OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Some pundits are starting to believe that President Joe Biden is sabotaging the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris to prevent her from defeating former President Donald Trump.
The theory stands to reason if you consider the president was cast aside because party elites did not believe he could be re-elected thus why would he want to prove them correct?
And there is a ton of anecdotal evidence to prove the theory correct, The New York Post reported.
The president had an interaction with a man at the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department in Pennsylvania on September 11 in which he donned a Trump hat.
He was signing a hat for the man when the man asked him to wear his Trump hat, to which the president responded “I ain’t going that far,” as he smiled.
But then he momentarily donned the cap to applause in the room, which White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre explained on September 13.
“Karine, what we saw yesterday with the president briefly wearing a MAGA hat — since the pool wasn’t in the room for that, can you share a little bit more about how that happened and just what kind of message you think it sent?” a reporter asked her at a press briefing.
“And he offered a — a presidential hat to a man who was wearing a Trump cap. He was wearing a Trump hat, and he offered it to him as a gesture. And in return, the man said that, in the same spirit, the president should put on his Trump cap. And so, the president did very briefly. And that’s what happened,” she said.
But then, last week, after the vice president called Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis “selfish” for not taking her calls the president appeared to not back her when asked if her call should have been taken.
“All I can tell you is I’ve talked to Governor DeSantis,” the president responded when asked about the governor not taking the vice president’s calls.
“He’s been very gracious. He thanked me for all we’ve done. He knows what we’re doing, and I think that’s important,” he said.
And after the vice president said the Florida governor was “selfish” the president again praised the Republican.
“The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and I said – no – you’re doing a great job, it’s all being done well and we thank you for it,” he said on Tuesday. “There was a rough start in some places, but every governor, every governor – from Florida to North Carolina – has been fully cooperative and supportive.”
The optics have some pundits believing that the president is engaged in intentional sabotage of his vice president’s campaign.
“Biden is intentionally enacting revenge on Kamala for knifing him in the back,” Republican political strategist and Trump campaign advisory board member Jason Meister said to The New York Post.
“He never liked her. The happiest he’s looked in four years was when he put a red [Trump 2024] hat on after speaking with Shanksville, [Pa.] firefighters [last month] on 9/11. He should just come out and endorse Trump,” he said.
“It would be absolutely ridiculous to assume that he has no resentment over how he was treated or how, frankly, he was forced out in what some would describe as a coup,” Democrat strategist Hank Sheinkopf said.
“Why hasn’t he appeared in places where he could do some good, like parts of Pennsylvania and states that the president has buoyed during his term? Nobody wants to give up being president of the United States – it’s the one job you don’t want to leave,” he said.
And former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said during a campaign rally for the former president in Scranton, Pennsylvania that the president was “rooting for” his predecessor.
“Somewhere deep down inside, in a place that he doesn’t want to admit, I think maybe Joe Biden is actually rooting for it,” he said.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said that there was no truth to the accusations and that those who claim that the president is sabotaging his vice president’s campaign “seem to have missed” that the president “made clear he was all-in for” his vice president “out of the gate when he left the campaign, and has consistently fought for her and praised her leadership to the country.
“He believes fiercely in an agenda that will move us into the future, away from unhinged divisiveness and extreme policies the country can’t afford to go back to, like MAGAnomics and a national abortion ban,” he said.
