Biden Casts Early Ballot for Harris as Election Day Nears

 President Joe Biden, center, holds an "I Voted Early" sticker upon exiting the voting booth after casting his early-voting ballot for the 2024 general elections, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in New Castle, Del. (AP)
President Joe Biden, center, holds an "I Voted Early" sticker upon exiting the voting booth after casting his early-voting ballot for the 2024 general elections, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in New Castle, Del. (AP)
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Biden Casts Early Ballot for Harris as Election Day Nears

 President Joe Biden, center, holds an "I Voted Early" sticker upon exiting the voting booth after casting his early-voting ballot for the 2024 general elections, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in New Castle, Del. (AP)
President Joe Biden, center, holds an "I Voted Early" sticker upon exiting the voting booth after casting his early-voting ballot for the 2024 general elections, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in New Castle, Del. (AP)

President Joe Biden has cast an early ballot in the 2024 general election.

It's a bittersweet moment for Biden, who decided to end his reelection campaign in July because of growing concerns about his health and Democrats' worries about his chances of defeating former President Donald Trump.  

Biden voted on Monday at the state of Delaware Department of Elections, not far from his home outside Wilmington, Delaware at an early voting site, where voters were lined up down the street to cast ballots.

Biden chatted with voters as he waited in line to cast his ballot, and helped push an older woman in a wheelchair who ahead of him. The president waited in line for about 40 minutes before he cast his ballot.

He handed his identification to the election worker, who had him sign a form and announced: “Joseph Biden now voting.”

As the president cast his ballot behind a black drape, some first-time voters were announced and the room erupted in cheers for them.

For all but a few years since 1970, Biden has either held office or been running for one during election season.

But this year, his hopes lie with a newer generation of Democrats, including three on the Delaware ballot looking to make history.

Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden endorsed after dropping out, is vying to become the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to serve as president.



Harris Promises to 'Represent all Americans' after Biden's 'Inappropriate' Remark on Trump Supporters

Former US President and Republican Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, October 29, 2024. EPA/DAVID MUSE
Former US President and Republican Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, October 29, 2024. EPA/DAVID MUSE
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Harris Promises to 'Represent all Americans' after Biden's 'Inappropriate' Remark on Trump Supporters

Former US President and Republican Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, October 29, 2024. EPA/DAVID MUSE
Former US President and Republican Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, October 29, 2024. EPA/DAVID MUSE

Kamala Harris called Wednesday for Americans to “stop pointing fingers at each other” as she tried to push past comments made by President Joe Biden about Donald Trump's supporters and “garbage " and keep the focus on her Republican opponent in the closing days of the race.
“We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other," the Democratic nominee said.
Harris held rallies in a trio of battleground states as part of a blitz in the closing week of the election, with stops Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Madison, Wisconsin, The Associated Press said.
She stressed unity and common ground, expanding on her capstone speech Tuesday in Washington, where she laid out what her team called the “closing argument” of her campaign.
“I am not looking to score political points,” the vice president said. “I am looking to make progress.”
As she waited for Harris to take the stage in Raleigh, 35-year-old Liz Kazal said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the election. She’s tried to volunteer for the campaign every week, including making phone calls, knocking on doors with her toddler daughter and raising money for Harris’ candidacy.
“You hope for the best and plan for the worst,” Kazal said.
Meanwhile, the White House rushed to explain that the president's comment about “garbage” was a reference to rhetoric from Trump allies, not Trump’s supporters themselves. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden “does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage.”
The controversy began Tuesday — at the same time Harris was speaking near the White House — when Biden participated in a campaign call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino. Biden used the opportunity to criticize Sunday's Madison Square Garden rally, where a comedian described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” Biden said. “It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two for her flight to Raleigh that she disagrees "with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
“I will represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me,” she said.
Her words were an attempt to blunt the controversy over Biden's comments and put some distance between herself and the president, something she has struggled with in the past.
Republicans seized on Biden’s comments, claiming they were an echo of the time when Hillary Clinton, as the Democratic nominee in 2016, said half of Trump’s supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables.”
“We know what they believe. Because look how they’ve treated you,” Trump said at his rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Wednesday. “They’ve treated you like garbage. The truth is, they’ve treated our whole country like garbage.”
He also said, “Without question, my supporters are far higher-quality than Crooked Joe’s," using his nickname for the president.
After landing in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for another rally later in the day, Trump posed for photos while wearing a neon orange and yellow vest and sitting in the passenger seat of a garbage truck festooned with American flags and campaign signs.
“How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said as he took questions from reporters.
"Joe Biden should be ashamed of himself, if he knows what he’s even doing," Trump said.
Travis Waters, 54, who attended Harris' second rally of the day in Harrisburg, shrugged off the commotion over Biden's comments.
“Donald Trump has said so much about so many other groups and I don’t hear the media having the same outrage,” Waters said.
In attacking Biden — and by extension, Harris — Republicans have glossed over Trump’s own history of insulting and demonizing rhetoric, such as calling the United States a “garbage can for the world” or describing political opponents as “the enemy within.” Trump has also described Harris as a “stupid person” and “lazy as hell,” and he’s questioned whether she was on drugs.
Trump has also refused demands to apologize for the comment about Puerto Rico at his rally, acknowledging that “somebody said some bad things” but adding that he “can’t imagine it’s a big deal.”
Political attack lines have a history of occasionally boomeranging back on people who use them. For example, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, now Trump's running mate, once described Democrats as beholden to “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.”
Vance's 3-year-old comments resurfaced once he became the vice presidential nominee, energizing Harris supporters who repurposed the label as a point of pride on shirts and bumper stickers — much like Trump’s supporters once cheerfully branded themselves as “deplorables.”
At each of Harris' rallies, she was confronted by pro-Palestinian protestors objecting to her support for Israel's military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
“We all want the war in Gaza to end and get the hostages out," Harris said during one interruption in Madison.
Then she added, “Everyone has a right to be heard, but right now I’m speaking.”
The crowd roared in approval, drowning out another group of protestors who unfurled a banner saying “No Funding for War Crimes."
With just days to go before the end of the campaign, many of Harris' supporters were on edge. Holly Meyer, 65, said she was nervous as she attended the Madison rally.
“But I’m also optimistic,” she said. “People just seem to be energized by Vice President Harris.”