Biden focused on ‘legacy’ in final months, but skeleton schedule ‘signals’ an empty house to rivals: expert

Critics have claimed President Biden’s seemingly light schedule and infrequent public appearances since dropping out of the presidential race will harm America’s image abroad, even as the White House stresses recent policy wins. 

“Biden has disappeared from view, Harris is campaigning full-time, and won’t meet with the press,” former national security adviser K.T. McFarland told Fox News Digital. 

“This sends a signal to the world that there is no one in charge in the White House,” McFarland explained. “Our allies wonder whether they can trust us.  Our adversaries see this as a wide open window of opportunity, when they can exploit us without risk of consequences.”

“They know this window of opportunity will slam shut if Donald Trump is elected,” McFarland argued. “We’re in a period of maximum vulnerability.”

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Biden has made few public appearances and his schedule appears lighter than it had been prior to his decision not to seek a second term. 

When Fox News correspondent David Spunt last week asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre why the American people have not heard from the president, she replied that the White House had put out two readouts that day. 

Jean-Pierre also stressed that the administration is now in a “different time” and that Americans would “get to see the president… it is certainly the president’s priority, to make sure that we do everything that we can, to protect our national security, right?” 

The press secretary highlighted the push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas as well as the administration’s response to Tropical Storm Debby as important issues that have taken Biden’s attention in recent weeks. 

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But concerns about mounting tensions in the Middle East grew more severe this week as Israel revealed intelligence that indicated Iran would launch a significant attack, which would serve as retaliation for the death of Hamas commander Ismail Haniyeh. 

President Biden rides his bike through Gordons Pond State Park in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Aug. 11, 2024. (Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images)

Top U.S. national security leaders said last week that they and allies are directly pressing Israel, Iran and others to avoid escalating the conflict, even as the U.S. moved more troops to the region and threatened retaliation if American forces are attacked.

The White House continued to stress Biden’s focus on a range of issues as proof that he’s not hiding from the public: Biden and the first lady will visit New Orleans this week to highlight the Biden Cancer Moonshot initiative to reduce the cancer death rate by at least half before 2047, NOLA reported. 

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Aug. 13, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

“President Biden is working hard and building on the most successful record of any modern administration by delivering more results for the American people,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital. 

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Bates cited “an historic return of unjustly detained Americans from Russia, perpetuating the Biden-Harris manufacturing boom, lowering the costs of prescription drugs, and bringing unlawful border crossings to the lowest level in years” as major recent wins for the administration. 

Bates also leveled criticism at the Republicans for “blocking tough, bipartisan border legislation on behalf of Donald Trump.”

President Biden welcomes the 2023 World Series champion Texas Rangers to the White House on Aug. 8, 2024. (Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Politico reported that Biden will use his final half-year in office to focus on “legacy items” and give Vice President Kamala Harris the lion’s share of the limelight as she seeks to become the first female president of the United States: The White House, for example, will unveil Medicare price negotiation savings this week, which the Biden campaign – and now the Harris campaign – had aimed to focus on as part of the push for votes in November. 

But the White House is still in the early days of a tumultuous economic situation. The president claimed to have “cured the economy” last week just before the stock market stumbled and raised concerns about the economic health of the country throughout the rest of the year. 

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“The July jobs report is being viewed as a recession warning, and the markets are responding accordingly,” Bill Adams, chief economist at the Dallas-based Comerica Bank, said after the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 1,000 points, marking a 2.6% shift and the worst day since September 2022. 

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Fox News Correspondent David Spunt contributed to this report.