Biden signals more robust campaign schedule as Trump-Harris race heats up

WASHINGTON — Amid his busiest week on the campaign trail since ending his quest for a second term, President Joe Biden on Tuesday made the case for all he’d accomplished while in office.

Biden contended the U.S. economy is stronger than when he took office in January 2021 during an official event at the White House, but his remarks — made one day after he joined Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, on the campaign trail in Pittsburgh — had a distinct campaign flair.

The president is slated to continue a September swing through Rust Belt battleground states, with stops later this week in Wisconsin and Michigan — and signaled he will be on the road more often.

“In the weeks ahead, I’ll talk with Americans all across the country about the progress we’re seeing in their communities, roads and bridges being built, lead pipes being removed from homes and schools, (and) seniors saving significant money on prescription drug prices,” he said.

“And through the ‘investing in America’ agenda, we planted the seeds for a better future, and now those seeds are finally beginning to sprout. As a result, we’re on the cusp of incredible progress and prosperity for the decade to come,” he said, before speakers from Alabama, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin praised his term.

Taking advantage of the Labor Day holiday, Biden on Monday joined Harris in Pennsylvania’s “Steel City.” His schedule for the balance of this week includes a mix of campaign and official events to tout his administration’s agenda.

“Beginning this week with trips to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, the President is kicking off an aggressive fall travel schedule, where he’ll visit communities nationwide to highlight the historic progress the Biden-Harris Administration has made to spur significant economic progress in communities across the country — and the need to keep building on this momentum,” White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt said in a statement Tuesday.

With the Monday Pittsburgh stop and scheduled ones Thursday in Westby, Wisconsin, and Friday in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Biden is trying to help Harris hang onto states he won in 2020. All three have key Senate races this year as well. They are also areas where the Harris campaign is hoping the administration’s policy results will boost her White House bid.

After a two-week summer vacation, Biden’s return to the trail comes after Harris has pulled ahead of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a number of national and battleground state polls — though by narrow margins. A tabulation of polling data by FiveThirtyEight put Harris ahead 47.1% to 43.9%.

At a campaign stop last week in Georgia — another battleground state — she began her remarks by telling a Savannah audience November’s election is shaping up to be extremely close. On Monday, she told a Pittsburgh crowd “we are the underdogs in this race.”

Biden has rejoined a campaign trail where Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have been touring battleground states. Walz spent part of Labor Day at LaborFest in Milwaukee, while Harris was in Detroit before joining Biden in Pittsburgh.

“We maintain multiple pathways to 270 electoral votes, and are growing strength across the types of voters who decide elections in every battleground,” Harris-Walz campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a memo released Sunday. “However, the race remains very close, and will be decided by a small number of undecided voters. That universe of voters does not like Trump, but needs to hear relentlessly from us about Vice President Harris and her vision for the country. That’s what makes our operational strength so critical.”

The Harris campaign released a new ad Tuesday morning highlighting the campaign’s messaging on taxes and efforts to lower costs, with allusions to Harris’ proposed credits for homebuyers and efforts to go after alleged price-gouging on groceries.

“With two new ads in two weeks highlighting Vice President Harris’ plan to build up the middle class, Team Harris-Walz is making clear to voters every single day ... Kamala Harris will always be focused on you, your family, and your pocketbook, while Donald Trump will always put himself and his ultra-wealthy friends first,” campaign spokesperson Charles Kretchmer Lutvak said in a statement.

Aside from touting support for union efforts with Biden on Monday at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall, Harris said she wanted to see U.S. Steel Corp. continue to be American-owned, amid an effort by Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp. to buy the company.

“I couldn’t agree more with President Biden. U.S. Steel should remain American-owned and American-operated,” the vice president said.

Harris will take a detour from swing states on Wednesday. She instead will head to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the White House announced Tuesday, with Trump calling it a sign of weakness.

“Comrade Kamala Harris sees there are problems for her campaign in New Hampshire because of the fact that they disrespected it in their primary and never showed up,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “Additionally, the cost of living in New Hampshire is through the roof, their energy bills are some of the highest in the country, and their housing market is the most unaffordable in history.”

But a few hours later, speaking from the White House complex’s South Court Auditorium, Biden argued the Democratic administration had made things better for Americans.

“We’ve had one of the most extraordinary periods of progress ever in the history of this country,” Biden said. “I signed historic laws, modernizing our infrastructure, bringing new (micro)chip factories back to the United States.

“The bottom line is, thousands of cities and towns all across America are seeing the great American comeback story, whether they’re in red states or blue,” he added. “We’re doing that today to highlight and show ... we’re just getting started.”