Energised Biden, Harris Tout Party Unity In Joint Appearance

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made an upbeat show of unity Thursday as they held their first joint public event since Harris replaced the president as the Democratic candidate in November’s election.

Chants of “thank you Joe!” rang out from the audience at a community college in Maryland, near Washington.

Biden was celebrated as he took credit for a major deal to reduce medicine prices for retirees on social welfare programs.

But the biggest star was Biden’s vice president who has united the Democratic Party and surged ahead in the polls against Republican Donald Trump since her abrupt entry into the race.

“She can make one hell of a president,” Biden said of Harris.

The joint appearance came a couple hours before Trump was due to hold a press conference at his golf club in New Jersey.

The real estate billionaire and scandal-engulfed former president has struggled to pivot his campaign since Biden dropped out on July 21, amid Democratic concerns that he lacked the stamina at 81 to do the job.

Until then, Trump was rising steadily in the polls, in large part on his message that Biden was losing his mental acuity — a charge which gained currency when the president badly flubbed a televised presidential debate.

Now it’s Harris, 59, who has the growing momentum against 78-year-old Trump.

And Biden, in the lame duck end of his four-year term, appears reenergized, embracing the role of mentor handing off to his protege.

In his speech, Biden said the Democrats’ plan was to “beat the hell out of” Republican opponents and he prompted laughter on pretending not to know Trump’s name — “Donald Dump or Donald whatever.”