As Harris, Biden take victory lap on drug costs, she sets the pace

LARGO, Md. – President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris showcased the passing of the Democratic torch at their first joint public appearance since he left the race, celebrating a victory on lowering drug costs at an event Thursday where the two leaders projected an enduring partnership even as the spotlight settled squarely on her.

Harris spoke first, introducing Biden as an “extraordinary” human being and appearing to say “I love you” when she turned over the microphone to him. In turn, Biden made a forceful case for his anointed successor, saying she would make “one hell of a president.”

Biden, who is seeking to cement his legacy in his last months in office, trumpeted the administration’s Thursday announcement about major drug price negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies, which will take effect in 2026. The negotiations covered the prices of 10 costly or common medications taken by millions of older Americans, including widely used blood thinners and arthritis medications.

He said the new policy – a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, one of his signature legislative accomplishments – reflected fights that he had taken up for years against pharmaceutical companies.

But Biden made it clear that part of his legacy included Harris, whose campaign for the presidency will ride partly on policy achievements she helped deliver during his presidency. Harris cast the tiebreaking vote that allowed the Inflation Reduction Act to pass.

“Kamala and all of us in this room are going to keep standing up to Big Pharma,” Biden said. “I fought too damn hard to yield now.”

When Biden was still in the presidential race, he struggled to articulate the impact of the wide-ranging bill, which he signed in 2022. Harris emerged as a stronger messenger on the tangible ways that it could affect people’s lives. On Thursday, she drove that point home.

“In the United States of America, no senior should have to choose between either filling their prescription or paying their rent,” she said, prompting attendees to respond, “That’s right.”

“Far too many of our seniors have struggled to afford their medication,” she added, “and as a result, seniors have been forced to spend their time trying to figure out how they are going to be able to fill a prescription like insulin, based on the doctor’s prescription, which is about saving their life, or whether they have to ration their pills to be able to make it stretch through a month.”

The victory lap came on the eve of Harris’ planned rollout of her first substantive policy platform, an economic agenda that is expected to build on a foundation laid by Biden. His agenda has tended to focus on jobs and manufacturing, but in recent campaign speeches, Harris has emphasized policies that affect the high costs of living for lower- and middle-income Americans.

The gathering at a packed auditorium at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland, was billed as an official White House event, but its energy was similar to the large campaign rallies Harris has held in recent weeks.

Speakers included Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat. They gave their remarks against a backdrop of supporters holding colorful signs that read “Lowering Prescription Drug Costs.” Harris and Biden received thunderous applause, particularly when Moore told supporters they were about to hear from the 46th and 47th presidents of the United States.

During the event, Biden talked animatedly about the importance of his administration’s move on prescription drug prices.

The policy reshaped the federal government’s role in Medicare, a program that covers tens of millions of older and disabled Americans. Had the new prices been in effect last year, Medicare would have saved $6 billion, administration officials said.

But the difference between Biden’s sometimes garbled remarks and Harris’ crisp delivery was striking, even as they hit similar notes in their speeches. It offered another reminder of why many Democrats felt they needed a different messenger – and not necessarily a different message – atop the presidential ticket.

After Harris spoke, people began to stream out of the audience even as the president was still delivering his speech.

Biden, 81, made several references to his age. He joked that he had “served in the Senate for 270 years” and noted that he had first sponsored a bill about Medicare negotiating drug prices in the 1970s, name-checking his ally, former Sen. Frank Church of Idaho, a figure familiar to few voters today.

The president also made light of his decision to drop out of the race, saying he had been criticized when he was first elected to the Senate for being “too damn young” at age 29 and was now seen as “too damn old.”

At one point, Biden seemed to facetiously forget former President Donald Trump’s name.

“The guy we’re running against. What’s his name?” he asked as the crowd laughed and jeered. “Donald Dump or Donald whatever?”

And he took aim at Project 2025, the conservative policy proposals that Democrats are using as a stand-in for Trump’s agenda should he retake the White House.

“Let me tell you what our Project 2025 is,” Biden said. “Beat the hell out of them. I mean it.”

It was striking language for a president who last month urged the nation to bring down its political temperature after the assassination attempt on Trump.

But within the crowd, the mood was decidedly upbeat, with chants of “Thank you, Joe” ringing out.

Robert Green, of Adelphi, Maryland, said that he had been moved by Biden and Harris’ appearance. He is 70, and has diabetes, and said the way the two Democrats detailed the impact of the policy “spoke to all of us in that room.”

“For me to see them together, it was just like a culmination of really seeing all the work they’ve done the past four years, and then seeing a vision into the future,” he said.

His wife, Gloria, 65, said that she had been especially heartened to see the appreciation for Biden after the negative media attention he faced, and to see Harris encouraging it.

“She’s never failed to acknowledge the work that he’s done, the work they’ve done together,” she said, “and how that is spearheading the work that she will do and continue to do.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.