President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made their first joint public appearance Thursday since Biden stepped aside on July 21 and Harris became the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. The two appeared at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland to announce and celebrate lower drug prices thanks to the first Medicare price negotiation.
The Biden-Harris administration received some well-deserved credit for its work to begin reducing the exorbitant cost of drugs. But the rally was also an emotional event, as chants of “Thank you, Joe,” rang out repeatedly.
“It is my eternal and great, great, great honor—I have to tell you,” Harris said while introducing Biden, “to serve with this most extraordinary human being, and American, and leader. Our President Joe Biden.”
The president did not disappoint. He was feisty, feeding off of an enthusiastic crowd, and predicting Harris would be “one hell of a president.”
“I served in the Senate for 270 years,” Biden joked. “I know I only look 40, but I’m a little bit older. For the longest time, I was too damn young because I was only 29 when I got elected. Now I’m too damn old.”
Biden framed the lowering of drug prices as a crowning achievement of his decades-long political career, noting that his first attempt to do so came in 1973, when he was a freshman senator.
“I thank God that in the last three months I’m president of the United States, I was able to finally get done what I tried to get done when I was a young senator of 30 years old,” Biden said. “Thank you, God, thank you.”
Republished with permission from Daily Kos.
