Biden and Harris to hold 1st joint event since he dropped out, touting lower drug costs

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will hold their first joint event since Biden exited the 2024 race and endorsed her to take his place atop the Democratic ticket.

The two will deliver remarks at 1:30 p.m. ET at the official event being held Prince George’s County Community College in Maryland. They will talk about the economy and what their administration’s 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.

“It’s a relief for the millions of seniors that take these drugs to treat everything from heart failure, blood clots, diabetes, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and more — and it’s a relief for American taxpayers,” Biden said in a statement.

While Biden will celebrate the outcome alongside Harris, she put out her own statement, calling the deal “lifechanging for so many of our loved ones across the nation.”

“Every American should be able to access the health care they need no matter their income or wealth. That is why President Biden and I fought to lower the costs of health care with our Inflation Reduction Act, transformational legislation that I was proud to cast the tie-breaking vote on in the Senate,” she said.

The price negotiations are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, a 2022 law that allows the government to directly broker with drug manufacturers for the first time in the history of the Medicare program. In addition to the 10 drugs negotiated for 2026, the government can select 15 more drugs for negotiation in 2027 and another 15 drugs for 2028 and up to 20 more drugs each year after.

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.

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 former President Donald 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.”

ABC News’ Fritz Farrow and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.

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