Scranton, Pa
CNN
—

President Joe Biden spoke out in front of a few dozen union carpenters here this weekend.

“I know some of you are tempted to think that these are macho guys,” Biden said, referring to his former rival, former President Donald Trump, the male voter in a razor-thin election against his vice president woos.

Not to be fooled, Biden recalled a rumble from a long time ago, when he was a child.

“I'll tell you what, man, when I was in Scranton, we had a little trouble getting through the act every now and then,” he said, sounding anything but threatening. “These are the guys you’d most like to punch in the ass.”

Here in his hometown, the president likely made his final trip to a battleground before Election Day. After 50 years in public life, it was a subdued final campaign appearance as incumbent.

In Biden's political winter, it was perhaps inevitable that everything would come back to Scranton.

The day had the hallmarks of a Biden classic: There was the mayor's toddler on the tarmac, introduced as Biden's “ice cream buddy”; there was the round of “Happy Birthday” sung to a stranger (“She’s turning 41!”); There was a vague suggestion of violence in the schoolyard.

Vice President Kamala Harris was nowhere near; Her campaign rally in Atlanta began around the same time Biden spoke. Senator Bob Casey was also not involved in a tough fight for his Senate seat here.

None of this was quite the campaign rally last weekend that Biden once planned to host in support of his own candidacy. It wasn't even the wild tour of Pennsylvania he once wanted to conduct in support of Harris.

But even though it was a much smaller matter, Biden showed no disappointment in his address to around 100 members of the local carpenters' union. On the wall behind his podium, next to the Harris-Walz campaign signs, were a few posters that simply read: “Thanks, Joe.”

“You know, we have asked a lot of each other, you and me, the unions and I,” Biden said, recalling his long faith in organized labor throughout his half century in public life. “I’ll ask you something else. I ask for your support for Kamala and Tim Walz.”

“I’m not just asking for myself,” he continued. “I’ll be gone.”

Biden has largely been kept away from the campaign trail this year, slowly coming to terms with his diminishing presence in the country's political discourse.

An episode this week involving a verbal argument about Trump supporters being “trash” only seemed to confirm many Democrats' fears about giving Biden a larger role. In the final stretch of a razor-thin campaign, the last thing anyone on Harris' team wanted to do was respond to a seemingly accidental insult from someone who is no longer a candidate.

There was a time when Biden envisioned a much larger role this fall. He said in September that he would be “on the road” from Labor Day campaigning for his vice president.

But as the 2024 campaign nears its photo finale, the political imperatives of distance from an unpopular incumbent outweighed Harris' desire to pay homage to the man who handpicked her as his successor.

Of course, Harris has shown nothing but loyalty to Biden, in public but also in private. She truly respects and cares for the President and understands his desire to help her win.

But in a do-no-harm election where any statement could be a dealbreaker for a handful of voters in a battleground state, there was little room to celebrate Biden's legacy, at least on the campaign trail.

And while Harris headlines arena rallies with Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez — and while Democratic surrogates like Barack and Michelle Obama and even the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, swinging across the battlefields – Biden shows up in the union halls playing to his strengths and trying to avoid harping on them again.

In Scranton, where the President Biden Expressway runs downtown, the goodwill is evident.

“Scranton becomes part of your heart. It creeps into your heart. It’s real,” Biden said. “I’m so proud to be back.”

In Scranton, Biden spent the morning of Election Day 2020 addressing his supporters outside a union hall and stopping by his childhood home.

Biden wrote on the living room wall: “From this house to the White House by the grace of God.”

And he went to the White House buoyed by support in places like Scranton, where Biden gave a talk focused on economic opportunity and performed better among white, working-class voters than his Democratic predecessors.

Biden still believes he can be helpful in a state like Pennsylvania, where he has deep roots and has visited more times than almost any other state since taking office. Biden has been to Pennsylvania 10 times since July 21 alone, the day he announced he was withdrawing his bid for a second term.

He has expressed frustration that polls show a close race – closer than he believes against a candidate like Trump – and wants to help where he can.

As he watched the race he entered a little more than three months ago from the sidelines, Biden has embarked on a self-exploration, those close to him say, reflecting on both the long arc of his career and thought about their abrupt end.

Biden, these people say, remains firmly convinced that he could defeat his predecessor in November if he remained at the top of the Democratic ticket. But he recognizes that it may not be in anyone's best interest to reveal this view to others.

“People love Joe Biden. And they respect and recognize that Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris to be his running mate, served alongside her as running mate, and supported her when he decided to withdraw from our candidacy,” said Sen. Chris Coons, Biden’s friend and fellow Delawarean . said on CNN this week. “I think it's important for people to hear from President Biden, but they know where he stands and they know that he fully welcomes and supports Vice President Harris.”

As he concluded his speech to carpenters here, Biden sought to lay out the risks of Tuesday's election.

“What's going to happen – what's going to happen if you trade my administration for his?” he said. “No, I’m not kidding. I’m not special.”

This moment of restraint elicited a cry of “Yes, that’s you!” from his audience, followed by a chant of “Thanks, Joe!”