Photo: Susan Walsh Associated Press U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris stands with President Joe Biden before an announcement on lowering the price of several drugs, at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland, Thursday
Charlotte Causit – Agence France-Presse and Aurélia End – Agence France-Presse in Largo and Washington
Posted at 7:23 p.m.
- United States
Campaigning together for the first time since the US president stepped down, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Thursday matched compliments and warm signals as they celebrated an economic victory together.
The vice president, who has rekindled Democrats' hopes of a victory over Donald Trump in November, encouraged a cheering crowd to chant “Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!” in Largo, Maryland, near Washington.
“There's a lot of love in this room for our president,” Harris said, before hugging the 81-year-old Democrat and handing him the floor.
The latter, who dropped out of the race for the White House in late July, predicted that the 59-year-old candidate would make a “hell of a president.”
Regina A. Young, 68, had not attended a political rally since Barack Obama's campaigns. “It's similar, the excitement is the same,” the retired teacher told AFP. She considered it “important” that Joe Biden “stands by” Kamala Harris.
The two leaders celebrated a “historic” drop in the price of ten drugs for diabetes, blood clots and heart problems, obtained after negotiations between the federal health insurance fund for seniors and the laboratories.
The reform announced Thursday will save $1.5 billion in the first year, in 2026, for the insured persons concerned, Americans over 65, and $6 billion for taxpayers, according to the White House.
“This is a fight that must continue,” said Joe Biden, while Kamala Harris is due to unveil the broad outlines of her economic program on Friday.
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The president took the opportunity to boast about his record and tackle Donald Trump, his predecessor and now Kamala Harris' rival for the November 5 election. He even gave him the unflattering nickname of “Donald Dump” (“Donald Dump“, in English), accusing him of “fighting to undo” reforms passed under his administration.
Thursday's announcement comes at a timely opportunity in an area where Democrats are vulnerable: purchasing power.
Inflation is falling in the United States and growth remains robust, but that doesn't stop the Republican candidate from constantly criticizing his opponents for crushing households with an unbearable cost of living.
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From his golf resort in New Jersey, Donald Trump accused his new rival on Thursday in front of journalists of wanting to implement measures “straight out of Venezuela or the Soviet Union” to counter rising prices.
Surrounded by boxes of cereal, eggs and pastries, he engaged in a particularly disjointed speech to “immediately lower prices” if he were to win in November.
Before launching into tirades mentioning immigration, artificial intelligence and his legal troubles.
The billionaire also developed another angle of attack, emphasizing the animosity that according to him exists between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. He accused the vice president on Thursday of having “stolen” the nomination and staged a “putsch” against Joe Biden.
“Valley of Death”
Donald Trump also joked about the fact that Joe Biden would speak on Monday on the first night of the Democratic nomination convention in Chicago, which he said was a very ungrateful date in terms of audience, which he called the “valley of death.”
The president and vice president have engaged in a delicate pas de deux since the former withdrew his candidacy.
By withdrawing, Joe Biden has lost all political capital, especially given the undeniable momentum gained by the vice president, who has given hope to the Democratic Party with her energetic start to the campaign.
Kamala Harris has managed to catch up with, or even slightly surpass, Donald Trump according to polls conducted in certain key states, something that Joe Biden, weighed down by concerns about his age, had never managed to do. to do.
She must chart her own course, without denying the policies pursued by the man she has supported since January 2021.
Her economic policy speech on Friday will focus, according to her campaign team, on the cost of living for the middle class and the “manoeuvres of companies to inflate prices”.