Biden Hurting Harris Campaign With ‘Farewell Tour’: Ex-White House Adviser

President Joe Biden is stealing attention from the Harris-Walz campaign, a former White Houser adviser claims, and spoiling the vice president’s hopes of painting herself as the pro-change candidate in this year’s election.

The incumbent is spending the weeks before November 5 criss-crossing the nation to try to help Harris and promote his legacy as the 46^th U.S. president. However, Biden’s advanced age and Harris’ apparent desire to distance herself from the president and his record have led some to suggest he’s actually hurting the Democrat’s campaign.

“The Harris-Walz campaign team has to be less than thrilled about the possibility of a Biden valedictory tour in the months before the election,” Karl Rove wrote in a Wednesday op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.

Rove cited recent reports that Biden will use the next few weeks to conduct a de facto campaign for Harris, with targeted appearances aimed at touting his administration’s accomplishments and shoring up support for another Democratic White House.

Biden has already made stops in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, three of this year’s most critical swing states. He won them narrowly in 2020, but they hang in the balance for the vice president.

“The schedule will be robust and he plans to leave it all on the field,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt said of the tour in early September.

However, Rove, who served as a senior adviser and acting chief of staff during the George W. Bush administration, thinks that this could be a significant blunder by the Democrats.

“One reason it’s a bad idea is that Mr. Biden has become, to put it mildly, a terrible communicator. Remember the debate?” Rove said. “He hasn’t magically gotten better since then. His presence on the road might remind Americans why they’re grateful he stepped aside.”

The July debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump, in which the incumbent failed to articulate himself and trailed off course several times, elicited significant criticism from both Republicans and Democrats and is widely credited with leading to his eventual withdrawal from the race.

“Another reason Democrats can’t want Mr. Biden to be more visible is that Vice President Kamala Harris has been working overtime to convince voters she’d be a fresh start rather than a continuation of the Biden presidency,” Rove continued.

One of the Harris campaign’s main slogans is “New Way Forward,” and the vice president has faced criticism from Republicans for attempting to eschew her status as the incumbent candidate in this election.

“She’s clearly the incumbent,” former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told Fox News on Thursday morning. “And she’s trying to distance herself from the Biden-Harris lack of accomplishments.”

Rove referenced a September 17 NBC poll, in which 47 percent of respondents said they viewed Harris as the candidate representing change, compared to only 38 percent for Trump, as evidence of this strategy’s success.

“That 9 point difference is important in a race in which many voters are unhappy with the country’s current trajectory,” Rove said.

A September 24 poll from YouGov found that 65.9 percent of Americans believe the country is “off on the wrong track,” versus 25 percent who consider it headed in the right direction.

By drawing attention toward his record as president, and by extension the last three and a half years, Rove warns that Biden’s tour may be a curse rather than a blessing to the Harris campaign.

“There is one person who would welcome Mr. Biden’s getting out in front of voters: Donald Trump,” Rove added. “He knows the president would reinforce the sense that if voters want change, the only way to get it is to send Mr. Trump back to the Oval Office.”

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