White House pressed about Biden’s disappearing act

The White House faced a bevy of questions Wednesday about President Joe Biden fading into the background as Vice President Kamala Harris takes center stage on the 2024 campaign trail.

Veteran Democratic operatives have told the Washington Examiner they believe Biden can best help Harris by simply keeping out of sight, and since exiting the race, he has appeared in public just a handful of times, despite escalating tensions in the Middle East and deadly storms impacting the South.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was unable to provide details about whether Biden would publicly speak on either of these issues during Wednesday’s White House press briefing but stated that the president would host the 2023 World Series-winning Texas Rangers at the White House on Thursday.

“You’ll see him tomorrow,” she said. “There will be more opportunities. You have five months left here. There’ll be plenty of opportunities, obviously, to see the president, and certainly, we have events, public events to share, travel to share, as we normally do.”

Furthermore, Jean-Pierre had very little to say about Biden’s plans or intentions to stump for Harris, suggesting that the vice president’s campaign would make that decision.

“You can expect the president is going to be as supportive as he can to the vice president,” she stated. “They talk regularly. They talk frequently, and I’m probably going to leave it there.”

The president is now slated to deliver remarks at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, the opening night of the convention, and Jean-Pierre also claimed the team was still determining if Biden would stay in Chicago for the whole week or return to Washington early.

There has been some speculation that Biden resents being forced off the top of the Democratic ticket, especially with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) making the media rounds and coyly discussing the private pressure campaign Democrats waged to force him out of the race and suggesting that ultimately he was dealing with a “stamina” problem.

Jean-Pierre rejected that claim Wednesday, stating forcefully that Biden withdrew from the 2024 race on his own terms.

“As I just stated multiple times, that’s what he wanted to do,” she continued. “It wasn’t about him, this was about country first. That’s how he has basically moved forward with his career these past 50-plus years, and that was his decision. Passing along the torch.”

“He believed that he could continue to do this job for another four years,” Jean-Pierre concluded. “That’s why he decided to run for reelection. I would let the speaker speak for herself. I’m speaking for the president.”

Wednesday’s briefing can be seen in full below.