Joe Biden has been sidelined by Kamala Harris in the final days of her campaign, with his apparent description of Donald Trump supporters as "garbage" underscoring her campaign's fears that the outgoing president is an electoral liability.

Since dropping out of the White House race in July, the 81-year-old Democrat has been hitting the trail to support his vice president -- and trumpet his own administration's achievements.

But US media reported earlier this week that Harris's campaign was distancing itself from the incumbent, and that it had politely rejected his suggestions to make more joint appearances on the stump.

The row over Biden's latest comments has now crystallized concerns that he is more of a hindrance than a help to her election bid's final push.

"Harris should obviously avoid many joint appearances with Biden until after the election is over," said Larry Sabato, a leading US political scientist and director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

"Biden is quite unpopular and he's also rusty and off his game."

Republicans pounced on Biden's "garbage" comment as a reminder of the damaging moment when Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton called Trump's supporters "deplorables" back in 2016.

But Grandpa Funnyfingers wants attention! He will not go quietly into the basement!

On Wednesday the Biden administration also pushed back at the reports Harris has distanced herself from the president.

"They have direct communications pretty, pretty often. And he did have a conversation last night because he was proud of her, her historic speech, and he wanted to congratulate her," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said.

...

For Biden, it caps a painful fading into irrelevance as the commander-in-chief of the world's top superpower nears the end of his single term.

A proud man for whom the decision to quit the election race did not come easy, Biden has been keen to promote his achievements in bringing the country back from the brink after the Covid pandemic and pushing through record amounts of legislation.

But history's view of Biden will ultimately rely on whether Harris wins next week.

A Trump comeback would not only be a repudiation of Biden's own achievements but also reflect the fact that he hung on too long despite concerns over his age.

That is one of the many great things about a Trump victory -- the Democrats will blame this stupid, nasty, uncultured, narcissistic, buffoonish blowhard for the loss.

That won't be entirely true, of course.

But that will burn with Biden until the dull, dim lights of his eyes go out.

"Joe Biden can f*** anything up." -- Barack Obama

Let that be this lecherous demagogue's epitaph.

If you haven't seen the below clip, watch it. It's the funniest I've ever seen Trump. He's also self-deprecating here, which I like.

This is his best mode. He should stay in this mode forever.

The blue glare of Aryan fury fixes upon the leftwing media, which just got done screaming at us for 48 straight hours that if anyone associated with a campaign uses insulting or degrading language about you, you must vote for the other party.

And now they go: "Calling half the country garbage? No big deal, snowflakes!"

After screaming that Trump was a racist because a ROAST comedian made a remark about Puerto Rico's very in-the-news garbage problem, disintegrating hag Norah O'Donnell demands that Biden be afforded "GRACE" by Trump and his supporters for calling them "garbage."

Note she did not previously call for "grace" for Tony Hinchcliff, the roast comedian, or the Trump campaign.

Brit Hume
@brithume

It is one thing for media outlets to dismiss Biden's calling Trump supporters "garbage" as an idiotic remark by a senile old man long prone to gaffes. But to pretend he didn't say it or to ignore it completely is another matter entirely -- an example of media corrupted by politics.

Yes the media is dismissing him as a senile old man so I'm just curious: Why are they not calling for the 25th Amendment as they constantly did for Trump? (And will call for again in three months' time.)

Kamala is looking for ways to defuse the "garbage" slur.