Biden encourages voters to ‘politically lock up’ Trump

Biden made the comment during a visit to the New Hampshire Democratic Party headquarters in Concord, where staff and volunteers are trying to pick the party’s candidates in the Nov. 5 election.

“We have to lock him up,” Biden said on Tuesday. ‘Lock him up politically. Shut him out. That is what we have to do.”

Moments earlier, Biden had been at NHTI, the community college of Concord, where he had emphasized the importance of political friendliness and bipartisanship.

“We need to get back to the days when you could talk to the other team,” Biden told the audience. “This is not your father’s Republican Party.”

Biden’s speech underscored his work to reduce prescription drug costs, but he went off script at least once to emphasize bipartisanship, citing as an example the eulogy he delivered at the funeral of segregationist Republican Senator Strom Thurmond from South Carolina in 2003.

“Even by the time he left, he had the most racially diverse staff in America,” Biden said of Thurmond. “My general point is that people change, but these guys are getting worse. They mean what they say.”

Returning to his script, Biden amplified a Health and Human Services Department report released Tuesday that showed nearly 1.5 million Medicare enrollees saved $1 billion on prescription drugs in the first six months of 2024 because the Inflation Reduction Act. deductible for drug prices and criticized Trump for having “concepts for a plan” regarding health care policy. Trump said he had “concepts of a plan” during his only debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last month.

“I don’t let my Irish get the best of me, but my predecessor, the distinguished former president, wants to replace the Affordable Care Act with what he calls, he says he prefers, a draft of a plan,” Biden said. “I’ve been hearing that concept of a plan for almost eight years now. A concept of a plan. What the heck is a concept of a? He has no idea about anything.”

Despite Biden’s speech being considered an official event, the president appeared with socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) two weeks before Election Day in what was interpreted as an appeal to liberal Democrats. It was scheduled a day after Harris campaigned with former Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney in her own appeal to Republican Party members who don’t like Trump as she tries to stem a loss of support among black and Latino men to go.

Sanders’ comments were about policy and not the election, but he did praise Biden and Harris for having “the courage to be the first administration in the history of this country to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry.”

“Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, we are making significant progress in tackling the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lowering prescription drug prices in our country,” the senator said.

“Today, no senior in America pays more than $35 a month for insulin,” he added. “Starting next year, no senior in America will pay more than $2,000 a year for prescription drugs, no matter how much medicine they need. And for the first time in history, despite fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, Medicare is negotiating with drug companies to lower the price of some of the most expensive drugs in America.”

Harris has tried to distance herself from her more liberal policy achievements, including positions she recently held during her 2020 Democratic presidential campaign alongside Biden, as voters tell pollsters they don’t understand what she stands for. She is not expected to clash with the president again before Election Day.

During an interview with NBC conducted during Biden’s trip to New Hampshire, Harris told the news network that she would not be drawn into hypotheticals when asked whether she would pardon Trump if she is inaugurated next January.

“I’m not going to get into these hypotheses,” she said. “Let me tell you what will help us move forward: I’m going to be elected president of the United States.”

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During Biden’s visit to the NHDP headquarters, he also told the crowd: “We must, we must, we must win.”

“This man is a danger to the Republic,” the president said before referring to his late son. “I ran because Beau knows, and you know in your heart: If Trump wins, the nation will change.”