“Thank you Joe!” the crowd chanted during Biden and Harris’ first appearance at a campaign event

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made a show of unity by holding their first public event together since the vice president replaced him as the Democratic nominee ahead of the November US election.

Chants of “Thanks, Joe!” rang out from the crowd at a school in Maryland, near Washington.

Biden was celebrated when he took credit for a major deal to lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries.

But the biggest star was Biden’s vice president, who has united the Democratic Party and pulled ahead of Republican Donald Trump in the polls since her abrupt entry into the race. “She can be a great president,” Biden said of Harris.

The joint appearance took place a couple of hours before Trump held a news conference at his golf club in New Jersey.

The real estate mogul and former president has struggled to continue his campaign since Biden dropped out on July 21 amid party fears that he was too old and infirm to face Trump in the election.

Until then, Trump had been steadily rising in the polls, largely on the back of his message that Biden was losing his mental acuity — a charge that gained traction when the president failed miserably in a televised presidential debate.

Biden reappears revitalized

Now it is Harris, 59, who is gaining momentum against Trump, 78. And Biden, at 81 and at the end of his term, appears reinvigorated, embracing the role of mentor passing the baton to his protégé.

In his speech, Biden said the Democrats’ plan was to “beat the shit out of” their Republican opponents and drew laughter by pretending not to know Trump’s name: “Donald Dump,” he joked.

Harris, who will be crowned the Democratic nominee at the party’s convention in Chicago next week, made a show of vice presidential deference, delivering only brief remarks and stressing that it has been an honor for her to serve under the “most extraordinary human being.”

Economic plan

Harris will outline the details of her economic program for the first time on Friday.

The vice president is expected to largely stick to Biden’s economic agenda, while trying to differentiate herself and avoid angering voters over rising inflation following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Polls showed Americans had more confidence in Trump than Biden to manage the world’s largest economy.

But a recent poll by the Financial Times and the University of Michigan found Harris leading the Republican by 42% to 41%.

Continue reading:

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