Catherine Cortez Masto Distances Herself from Joe Biden on Nevada Campaign Trail

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) has distanced herself from President Joe Biden on the campaign trail, as the senator looks to hold off defeat from Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Adam Laxalt.

Cortez Masto does not want to campaign with Biden because “she wants to keep the focus on her Republican opponent,” according to an NBC News source close to the incumbent’s campaign.

The report comes after Cortez Masto refused to answer if she will campaign with Biden, a video obtained by the Daily Caller shows. “Sen. Masto, will you campaign with Biden this fall?” a woman questioned Cortez Masto at a Tacos El Gordo restaurant in Las Vegas on August 12.

Cortez Masto refused to answer.

Her refusal to campaign with Biden could be due to the president’s underwater polling in Nevada. Civiqs polling shows Biden is 14 points underwater in the state (39 approve – 53 disapprove).

“His unfavorable rating isn’t helpful, especially with independent voters,” a Democrat strategist in Nevada told NBC News. “These races are won and lost at the state level. These candidates have to run against their own villains.”

According to FiveThirtyEight, Cortez Masto is leading Laxalt by about 3.5 points.

The senator and Biden’s lack of on-the-ground collaboration is notable because the senator’s family and the president have had a long history. Breitbart News first reported that Biden’s 2020 campaign paid a private security firm owned by Cortez Masto’s husband, Paul Masto, who was friends with Hunter Biden and solicited work from the Biden family while Joe Biden was vice president.

Emails from Hunter’s laptop from 2010 reveal he and Paul Masto have been friends and even discussed Masto’s security company while Joe Biden was vice president. In Paul Masto’s email to Hunter, Paul Masto called Hunter his “buddy” and asked if Hunter knew anyone who needed his security services.

The general election is November 8.

Disclosure: Breitbart News is represented by Cooper & Kirk, PLLC. Adam Laxalt is a partner at Cooper & Kirk. He is not actively engaged or working on any matters for Breitbart News.