Former President Joe Biden has been largely absent from the campaign trail as Democrats fight to win back House and Senate majorities in November, even as former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris step up efforts to boost the party’s candidates.

Biden, 83, has kept a limited public schedule while battling advanced, metastatic prostate cancer. He has endorsed candidates and is helping Democrats raise money, according to a source in Biden’s political circle. But the former president has made few political appearances this year.

The contrast is increasingly visible with four weeks to go until Election Day.

Obama is cutting ads for Senate and gubernatorial candidates, helping the party fundraise and preparing to hit the trail during the closing stretch of the midterm campaign. Harris, the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee, is also campaigning across key battleground states, including a recent stop in Michigan with Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.

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Biden has appeared at just a handful of political events this year. He spoke in February at a reception honoring his 2020 South Carolina primary victory, which propelled him toward the Democratic nomination and eventually the presidency. In June, he addressed a Maryland Democratic Party event.

Longtime Democratic strategist Michael Ceraso told Fox News Digital that some in the party’s elite and fundraising class are concerned that “if Biden were to be pushed out there in any sort of way for virtual or in-person opportunities, he could be a liability.”

Veteran Democratic strategist Maria Cardona had a different take, telling Fox News Digital, “There are still a ton of Americans who love Joe Biden.”

Biden did weigh in on a handful of Democratic primary showdowns this cycle. The former president endorsed former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor. Bottoms, who served as a senior advisor in the Biden administration, won the Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

The former president also backed Dan Koh, another Biden administration veteran, who captured the Democratic nomination in Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District.

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Biden is also advocating on behalf of efforts to secure democracy.

“American democracy begins and ends at the ballot box. There is no more important civic duty nor fundamental right to be defended,” the former president wrote on social media last month, as he cast his ballot in his home state of Delaware’s primary. “Voting defines our freedom and makes everything possible.”

But mostly, Biden has served as a foil for President Donald Trump, who Biden ousted from the White House in the 2020 election. Four years later, Biden ended his re-election bid after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in their 2024 rematch.

Trump and fellow Republicans are repeatedly blaming Biden for high prices at the gas and diesel pumps, even though public opinion polls indicate most Americans now point fingers at Trump and his administration.

Biden left the presidency with poor approval ratings, as he faced high inflation, foreign policy divides, and lingering questions about his ability to serve in office. He stood at 42% approval and 57% disapproval in January 2025, in the final Fox News poll during his White House tenure.

Post-presidency, Biden held a 71% favorable rating among Democrats in a CNN poll conducted in May. But Biden’s favorable rating among Democrats was 25 points lower than Obama’s.

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Meanwhile, some Democrats still blame him for Trump’s 2024 re-election, arguing that Biden did not get out of the race in time to allow Harris to mount a successful campaign.

Ceraso, a veteran of two presidential campaigns, pointed to the 2024 election and told Fox News Digital that Biden left a “bad taste with some Democrats, especially within the party’s elite and fundraising class.”

He added, “I do not think Biden has the same level of charisma as Vice President Harris and former President Obama, and if I’m organizing an event to get thousands of people to come out, I would not do that around Biden.”

Cardona, a Democratic National Committee member, said Biden’s health is stifling requests for campaign trail appearances.

“I guarantee you no one would try to bother him to come campaign for them while, at 83 years old, he is battling cancer and in the toughest fight of his life,” Cardona emphasized.

Fox News Digital reached out to a Biden spokesman for comment, but did not receive a response at the time this story was published.

Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor’s repeated questions concerning whether the Supreme Court has jurisdiction to hear a high-profile climate case that could expose oil companies to lawsuits across the country steered conservative lawyers to believe that the liberal justices are seeking an “off-ramp.”

“The fact that they kept going back to trying to create a jurisdictional problem tells me they don’t feel confident that they have the votes in this space,” Carrie Severino, president of JCN, a conservative judicial group, told Fox News Digital. “Jackson and Sotomayor were looking for an escape hatch.”

The Supreme Court began its new term Monday, hearing its first oral arguments for Suncor v. Boulder, in which they will rule on whether state tort laws can be used to seek damages from oil companies for climate change, even when the alleged harms are occurring outside the state or continent. The justices will also rule on whether the Supreme Court has jurisdiction to hear this case now, as the case is still before the Colorado Supreme Court.

The case before the high court is in an unusual procedural posture, meaning the justices could resolve it without ever reaching the blockbuster state-versus-federal power fight at its center. That dispute centers on whether Colorado can use its own laws to seek damages for alleged harms caused by emissions from other states or whether it’s an issue for the federal government and Congress to regulate.

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“The questions by Jackson and Sotomayor trying to say it would be premature for the court to issue an opinion are simply the liberal justices trying to find an off-ramp for the case because they are afraid they will be outvoted on the main issue: does federal law such as the Clean Air Act preempt all state claims like those asserted here,” Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow with Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital.

While questioning Suncor attorney Kannon Shanmugam, Jackson suggested the dispute may have reached the Supreme Court too soon, calling it “premature from the standpoint of this court exercising its jurisdiction.”

She also repeatedly questioned why the court couldn’t wait to hear the case, saying the court doesn’t “have the whole set of facts” and that the court doesn’t “really know enough to be confident” that the theories posed are applicable.

“It feels to me like the defendants … are bringing it back to federal court before the state courts have really had a chance to sort out who is the source, what is their allegation with respect to how this causation is happening,” Jackson told Principal Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris, who argued in support of Suncor.

Meanwhile, Sotomayor refused to drop her line of questioning on jurisdiction with Shanmugam, proposing that the Supreme Court send the case back to the Colorado Supreme Court.

“If we’re unsure of your characterization, because there’s certainly a number of amici brief who disagree with that characterization, shouldn’t we be certifying this question to the Colorado court instead of us deciding it? We have to be sure of our jurisdiction before we take it,” Sotomayor said.

Republican Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall told Fox News Digital it was clear that the liberal justices were trying to cast doubt on whether they have jurisdiction.

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“Well, I think you saw both Justice Jackson and Justice Sotomayor try to find an out for this court, basically saying the court doesn’t have jurisdiction at this stage of the case to be able to make a final ruling. I think that you saw the advocates on behalf of Suncor be able to distinguish that.”

If the Supreme Court declines to reach the federalism issue, the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling allowing Boulder’s state-law claims to proceed would remain in place, leaving the broader question of how far states can use tort law to pursue climate claims against energy companies unresolved.

Chief Justice John Roberts pressed Boulder attorney Kevin Russell on whether a Boulder win could trigger similar lawsuits nationwide. Russell said there are legal limits, but acknowledged to Justice Clarence Thomas that Boulder’s theory could allow other fossil-fuel businesses to be sued.

“The chief justice and the court do not like issuing rulings with no limiting principles, rulings that could open up unlimited litigation and claims. Kannon Shanmugam, the lawyer for Suncor, emphasized this again at the very end of the oral argument when he pointed out that there are not only 90,000 political jurisdictions that could sue, but individuals could also sue claiming damages from global warming,” von Spakovsky said.

“And he also pointed out something the conservative majority frowns upon: that Boulder is trying to resolve a major policy issue in the courts instead of in the legislative branches,” von Spakovsky continued.

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Supporters of Suncor say the lawsuits could “bankrupt” oil companies and cause the price for consumers to go up.

“It’s to basically create a carbon tax on both producers and emitters across the country, which would include, by the way, my cattlemen in Alabama producing beef for our country, those that are creating concrete to be able to build structures and be able to grow our economy,” Marshall told Fox News. “They ultimately want to bankrupt that industry to have their preferred climate change policies be in play.”

“They’re literally addressing behavior that takes place all over the world,” Utah Attorney General Derek Brown told Fox News Digital. “They want to regulate not just what happens in Colorado, but what happens in my state of Utah or in Saudi Arabia. That’s not the way the system works. So, really, this case comes down to one main issue and that is who gets to decide things like energy policy. And ultimately, under our system, it should be Congress.”

Meanwhile, Boulder alleged ExxonMobil and Suncor knew for decades about the climate risks associated with fossil fuels but misled the public about those risks. The communities estimate that taxpayers could face more than $100 million in costs to adapt to climate-related impacts, including wildfires, drought and damage to roads and other infrastructure.

Former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat and longtime advocate for aggressive action on climate change, argued those costs are already being felt by communities across the country.

“As governor, I’ve worked with so many families who’ve lost their homes,” Inslee told Fox News Digital. “So many communities have essentially burned down, and they ought to be able to have a day in court to hear the evidence, to determine whether the lies of the oil and gas industry legitimately, they make it so that they’re held accountable.”

The complaint pointed to a 1977 internal memo from ExxonMobil that circulated among the company’s highest-level managers. The memo reported that “current scientific opinion overwhelmingly favors” that fossil fuels contribute to the rise in CO2 emissions.

“Their own scientists knew that their product was dangerous, that it was going to cause more fires. And they knew this for decades, 1967, their own scientists told them it could be catastrophic, so they knew about it, they lied about it,” Inslee said. “Now it’s an American right to be in court. Nobody should bar an American from their day in court.”

Republicans are quietly warning that the true consequence of losing the Senate could be one that shapes the makeup of courts and the law for years to come.

While Republican candidates and surrogates on the campaign trail are warning of a rise in socialism and a return to Biden-era policy should Democrats flip Congress this cycle, some are pushing a different message: if Democrats win the Senate, they’ll block future Supreme Court nominees.

“I think the key over the next 34 days is bringing home Republicans. And I think it’s important to remind some of these Republicans who are not energized yet that the Supreme Court’s on the ballot,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital.

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Daines, who chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in 2024, played a key role in flipping the Senate two years ago. That election was dominated by pocketbook issues, much like this midterm cycle, and Democrats have pounced upon that message.

But the Supreme Court and the implications of the balance of power in the Senate are a message Daines contended the GOP wasn’t pushing enough.

“I mentioned that to the White House. And it’s — that’s not a silver bullet, it’s a silver buckshot,” of several issues Republicans should be talking about, Daines said.

If Trump doesn’t have a GOP majority in the upper chamber, he said, “if we have a vacancy, Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, who knows — we could not, President Trump could not move through a Supreme Court justice.”

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The high court is aging, with conservative stalwarts on the bench, Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, 78, and Samuel Alito, 76, nearing octogenarian status. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 72, and Chief Justice John Roberts, 71, aren’t that far behind.

“The Supreme Court as we know it would cease to exist under Troy Jackson, Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico, who are hell-bent on replacing it with a bloated, lawless body designed to advance Democrats’ socialist agenda,” NRSC spokeswoman Bernadette Breslin told Fox News Digital.

Speculation has swirled over Alito after NPR earlier this year published a report declaring his retirement before swiftly retracting it.

Alito added some fuel to that fire, however, during an interview with CBS earlier this month. When asked if he was considering retirement, he admitted to considering it earlier this year, and noted that “it’s something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term.”

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Democrats haven’t been keen to support several of Trump’s nominees for a variety of positions throughout the government over the last two years. Notably, Republicans went nuclear last year to change the Senate’s rules to move through bundles of nominees that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats were blocking.

And Schumer suggested that a Supreme Court pick, should there be a vacancy, and other positions in the judiciary may suffer the same fate.

“The bottom line is one of the reasons that we want to make sure we do everything we can to take back the Senate is not let Trump put such horrible justices, MAGA justices on the Supreme Court and the lower courts,” Schumer said.

Daines noted that sometimes voters look for a shortcut to head to the polls, and that the Supreme Court being a quiet issue on the ballot could very well be that path to energizing a Republican base to getting out and voting as the midterm cycle winds down.

“Without a Republican majority, President Trump will not be able to move his Supreme Court nominee through, and that’s a nominee that’ll be on the bench for 25 years,” Daines said. “We need Republicans to connect those dots. Disgruntled Republicans in Texas, come home and vote for Ken Paxton, because the Supreme Court’s on the ballot.”

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Revelations that the Biden-era FBI tracked Trump family travel and top aide Susie Wiles’ phone records received a blistering rebuke from a former top Democratic official who compared the behavior to Nixon-era abuses of federal power that surfaced amid the Watergate scandal.

The FBI investigation codenamed “Plasmic Echo,” later taken over by special counsel Jack Smith, examined Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified and national-defense material and possible obstruction. Records show agents tracked first lady Melania Trump’s and Barron Trump’s travel while planning the 2022 Mar-a-Lago search and later logged metadata from now-Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ calls with attorneys, journalists and others.”

Julian Epstein, the former chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee’s Democratic bench, compared the situation to the scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon.

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“It’s hard to think of good justifications for this. To me, it feels a little Nixonian,” said Epstein, who also served as staff director to Democrats on a second powerful panel, the House Oversight Committee.

“If this report is true, then it’s pretty bad. If true, then those in charge at the time better have some darn good explanations for surveillance of family members and advisors talking privately to lawyers or exercising their free-speech rights with the news media,” he said.

Nixon, a California Republican, maintained an “Enemies List” developed by White House aides around top adviser Charles Colson and later formalized by White House counsel John Dean. Dean – now a vocal critic of Republicans like Trump – once described it in a 1971 memo as intended to “use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”

Epstein questioned what legal justification investigators had for monitoring the contacts, particularly those involving lawyers and journalists.

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“[That] seems like a stretch,” he said.

Epstein appeared to be among the few prominent Democrats publicly criticizing the newly disclosed investigative tactics Tuesday, including the tracking of Melania and Barron Trump’s travel and the collection of Wiles’ call metadata.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who just months ago similarly broke party-silence to object to prior revelations from Smith’s probe.

Blumenthal told Fox News Digital in July that Republicans were right to be upset that some of their communications were subpoenaed without their notice.

“I think we need to have more facts. Look into it. Republicans are rightly concerned about the possible breach of norms and improper access to email,” Blumenthal said at the time.

In a separate disclosure on July 14, the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee released records showing that Smith’s 2020-election investigation obtained and reviewed text messages exchanged between Trump White House officials and 44 current and former members of Congress, including Republicans and Democrats.

Theo Wold, a former acting assistant U.S. attorney general under Trump who later served as Idaho’s solicitor general, said the new disclosures involving Melania, Barron and Wiles vindicate Republicans who have long warned of a so-called “Deep State.”

“But now we know that DOJ, the FBI, and the wider intelligence community have targeted Catholics, homeschool families, pro-life prayer warriors, and even the then-leading Republican Presidential candidate and his family,” Wold said.

“The Deep State is real. They have abused their authority for political gain. They have wielded government power against innocent Americans to coordinate their attack on opposition political figures and dissident movements.”

The White House also condemned the newly disclosed tracking of Trump family travel and collection of Wiles’ call metadata.

“Jack Smith’s surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power. Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. “Those responsible must be held accountable.”

On one day in March 2023, documents showed investigators logged metadata for 39 calls made or received by Wiles.

Calls to and from multiple campaign contacts, a lawyer and an extension associated with Melania Trump were among those logged in Wiles’ phone metadata.

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Former RNC official Elizabeth Pipko highlighted Wiles as someone that critics should be emulating, not celebrating the surveillance of.

“She managed a historic and victorious presidential campaign and became the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff. Her story should inspire young women. Instead, hatred from President Trump’s opponents teaches young people that if you work for the ‘wrong’ candidate, you and those around you can become targets,” Pipko told Fox News Digital.

The revelations come after Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital exclusively that Smith’s probe had also captured communications with dozens of journalists, including some from Fox News.

Fox News Digital reached out to counsel for Smith for comment.

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