As Democratic officials from former presidents to state representatives knock doors and appear at rallies for Vice President Harris, one person is noticeably absent from the campaign trail in the election’s final days — President Biden. According to a new report, Mr. Biden is viewed as too big of a liability for the Harris campaign. 

In August, Mr. Biden promised that he would be “on the road” for Ms. Harris following the Labor Day holiday, though he has appeared at zero campaign events alongside Ms. Harris or her running mate, Governor Walz. The president did do one event for the Harris–Walz ticket on Sunday at a Pittsburgh-area union hall alongside Senator Fetterman and Congressman Chris DeLuzio. Mr. Biden’s visit to the phone banking session alongside just a few dozen union members stood in stark contrast to Ms. Harris’s rally with Beyoncé Knowles in Texas on Friday, and her event with former first lady Michelle Obama in Michigan on Saturday. 

According to Axios, the vice president is wary of having her boss on the campaign trail in the closing days for fear of being tied to a deeply unpopular, outgoing president. Not since Senator McCain eschewed campaign events with President Bush in 2008 has a major party nominee declined to appear at events with the sitting president of the same party. 

According to the FiveThirtyEight approval rating averages, Mr. Biden has a favorable rating of just 38.8 percent. “He’s a reminder of the last four years, not the new way forward,” a source close to the Harris campaign told Axios.

Mr. Biden has largely stuck to official White House events since bowing out of the 2024 presidential race in July. He traveled to Wisconsin in September to tout his administration’s infrastructure investments, and made just a handful of references to his vice president without offering any effusive praise. On Wednesday, Mr. Biden headlined an event in New Hampshire with Senator Shaheen and Senator Sanders to talk about bringing down the cost of prescription drugs.

Ms. Harris has consistently tried to distance herself from the Biden administration to try and make herself into the so-called “change candidate” in this election. One of her taglines on the stump has been, “We’re not going back” — a reference that is explicit to President Trump’s time in office but could also be construed as a promise to break from Mr. Biden and his team. 

During an appearance on “The View” earlier this month, the vice president seemed to accidentally admit that there was “not a thing” that she would have done differently than Mr. Biden had she been president for the last four years, a comment she tried to clean up just a few days later. 

During an appearance on Fox News, she told host Bret Baier that her “administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration.” She reiterated that message during a recent town hall with CNN, where she told a young voter that she would break from Mr. Biden because she represents “a new generation of leadership,” which includes a new team of advisors, staffers, and administration officials. 

“I bring to this role my own ideas and my own experience,” she said at the CNN town hall.