Biden pledged to campaign hard for Harris. So far, he's been mostly a no-show

WASHINGTON (AP) — On the last day of August, President Joe Biden was asked about his fall campaign plans. He promised a Labor Day appearance in Pittsburgh and said he would be “on the road from there on.”

Biden did campaign with Vice President Kamala Harris on Labor Day, but he largely has been a campaign no-show since. Beyond that, sometimes his official events push hers to the background.

Case in point: After Hurricane Helene, Harris scrapped campaign events in Las Vegas to hurry back to Washington for a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But as Harris stepped to a podium in the command center, Biden was delivering his own storm response comments from the Oval Office, pulling the political spotlight away from his intended successor.

The lack of presidential campaigning and occasional schedule clashes could matter not just for Harris but as Democrats try to hold control of the Senate and retake the House and compete in races further down the ballot.

Even former President Barack Obama announced he will campaign for Harris. Obama will appear in Pittsburgh on Thursday and plans to spend the remaining time before the Nov. 5 election traveling to battleground states. He also recorded ads promoting Democratic Senate candidates in Michigan, Maryland and Florida.

It is not uncommon for a lame-duck president to struggle with finding the right balance between fulfilling the job and carving out a role in a would-be successor's campaign. Biden's situation is unusual because he was seeking a second term until his dramatic departure from the race left Harris with a condensed time frame for her own run.

“I think he’s doing his job as president," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday. “I think that’s the most important thing.”

Hurricane Helene has complicated matters in the short term. Biden canceled a campaign stop in Pennsylvania this past week and he and Harris made separate trips Wednesday to the Carolinas and Georgia, respectively, to survey the damage and offer support.

That time, their remarks did not overlap. But on Friday, while Harris was speaking about the importance of unions outside Detroit, Biden caused a stir by making a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room. It was the first of his presidency.

Biden has taken official trips to battleground states and he will be in suburban Philadelphia on Tuesday to campaign for Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. The Harris team had no comment on its hopes for Biden's campaign role.

The president was born in Pennsylvania and maintains a strong connection to its union leaders and blue-collar voters, and former Democratic National Committee chief Donna Brazile said she would “put him on a bus” to campaign there.

“I would make sure he is out there in the closing weeks and days of the campaign,” Brazile said. “He connects with people she will need.”

Biden and Harris have appeared together at several other official events, including a recent one at the White House on combating gun violence, and at a health care-related event in August where Biden said, “We cannot let Kamala lose.” Both have been in the Situation Room frequently to discuss the growing conflict in the Middle East.

On Labor Day, when Biden and Harris made their lone joint political appearance since the vice president took over the top on the ticket, the White House asked that Biden introduce Harris. The break with protocol was meant to highlight her record of supporting union workers.

“If you elect Kamala Harris as president it will be the best decision you will have ever made,” Biden told the crowd.

But when he finished speaking, Biden began shaking hands with those around him — an awkward moment because Harris had yet to have her turn at the podium.

It is an open question whether Harris really wants Biden's help, given that Democratic voters say they are far happier with her than they were with Biden as their nominee. Harris has praised the administration and her work in it, while also seeking to show distance on some key issues.

That includes her call for raising long-term capital gains taxes for wealthy Americans when Biden had pushed to lower them, getting tougher on the U.S.-Mexico border by potentially further stiffening limits for immigrants seeking asylum and talking up being a gun owner in ways Biden does not.

Biden's campaign absence could now be compounded as his administration deals with the recovery effort after Helene and the expanding conflict in the Mideast.

“You don’t need to campaign when you’re just doing your job,” said Nikki Fried, chair of the Democratic Party in Florida. Biden visited parts of the state on Thursday, demonstrating, as Fried put it, that “the full force of the federal government stands with the people during times of heartbreak and uncertainty."

But then there are always big demands on a president's time — from the U.N. General Assembly meetings last month in New York to Biden's upcoming travel to Germany and Angola. Though the White House says there will be more political events after that, the trip means he will not have time to turn his attention to campaigning for Harris until at least mid-October — just three weeks before Election Day,

Fried thinks Biden will make it work.

“Joe Biden loves being on the campaign trail," she said. "You can see him walking around and talking to voters and to communities, and it certainly puts an extra lift in his step and a smile on his face.”

There are times when a president's absence can be helpful to that party's candidate.

In 2008, the financial crisis sent President George W. Bush's approval ratings crashing. Republican nominee John McCain distanced himself from the White House on the economy after criticizing the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War.

“If my showing up and endorsing him helps him — or if I’m against him and it helps him — either way, I want him to win,” Bush said.

In 2000, when Democratic Vice President Al Gore was seeking the White House, he criticized President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal and took other steps to distance himself from Clinton. Some Democrats later speculated that was the reason Gore lost an exceedingly close race to Bush.

Paul Begala, a key architect of Clinton’s 1992 campaign, does not see a lot of parallels between Clinton and Biden.

“In 2000, Clinton was broadly popular," Begala said. "Biden is not.”

Begala said Biden would do best to “focus on governing, and leave the campaigning to Kamala" and her top supporters.

“Lots of people can campaign for her: the Obamas, the Clintons, Oprah, Taylor Swift,” Begala said. “But only Joe Biden can be president.”

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Barrow reported from Evans, Georgia.

President Joe Biden, right, and White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, left, speak with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, on screen at center right, and Administrator of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency Deanne Criswell, onscreen at center left, about the Biden administration's efforts to aid in recovery from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - President Joe Biden, right, and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris campaign at the IBEW Local Union #5 union hall in Pittsburgh, on Labor Day, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris attends a briefing at FEMA headquarters, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Washington, on recovery and assistance efforts after Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

President Joe Biden listens during a briefing on the government's response to Hurricane Helene in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and President Joe Biden attend a campaign event at the IBEW Local Union #5 union hall in Pittsburgh, on Labor Day, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — George Brett watched the Kansas City Royals prepare to face the New York Yankees and remembered the combustible clashes of the 1970s.

“This isn’t a series, this is war,” said the Hall of Famer, tossing in a profanity for emphasis.

Brett slid late into Graig Nettles in 1977's Game 5 of the best-of-five AL Championship Series, catching the third baseman on the face with an arm. Nettles kicked Brett in the teeth. Brett threw a punch as benches and bullpens emptied.

“You've got to find a way to turn it up a notch,” Brett said Friday by the Royals dugout at Yankee Stadium as he watched Kansas City's workout ahead of Saturday's Division Series opener. “Obviously, if you do something that we used to do to each other out here, you’re kicked out of the game here or it’s an automatic double play or whatever. I mean, me and Nettles got in a fistfight at third base and didn't even get kicked out of the game, for crying out loud.”

Kansas City, which started play in 1969, reached the playoffs for the first time in 1976. Brett hit a tying three-run homer in the eighth inning off Grant Jackson in Game 5, but Chris Chambliss homered leading off ninth inning against Mark Littell.

A year later in the sixth inning of Game 2, Hal McRae made a leaping body block of Willie Randolph well past second base in the sixth to break up a possible inning-ending double play on Brett's grounder to Nettles, allowing Freddie Patek to score the tying run from second base.

“It didn’t take much for anybody there on either side to get into a ruckus,” Yankees star Reggie Jackson told an MLB Network documentary.

Three days later, Brett's first-inning RBI triple off Ron Guidry led to the brawl with Nettles, who was grabbed from behind by Royals third base coach Chuck Hiller as Guidry tried to restrain Brett.

“Marty Springstead was the umpire, and after everything had cleared, he goes: 'All right.' He points to me. He goes: 'This is an important guy.' He point to Brett, he goes: 'This is an important guy, and this is an important game, so nobody's getting thrown out the game,'" Nettles told the TV show Las 5 Esquinas de NY a few years ago.

Jackson was controversially benched by manager Billy Martin after starting the series 1 for 14, then had a pinch-hit single in the eighth that cut New York's deficit to 3-2. The Yankees scored three times in the ninth for a 5-3 win.

When the teams met again in the 1980 ALCS, Kansas City swept. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner fumed after third base coach Mike Ferraro sent Randolph home, trying to score from first on Bob Watson's two-out, eighth-inning double in Game 2, with New York trailing by a run. Brett took left fielder Willie Wilson's throw and relayed to catcher Darrell Porter for the out.

Manager Dick Howser refused to fire Ferraro, and Brett hit a go-ahead, three-run homer off Rich Gossage as the Royals won Game 3 to complete the sweep. Steinbrenner forced out Howser after the series and Howser was hired as Royals manager the following August. Ferraro joined his staff in 1984 and the Royals won their first World Series title in 1985.

“They both came over to Kansas City and became my dear friends,” Brett said.

His most famous moment in the Bronx occurred on July 24, 1983, in what became known as the Pine Tar Game. The Royals trailed 4-3 with two outs in the ninth when Brett hit a two-run homer off Gossage. Martin argued Brett's bat had pine tar in excess of the 18-inch limit, and plate umpire Tim McClelland agreed and signaled out. Eyes bulging, Brett stormed out of the dugout toward McClelland and had to be restrained by Howser and umpires.

Kansas City filed a protest that was upheld by AL President Lee MacPhail, who wrote “games should be won and lost on the playing field — not though technicalities of the rules.” The game continued on Aug. 18 and the Royals won 5-4.

Now in his 31st season as a Royals vice president, Brett travels with the team during the postseason to fire up the current players with the decades-old history.

“They weren't born yet. Some of our coaches weren't even born yet. I'm going to remind them,” he said. “This series means more to me than it means to them.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

FILE - New York's Graig Nettles slides into the dirt and safe at third as Kansas City Royals George Brett covers in the fifth inning in the American League championship at Kansas City, Oct. 3,1978. (AP Photo/John File)

FILE- Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett, right, rights with New York Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles in the first inning of Game 5, the final of the American League playoffs at Kansas City, Oct. 9, 1977. (AP Photo, File)

George Brett, Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame infielder and vice president of baseball operations, watches the team work out ahead of an American League Division series baseball game against the New York Yankees, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)