President Joe Biden called in to Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, speaking for the first time in days but still not showing his face.
The president had not been heard from since last Wednesday when he tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to cancel an event. Now, on Monday, as Harris gathered her election team to outline their path to victory, Biden called in to wish her well and explain his decision to suspend his reelection bid.
“Julie, if I didn’t have COVID, I’d be standing there with you,” Biden told his campaign manager who is now working for Harris, Julie Chavez Rodríguez. “I want to say hello to Kamala if she can hear me. I know she’s going to be speaking shortly. I want to say to the team: Embrace her. She’s the best.”
“I know yesterday’s news was surprising and it’s hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing to do. … I think we made the right decision,” the president added.
Biden’s words from the telephone are unlikely to cool speculation as to where he is, especially as a growing number of Republicans have said that if he doesn’t believe he can run for reelection, he shouldn’t remain in the White House. The president has asserted he will finish his term.
Even as Biden passed the torch to Harris, he did so without a national address, instead writing a letter and circulating it on the internet. His allies have said his absence from the public eye has been because of his COVID-19 diagnosis.
The president’s doctor said on Monday that Biden is still continuing his duties and that the public will be informed of any changes in his recovery process. Still, some GOP lawmakers, such as Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), want to see “proof of life.”
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Biden has been said to be recovering at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Dr. Kevin C. O’Connor said on Sunday his “symptoms have improved significantly” and he is on the road to recovery.
Harris looks sure to gain the Democratic nomination for president after Biden’s and other leading Democrats’s endorsements. However, her campaign has its work cut out with less than one month before the Democratic National Convention.
