Kamala Harris’ problem right now is not Donald Trump but Joe Biden.

What do you do with a guy who won’t go away, especially if you are tied to Biden’s bankrupt economic and immigrant policies that have brought havoc and despair to the American working class?

Well, you try to put some distance between you and him, as Harris—or at least her campaign staff—is trying to do. But that is easier said than done, especially as a loyal vice president Harris supported all of the policies she is now trying to squirm away from.

But the White House won’t let her off so easy even if Biden endorsed her candidacy for president as he withdrew—or was forced out of—his campaign for reelection.

Biden, who looks as though he has candidates’ remorse about pulling out or getting kicked to the curb, acts as though he expects Harris to stand by him and run on his losing issues. Fat chance.

Her dilemma is how to continue praising Biden, as she will do at this week’s Democrat Party convention, while distancing herself from Biden’s failed economic policies without seeming to do so.

It would take a slick Barack Obama to pull that off. And Harris is no Obama.

But she will try, as she did in her speech Friday in Raleigh, when she promised to fight price gouging, initiate price controls, reduce food prices, a $25,000 federal grant for first time home buyers, forgive medical debt, cut taxes, reduce the deficit—all of which she and Biden could already have done.

Asked about putting distance between her and Biden, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that there was “no daylight” between the two on Biden policies.

“They’ve been aligned for the last three and a half years. There’s not been any daylight” between the two, she said.

A follow up question, for instance, might have been: Then why is she, or her staff, saying she was never Biden’s border czar when he named her to the post?

KJP, who probably majored in college dodgeball, would no doubt answer, “You have to ask them, not us.”

The “no daylight” response was music to Donald Trump’s ears. Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s campaign press secretary, “thanked” KJP for the response.

She said, “Today the Biden White House confirmed what Kamala Harris refuses to admit: there is no daylight between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. Kamala owns the border crisis. Kamala owns inflation. Kamala owns the wars, chaos and crime over the past four years.”

Also, in a surprising turn of events, Susan Rice, Biden’s former domestic policy advisor, said it was “bizarre and offensive” for critics to say that Harris did not play “a key part” in setting Biden’s agenda.

It was surprising because Rice, who previously served as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations and as national security advisor, left the White House a year ago.

Unlike senior advisor Anita Dunn, who recently left the White House, Rice is not playing a role in Harris’ presidential campaign.

But she popped up on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” last week to make sure that Harris remained firmly tied to Joe Biden and his policies, which were also policies, like open borders and student loan forgiveness, that Rice once also supported.

Rice, apparently seemed determined to hang unpopular Biden economic policies that have led to soaring food, gas and housing costs, around Harris’ neck.

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If there was not something of a clash between the two when Rice was at Biden’s side at the White House, there seems to be something going on now.

That is because Rice, out of the media spotlight since she left the White House, made her remarks on the eve of Harris’ North Carolina speech on the economy.

In something like a warning, Rice said, “I think it’s very important to remember that this has been the Biden-Harris agenda. Kamala Harris has been an integral architect and executor of the policies of the Biden-Harris administration.”

Take that, Kamala!

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com