‘Thank you, Joe’: Biden gets warm reception as he joins Harris for first event since he dropped from 2024 race

Three and a half weeks after he exited the 2024 presidential race amid dismal poll numbers and questions over his ability to defeat Donald Trump a second time, President Joe Biden got a hero’s welcome on Thursday as he and Vice President Kamala Harris touted a long-awaited victory in a years-long fight againsthigh prescription drug prices.

The crowd that came to see them at Prince George’s County Community College in Maryland roared with approval as Biden and Harris walked on the stage at what was billed as an official White House event but had the energy and atmosphere of one of the boisterous rallies that Harris’s campaign has put on since she rose to the top of the Democratic ticket last month.

Biden and Harris had come to Maryland to celebrate an announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding negotiated prices that Medicare will pay for 10 widely-used prescription drugs starting in 2026.

The drug price talks were mandated as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law last year after Harris cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate.

The vice president told attendees that she and Biden had “finally addressed the long-standing issue” that had kept prices so high for Medicare users: a ban on negotiating drug prices that was inserted when the Bush administration pushed legislation to create the prescription drug benefit through Congress.

“Two years ago, we gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for the first time in history, and here is why that matters. It is nearly impossible for a patient to negotiate lower prices by themselves. Just think about that somebody who needs the medication, who may be suffering from a serious illness that they would, by