Where's Joe? Biden's campaign pace called into question

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Joe Biden pushes unity at first 2020 election rally

Bryan Llenas reports.

It’s been more than one week since Joe Biden held a public campaign event.

After launching his Democratic presidential campaign in late April, the former vice president came out of the gate with a busy schedule, holding events in all four of the states that kick off the primary and caucus calendar, as well as stops in California. And Biden started and closed that campaign swing with speeches in his native Pennsylvania, which is also a crucial general election battleground state.

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But Biden hasn’t held a public campaign event since his large kickoff rally in Philadelphia on May 18. Since then, he’s only headlined a top-dollar fundraiser in Nashville, Tenn., and two more in Florida.

And while a bunch of his rivals for the 2020 Democratic nomination are stumping this holiday weekend, Biden’s off the trail.

“Joe Biden has no public events scheduled,” read a release from his campaign.

Biden and his wife Jill plan to return to the campaign trail on Tuesday after Memorial Day, when they will team up with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten for a town hall in Houston.

And next week, on June 4, Biden returns to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state of New Hampshire.

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But as of now he’s not scheduled to appear at California Democratic Party convention, which kicks off on Friday, or the Iowa Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame celebration a week later. Both of those gatherings will attract plenty of the 2020 Democrats.

Biden will be holding two major fundraisers in Boston on June 5, and two more in New York City on June 17, sources close to Biden’s inner circle tell Fox News.

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This weekend the former vice president's schedule was spotlighed by a Washington Post article that headlined Biden's "campaign of limited exposure."

But in many ways, Biden’s schedule makes sense.

Thanks to his eight years as President Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden enjoys sky-high name recognition unmatched by any of the other nearly two-dozen Democrats running for the White House.

And Biden came out of the gate much stronger than expected, and currently enjoys a large lead over the rest of the field in the latest national and early voting state polls in the 2020 Democratic nomination race.

“Biden doesn’t have to introduce himself to voters. He can afford a slightly more leisurely pace on the campaign trail compare to his rivals,” a veteran Democratic strategist told Fox News.

“The former vice president, so far, appears to be running a general election style campaign during the primaries, concentrating his attention on Donald Trump and barely recognizing the other Democratic candidates,” added the strategist, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely.

But Terry Shumaker, a New Hampshire-based attorney and former U.S. ambassador who backed Biden in his 1988 White House bid and has endorsed him again, pushed back against claims the former vice president’s taking it easy on the campaign trail.

“I think he’s done quite a bit of campaigning,” Shumaker emphasized. “A lot of candidates are only focusing on Iowa or New Hampshire, because they know if they don’t do reasonably well there, their campaigns may be over. But Joe’s made it clear he’s going to run a national campaign. He’s been to five or six states already.”

While Biden’s come under attack by some of his rivals, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, he’s yet to return fore. That may soon change, as Biden will be sharing the stage with his rivals with the onset of the Democratic presidential primary debates starting in four weeks.