President Joe Biden promised his old running mate will chart her own legacy if elected during a campaign speech in Philadelphia, a contrast from his remarks just a few days prior.
“Every president has to cut their own path. That’s what I did,” Biden said. “I was loyal to Barack Obama, but I cut my own path as president. That’s what [Vice President] Kamala [Harris] is going to do. She’s been loyal so far, but she’s going to cut her own path.”
Harris has promised to represent a “new way forward” if she’s president, a message both Biden and herself have undercut in recent weeks.
During a surprise appearance in the White House press briefing room, Biden said he and Harris are “singing from the same song sheet.” Harris followed that up by saying on The View that “there’s not a thing that comes to mind” that she would do differently than Biden if she were in office.
Tuesday night, Biden appeared ready to reset the narrative toward Harris breaking out on her own.
“Kamala’s going to take the country in her own direction, and that’s one of the most important differences this election,” Biden said. “Kamala’s perspective on our problems are fresh and new. Donald Trump’s perspective is old and failed and, quite frankly, thoroughly and totally dishonest.”
Biden has a long history in Philadelphia, which is located just a 30-minute drive from his Delaware residence. Several of his children and grandchildren have attended the local Ivy League school, the University of Pennsylvania, and he has visited the City of Brotherly Love frequently as president.
Of course, the big reason Philadelphia matters now is because it’s located in Pennsylvania, perhaps the single most important swing state of the 2024 election. Trump was in the area for an event Monday night, and both Trump and Harris have built large campaign operations in the state.
Trump has an extremely narrow 0.3% polling edge in Pennsylvania, per the RealClearPolitics voting average, something Biden and Harris hope to overcome in the campaign’s final weeks.
“I represented Delaware, but I wouldn’t have gotten elected without Philadelphia, and that’s the truth,” Biden said.
Biden spent much of the rest of his speech attacking Trump and his policies. He said Trump was afraid to debate Harris again because he knows he’d lose again.
“He inherits $100 million and he went bankrupt how many times? I can’t keep track,” Biden said. “He bankrupted the casino in Atlantic City — that’s pretty hard to do. How is that possible? I thought the house always won. Trump was not only a loser 2020, he’s a loser at everything he does.”
The crowd broke into “Thank you, Joe!” and “We’re not going back!” cheers as he spoke.
Biden said there are fewer illegal border crossings today than the day he left office, though that’s mostly due to an executive action he took late in his term after the numbers spiked for much of his presidency.
He derided Trump’s economic plans for new tariffs as a “sales tax.”
“According to all the economists, if your sales tax were to in fact pass, the average family would have an increase in their cost of $4,000 a year,” Biden said. “Donald Trump’s not running for you, he’s running for himself.”
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Biden continued the new way forward theme toward the end of his 20-minute speech, summarizing Trump’s positions as a host of ideas from decades gone by.
“Trump hides all his racism — or he used to, but now he’s just out front,” Biden said. “He has the same ideas on race as the 1930s. Trump’s ideas on the economy are from the 1920s. Trump’s ideas on women are from the 1950s. And folks, this is 2024. We can’t go back.”