CONCORD, N.H. (WCAX) – President Joe Biden, flanked by Senator Bernie Sanders and other state officials, traveled to New Hampshire Tuesday to showcase his administration’s work to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
The event at New Hampshire Technical Institute, a community college in Concord, was an opportunity for the president to talk about his effort to negotiate lower drug prices with Medicare and cap the price of insulin at $35.
“It is also saving taxpayers billions of dollars because Medicare will no longer have to pay exorbitant prices to pharma. Over the next 10 years, the new lower drug prices and other reforms — we’ve cut the federal deficit by $160 billion,” Biden said.
Tuesday’s visit comes exactly two weeks ahead of the presidential election. While it was billed as an official White House visit, Biden’s first visit to the Granite State since ending his bid for re-election, it had more the feeling of a campaign rally as Biden and Sanders shared the stage.
Sanders and Biden went head to head during the 2020 presidential primary before Sanders eventually dropped out and endorsed Biden. On Tuesday, Sanders praised the president’s work to make drugs more affordable. “That is real consequential progress and I want to thank the president and the vice president for having the courage to be the first administration in the history of this country to stand up to the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and take them on,” he said.
Sanders had been a vocal supporter of the president staying in the race, while others — including Senator Peter Welch — encouraged him to drop out.
The latest polls have Vice President Kamala Harris ahead by several points in New Hampshire headed into the homestretch, but experts say Biden’s visit is proof that Democrats are not taking the state for granted.