Biden goes off script — again — causing a distraction for Harris in campaign's home stretch

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden was very publicly trying to rein himself in. “Don’t get going, Joe. Slow up,” he advised himself during a speech where he was criticizing Republican Donald Trump.

That was Tuesday afternoon. But by evening, Biden didn’t take his own advice, and now his off-the-cuff remark on a Zoom campaign call has created a new headache for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris less than a week before Election Day.

It's not the first time Biden has created problems by going off script. But the latest incident served as a particular distraction just as Harris was trying to deliver a high-profile "closing argument' for her campaign emphasizing the need to unify the country after Trump's divisiveness.

Shortly before Harris was about to speak Tuesday night to a massive rally crowd on a stretch of grass not far from the White House, Biden got on a call with a Hispanic advocacy group and commented on a comic's recent insults at a Trump rally where he referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”