President Biden lashed out at a reporter Thursday who asked why he’s campaigned for so few Democratic midterm candidates this year — saying he’d appeared with 15 of them.

“That’s not true,” Biden snapped on the White House lawn before departing for a swing through Pennsylvania. “There have been 15. Count, kid, count.”

The reporter had asked why “there haven’t been that many candidates campaigning with you” less than three weeks before Election Day.

Biden’s relative absence from the campaign trail coincides with the worst inflation in 41 years, soaring interest rates, record-high illegal immigration and rising violent crime, circumstances which have Republicans favored to regain control of at least the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate in 2023.

The president defended his role in the campaign while departing the White House for a trip to Pennsylvania to support Lt. Gov John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate candidate who is locked in a close race with Republican TV personality and heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Biden didn’t specify which candidates were among the 15 he was supporting. When asked following an event in Pittsburgh if he would boost Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada and Raphael Warnock in Georgia, he answered: “I’ve got about 16 to 18 requests” from candidates around the country and staffers were figuring out the ultimate plans.

There are approximately 490 Democrats running for the House, Senate and state and territorial governorships this year. Six Democratic House candidates face no Republican challenger, while six more House Democrats in California face a fellow Democrat Nov. 8.

Last week, Biden appeared at an event for Rep. Lisa Rochester (D-Del.), who has won landslide victories the past three election cycles in deep-blue Delaware. On Sunday, he attended a reception for Tina Kotek, the Democratic candidate for governor in traditionally Democratic Oregon, who is locked in a surprisingly close race.

Biden took office last year after winning the most votes of any candidate in US history, but his popularity tanked after seven months in the White House during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. His approval rating currently averages 42.7% in polls, according to RealClearPolitics — up from an all-time low of 36.8% in July.

Some Democratic candidates are openly seeking to distance themselves from Biden.

In Ohio, Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan said earlier this month, “No, I won’t be asking the president to come in” to campaign.

First lady Jill Biden, instead of the president, has made many stops in critical swing states.

“She does not offend people in a way that a president can because she’s much less polarizing and political,” Michael LaRosa, the first lady’s former spokesman, told the New York Times last week. “It’s why she was sent all over rural Iowa and New Hampshire during the campaign and why she can go places now that the president can’t.”