SCRANTON: Barack Obama once said that if there was no Scranton, Pennsylvania, there would be no Joe Biden.
The incumbent president, whose term ends in January, returned to his hometown on Saturday for his latest campaign stop to support Vice President Kamala Harris, as he seeks to use his influence in an important part of an important swing state to help her overcome his previous rule. His Republican rival, Donald Trump.
Scranton has a rich history for Biden, and if he were still at the top of the Democratic ticket, a stop here would likely be seen as a full-circle moment for his final campaign.
Instead, it was Biden’s swan song for his second number, and a muted one at that.
The president rallied union workers, a hugely popular constituency, in the town where he grew up before his family moved to Delaware, where he would begin a political career that has lasted more than 50 years.
“I’m very proud to be back,” Biden said, making familiar statements about his and Harris’ support for unions, his pride in being the first president to walk the picket line, and their efforts to restore pensions.
“Don’t forget where you came from,” he said to applause, warning of the consequences if Trump is elected and gets rid of health care under the Affordable Care Act.
Biden, who stepped down as the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer in July after a disastrous debate performance against Trump, has not been a regular fixture on the Harris campaign trail since she rose to the top of the ticket.
They held a number of early events, both official and campaign-related, when she took the helm and energized the spirits of disillusioned Democrats for the summer. But his previous campaign has left him largely in the shadows since then, amid concerns about his age, his tendency to make gaffes, and his low approval ratings with the American public.
The wisdom of this strategy was highlighted earlier this week when Harris’ well-received closing speech to tens of thousands of supporters in Washington was partly overshadowed by Biden’s call to a Latino group in which he referred to a Trump supporter or supporters as trash. He later clarified his comments, but it was an unwelcome episode for Harris and her team in the final stretch of the race.
However, it wasn’t enough for them to ask Biden to avoid a stop in Pennsylvania, where he spoke at a union voting meeting with Carpenters Local 445, standing in front of a wall of signs reading “Harris for President” and “Thank you Joe.”