Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes avoided President Biden, citing a "pretty packed schedule"...even though the two of them were at the same Labor Day event in Milwaukee!
"You met with labor workers and union [members] yesterday but you also did not meet with the President, why was that?" WISN 12 reporter Matt Smith asked Barnes Tuesday.
"Well, uh, we had a pretty packed schedule and had to get around the state," Barnes replied. "I'm really glad the President has shown his support for the labor movement here in Wisconsin."
Barnes was so invisible during Biden's speech at Milwaukee's LaborFest that Biden didn't even realize he was in attendance.
"I want to thank [Wisconsin Senator] Tammy [Baldwin] — she couldn’t be here today — who’s a champion of working people and always there," Biden said at the beginning of his speech. "You know, and the same goes to Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, who couldn’t be here, but he’s going be your next United States senator."
Biden then apparently noticed Barnes in the crowd and said, "Oh, he is [in attendance]."
Barnes, Wisconsin's first-term Lieutenant Governor, is locked in a tight battle with Republican Senator Ron Johnson.