US President Joe Biden says Kamala Harris will "make her own way" if elected as the Democratic nominee tries to convince voters she will bring change to the White House.
Last week, Vice President Harris came under fire from her Republican rival Donald Trump after she said "not one thing comes to mind" when asked what she would do differently from Biden.
"Every president has to make his own way. That's what I did. I was loyal to Barack Obama, but I forged my own path as president," Biden said at a Democratic Party dinner in Philadelphia.
"That's exactly what Kamala will do. She's been loyal so far, but she's going to forge her own path."
Biden added: "Kamala's perspective on our problems will be fresh and new. Donald Trump's viewpoint is old and failed and, frankly, completely dishonest."
Biden was vice president while Obama was in the White House from 2009 to 2017.
Biden's comments in the critically important swing state of Pennsylvania were a clear attempt to bolster Harris, who replaced the 81-year-old president as party leader in July.
Harris faces the balancing act of simultaneously presenting herself as the "candidate of change" but without repudiating the policies of the administration she has been a part of for four years.
A New York Times and Siena poll from a week ago showed that voters are slightly more likely to see her, rather than Trump, as a break from the status quo.
Trump and his Republican allies pounced on comments Harris made in an interview with a daytime TV show last week.
"There's nothing that comes to mind ... and I've been involved in most of the decisions that have had an impact," Harris said when asked how she would do things differently than Biden.
Meanwhile, the outgoing president launched into a full-scale attack on Trump in his speech to local Democrats in Philadelphia.
Biden attacked Trump for "demonizing" migrants.
"Trump hides all his racism, and now it's all out in the open. He has the same ideas about race as he did in the 1930s. Trump's ideas on the economy are from the 1920s. Trump's ideas on women are from the 1950s," he said. | BGNES
