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One of the lesser-known duties of reporters assigned to the White House is to spend one day a month in the presidential pool. The pool consists of a rotating group of reporters who shadow the president when he makes public appearances at the White House or in the Washington, DC, area. When you’re awake, you’re awake – and you don’t get the details of which event you’re going to attend until several hours before it happens.

Because the elections were only six days away, I was called up on Wednesday. And because bundling means a lot of time waiting – for security checkpoints, for the president and everyone else to prepare for a public appearance, and so on – I spent much of that day planning our election week strategy.

Because President Joe Biden is not on the ballot this year after ceding the Democratic ticket to Vice President Kamala Harris, he was able to spend his Wednesday on an especially light schedule. In the morning he welcomed Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides to the Oval Office.

This gave me and my other colleagues gathered that day the opportunity to shout questions at Biden about an unfortunate comment he made the night before, when he appeared to call former President Donald Trump’s supporters “trash.”

Biden had made a post on (The White House says he was referring only to a comedian who had sparked outrage by calling Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, a “floating island of trash.”) So the president didn’t engage with us when we started shouting questions : and we were quickly escorted out of the Oval Office.

Biden’s reluctance to participate was not exactly a surprise. He has been kept off the campaign trail in large part because he is remarkably unpopular, with approval ratings hovering around the high 30 percent mark.

In the hours after the president’s blunder, The independent I contacted several Democratic operatives and strategists to gauge whether this would have any impact on the race. One Harris campaign staffer responded with a GIF of The Simpsons character Sideshow Bob repeatedly steps on rakes and gets punched in the face as a result. Another longtime Democratic campaign professional responded with another GIF of Trump himself saying “no.”

But among Harris insiders — many of whom were once Biden insiders — the octogenarian CEO’s inability to stay on message and avoid damaging Harris’ campaign is a sad denouement for a man who spent his life serving his country, only to see his abilities deteriorate so much that he simply could no longer compete for the position he had sought all his adult life.

Biden wasn’t on the campaign trail much in the early days of Harris momentum. But the White House has refused to take the president off track in these final days. Instead, he has been sent to his hometown of Scranton and to the all-important Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia. Nevertheless, everyone is clearly afraid to risk another blunder.

So when I was called yesterday to the only other public event on Biden’s agenda, I didn’t find it surprising that it was one at which he would not have the opportunity to answer questions or speak publicly.

Accompanied by First Lady Jill Biden, the president spent about an hour handing out candy to children at the White House’s annual Halloween celebration. Hosted by the East Wing, it was a light-hearted trick-or-treating event with a host of costumed characters, including Darth Vader and a few Star Wars stormtroopers, Lilo and Stitch (of Disney fame), and Barney, the big purple dinosaur that was ubiquitous in some millennials’ childhoods (and a nightmare for their parents).

There were ghosts, goblins, witches, and wizards working their way through the South Lawn. Even the First Lady got into the spirit of the holiday by dressing up as a panda, in a nod to the recent arrival of two such cuddly creatures at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo earlier this month. At one point, the president playfully bit the leg of a child dressed as a turkey.

It was all very sweet and heartwarming in its own way, even as the country descended into harsh rhetoric and division in the background.

But for concerned Democrats and the seasoned professionals who switched from Team Biden to Team Harris for this unprecedented election, the scariest thing about 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was the 81-year-old in a perfectly pressed blue suit.