Biden touts Wisconsin investments, says Donald Trump ‘did absolutely nothing’

President Biden traveled to Wisconsin on Thursday to continue his legacy tour and lend support to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, announcing $7.3 billion in funding for rural clean energy through landmark legislation passed in 2022.

Mr. Biden said it was the largest investment of its kind since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

He compared it to former President Donald Trump’s promise to build the Foxconn factory in another part of Wisconsin — a project that failed.

“Have you been there recently? He’s done absolutely nothing,” Biden said at an outdoor venue in Westby, Wisconsin.

Mr. Biden is currently on an “Invest in America” tour highlighting his efforts to revive the economy through policies known as “Bidenomics.”

The tour allows the president to promote his term in office while tacitly serving as a means of promoting Ms. Harris’ presidential candidacy against Mr. Trump, the GOP nominee.

The White House was quick to point out Thursday that Harris cast the deciding vote for the 2002 inflation-reduction bill in an evenly divided Senate, and Biden lashed out at Wisconsin Republicans who voted against the legislation and still want to repeal it.

At one point, Mr. Biden appeared to say that the IRA bill’s name was a distraction from the fact that it was landmark climate legislation, a distinction that might appeal to younger voters.

“We should have given him a name, but anyway,” Mr. Biden said.

The term “Bidenomics” is politically toxic, given stubbornly high prices and recent turbulence in stock markets and jobs numbers. The president insists that his efforts to grow the economy “from the bottom up and the middle” have paid off for Americans.

But Mr. Trump often cites high energy costs as a reason for his vote over that of the vice president, who served alongside Mr. Biden for nearly four years. He says states like New Hampshire, which voted Democratic in the last election, are in contention this season because of soaring energy costs.

Ms. Harris is presenting herself as a change-oriented candidate while trying to tie herself to Mr. Biden’s economic accomplishments, which is risky.

Voters have given Mr. Biden poor marks for handling the economy for most of his presidency. His economic approval rating has hovered around 30% since 2021, while inflation has soared.

Ms. Harris’s dual message of taking credit for some of Mr. Biden’s economic policies while distancing herself from others is reflected in the polls.

An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released last month found that voters are more likely to trust Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, to handle the economy than they are to trust Ms. Harris. The poll also found that the public overwhelmingly believes Ms. Harris has had limited influence on Mr. Biden’s economic policies, 64 percent to 33 percent.

The White House calls the rural investments in the IRA bill a political victory.

The Ministry of Agriculture will distribute the new money for electrification to 16 rural electric cooperatives serving 5 million entities, including households, businesses and schools.

The administration said the money will go toward energy projects that use wind, solar, hydro and other sources. It will fund upgrades to transmission grids and substations as well as the kinds of software that could help grids operate and reduce costs.

“This funding will lower electricity bills for rural families and businesses, who for too long have faced higher energy costs than the rest of the country due to challenges in providing electricity to rural and remote areas,” the White House said in a fact sheet.

The newly funded projects will affect residents of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to the White House.

• Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.