VICTOR JOECKS: Passive aggressive Biden wants Harris to lose

On Monday, Vice President Harris ripped into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for reportedly not taking her calls regarding Hurricane Helene. She accused him of “playing political games.” She continued, “This is utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish.”

For his part, DeSantis said, “I didn’t know that she had called.” With Hurricane Milton approaching, he has been plenty busy. DeSantis said that he has been working with “both FEMA and the president.” He accused her of trying to interject herself into storm preparation efforts for political reasons. He noted that she “has never contributed anything” to similar efforts before.

Enter Biden. One might expect that he would come to Harris’ defense or at least minimize the conflict. Nope.

“The governor of Florida has been cooperative,” Biden said Tuesday. He continued, “I talked with him again yesterday” adding that he told him, “You’re doing a great job.” Further, Biden said he gave DeSantis “my personal phone number to call.”

Biden might as well have said that Harris is a bumbling afterthought. To add insult to injury, he did his press event while Harris was on “The View.”

This isn’t the first time that he has upstaged her. On Friday, news networks cut away from a Harris campaign event in Michigan after Biden walked into the White House press briefing, the first time he had done that as president.

He then told the world that he and Harris are “singing from the same song sheet.” He added, “She was a major player in everything we’ve done.”

This isn’t a one-off. After Biden dropped out, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made similar remarks. She called Harris “a critical partner” for the president and re-affirmed, “This is certainly the Biden-Harris administration.”

That may sound nice, but it’s a political disaster. Biden is deeply unpopular. Harris is desperately trying to convince voters that she represents a new approach. Biden has made that task more difficult.

Harris struggles with this, too. Sunny Hostin, a co-host of “The View,” asked Harris want she would have done differently than Biden over the past four years. “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris replied.

The Trump ads write themselves.

On Sunday, CNN put out a long piece on this, headlined “Harris weighs more breaks with Biden as he keeps injecting himself into the campaign.” CNN reported her team was excited that Biden was about to travel overseas.

On Tuesday, Biden canceled that trip in anticipation of Hurricane Milton. As president, he will upstage his vice president on hurricane response.

Don’t think any of this is happening by accident. Even in his diminished state, Biden knows what he’s doing. It’s like in September when Biden briefly donned a Trump hat, effectively neutering the Biden-Harris claim that Trump is a threat to democracy.

Biden appears bitter that Democrats forced him out of the presidential race. If Harris loses, he will remain the only person to have beaten Trump. His passive-aggressive moves suggest Biden would be quite content with that outcome.

Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.