Biden, Harris greeted by chants of 'Thank you, Joe' at 1st joint event since he exited race
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held their first joint event since Biden exited the 2024 race and endorsed her to take his place atop the Democratic ticket.
The two walked out together to cheers to deliver remarks on stage at Prince George's County Community College in Maryland about the economy and what their administration has done to alleviate costs for Americans.
That includes the administration's announcement earlier Thursday that the Department of Health and Human Services reached an agreement on price negotiations for 10 commonly used drugs that they say will save Medicare enrollees $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs when the new prices go into effect in 2026.
"We know it is not just about health care, it is about your dignity," Biden said of the policy. "It’s about peace of mind. It’s about security. It’s about taking care of your family. It’s about giving folks just a little bit more breathing room."
Harris spoke first at the event and took a moment to praise Biden for his work on the issue, as the crowd broke out into chants of "Thank you, Joe!"
"I could speak all afternoon about the person that I'm standing on the stage with," she said. "Our extraordinary president, Joe Biden. And he's going to speak in a minute, but there’s a lot of love in this room for our president. And I think it is for many, many reasons, including few leaders in our nation have done more on so many issues, including to expand access to affordable health care, than Joe Biden."
When it was Biden's turn, he returned the plaudits.
"Folks, I have an incredible partner," he said of Harris. "The progress we have made. She's going to make one hell of a president."
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act allowed the government to directly broker with drug manufacturers for the first time in the history of the Medicare program. The negotiations led to a drop in prices of over 50% for nine out of 10 drugs on the list, with decreases range from 38%, at the lowest, to 79% at the highest.
Biden touted the plan as a win for individual Medicare enrollees and American taxpayers as a whole. The U.S pays some of the highest prices for drugs in the world, but if the newly-negotiated prices were in place this past year, HHS estimated, it would've saved the program $6 billion.
It's more difficult to estimate the individual cost saving for each Medicare enrollee, as the part of Medicare that covers drugs -- Medicare Part D -- is run through private insurers and depends on aspects like deductibles, co-pays or coinsurance, but experts say that regardless of peoples' plan, when the drug costs less, the consumer will pay less.
In addition to the 10 drugs negotiated for 2026, the government can select 15 more drugs each year for the next two years and up to 20 more drugs each year after that.
Biden remarked they were "just getting started" and that he and Harris "are going to keep standing up to Big Pharma."
"I fought too damn hard to yield now. We’re not backing down," he said defiantly.
The policy remains one of the rare wins in recent Washington history against the powerful pharmaceutical lobby, which has spent millions of dollars to fight it and continues to do so in lawsuits that are currently playing out, but have so far been ineffective.
Biden, in his speech, spoke about how he's been trying to get Medicare drug negotiations passed into law since he was a young senator decades ago -- and he's not the only one. Medicare sets prices for all kinds of health services, like hospital and doctors visits, but when Medicare expanded to include drug benefits in 2003, a deal was struck with the drug companies to bar price negotiation on drugs. Presidents from both sides of the aisle, including former President Donald Trump, have pledged to change that over the past two decades – with Biden being the first to succeed.
Harris said she was "proud" to have casted the tie-breaking vote to get the law passed in the Senate.
"We believe deeply every senior in our nation should be able to live with security, stability, and dignity," she said. "And so in the United States of America no senior should have to choose between either filling their prescription or paying their rent. That is the subject of today."
In another show of unity, Biden and Harris clasped their hands together and raised them in the air in front of the crowd before departing the stage together.
While Harris is associating herself with Biden's agenda to lower costs on Thursday, it comes one day before she is set to make campaign remarks in North Carolina about her own economic platform to deal with the rising cost of living, which will be her first major policy rollout since becoming the party's nominee.
As Biden left the White House for Thursday's event, he said he does not believe Harris will try to shift away from his economic policies when asked by a reporter if he'd be bothered if she did so for political reasons.
"She's not going to," Biden responded.
Harris on Friday will propose a federal ban on corporate price-gouging on food and groceries, her campaign announced. She will also call for giving the Federal Trade Commission as well as state attorneys general the power to investigate and punish companies that violate the new rules.
"Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know that price fluctuations are normal in free markets," the campaign said in a press release. "But there's a big difference between fair pricing in competitive markets, and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business. Americans can see that difference in their grocery bills."
Recently, Harris has also called for eliminating a tax on tips for service workers -- a plan Trump had introduced weeks ago. Her campaign also said her economic agenda will feature items to lower health care and housing costs.
Trump, in his own remarks delivered Wednesday that were also intended to focus on the economy, slammed the Biden-Harris administration record and briefly outlined his proposal to eliminate the tax on tips and taxes on Social Security benefits for seniors.
Trump's criticisms often included falsehoods about the state of the economy and his own record, as he hit Biden and Harris over inflation.
"With four more years of Harris, your finances will never recover, they're never going to recover. Our country will never recover, frankly, more importantly. It will be unrecoverable," he claimed. "Vote Trump, and your incomes will soar, your savings will grow, young people will be able to afford a home and we will bring back the American dream bigger, better and stronger than ever before."
Biden hit Trump in his remarks on Thursday, criticizing the former president and Project 2025. Project 2025 is a sweeping plan to overhaul the federal government proposed by a closely aligned conservative group that Trump has tried to distance himself from.
"They want to repeal Medicare's power to negotiate drug prices," Biden said. "Let Big Pharma back to charging whatever they want. Let me tell you what our Project 2025 is. Beat the hell out of them. I mean it."
-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
