on a visit while he was still the nominee. Biden has not done a public event in Scranton since he stepped away from the nomination. He attended a private funeral for a friend there about a month ago.

Northeastern Pennsylvania is a must-win region for both campaigns. Scranton allies said he still has a unique appeal there.

“I think he’s been in this game a long time, and this is the World Series for politics, so … I think he wants to play in it now,” said Ed Mitchell, a longtime Democratic organizer in Lackawanna County. “In Scranton, he’s well respected and they honor him as a native son.”

Virginia McGregor, a longtime Biden supporter and fundraiser, said Wednesday from a Harris rally in Harrisburg that Biden is “beloved” in his former hometown. “He’s our guy. He’s excited to come home, and it’s about coming home and making sure everyone knows what to do on Election Day.”

Still, even some allies were processing the “garbage” comment with an eye on his forthcoming visit.

“Where Joe missed the mark, as Hillary [Clinton] missed the mark, is to put the American citizens who may vote for the opponent in the same degrading terms as they think of their opponent,” said Sam Waltz, a former statehouse chief for the News Journal in Delaware who has known Biden for 50 years.

Waltz, who reported on Biden, knows his family well and lives near him in Greenville. He became close with Biden’s late son, Beau Biden.

“Many if not most Trump voters gravitate to him not because they like or deify Trump, but rather because they are ‘issues voters’ or ‘values voters.’ … By calling those people ‘garbage,’ as Hillary called them ‘deplorables,’ Joe Biden is at risk of ‘making it personal’ unnecessarily,” Waltz said.

Coons dismissed the impact of Biden’s gaffe.

“Joe Biden represents 50 years of dedicated public service,” his old friend said. “This is someone they know in his heart is fighting for the middle class, for unions, to strengthen manufacturing, doing his level best to help the American people, and I think that’s the spirit in which they’ll receive him.”