Remarks by President Biden and Vice President Harris to Overflow Crowd | Largo, MD

Prince George’s Community College
Largo, Maryland

2:56 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello.  (Applause.) 

Whoa!  (Applause.)

The next president of the United States of America.  (Applause.)

Folks, you’ve been here a long time.  I apologize.  (Applause.)  You’re in another overflow room.  (Applause.)

I think your — I think your — I think your — your patience really exceeds your good judgment.  (Applause.)  But thank you, thank you, thank you.

Folks, one minute.  One minute.  You know this is not hyperbole.  This is the single most important election in our lives.  Our democracy — (applause) — our democracy is literally at stake.  And I — and I — guess what?  And I left you the woman who’s going to take care of it.  (Applause.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, Joe!

AUDIENCE:  Thank you, Joe!  Thank you, Joe!  Thank you, Joe!  (Applause.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  What’s up, Maryland?  (Applause.)

So, listen, we — we wanted to come by.  I think, maybe, you all saw the president speak just a little bit in the other room a little bit ago. 

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I’m telling you — and you already know; this is why you’re here, taking time from your busy lives — what, under Joe Biden’s leadership, we have been able to accomplish in only three and a half years on so many issues, including this one issue, which is letting Medicare negotiate drug prices for our seniors — what it has meant —

Have you all seen that list that we published — (applause) — about the — what is going to be — anywhere from — I think it’s 40 to 80 percent reduction of cost for prescription medication.  (Applause.)  It’s extraordinary, and it has never happened before.

And one of the things I know about Joe Biden, our president — because I’m with him all the time; I see him when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off — he is always fighting for the working people of America, for the families of America.  (Applause.) 

And, finally, under his leadership, our administration taking on Big Pharma to bring down the cost of prescription medication so no longer will our seniors have to make a decision about whether they’re able to fill a prescription — a doctor order to save their life, to improve their condition — or have to choose whether they’re going to be able to pay their rent or put food on the table.

And — and I’ll just cap off everything that the president is about and everything that we’re announcing today with this point.  

I think, in the last several years, there’s been this kind of — almost perversion about this concept about what — how you measure the strength of a leader, where some people, like the folks on — that one individual — (laughter) — who — who would suggest that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down.  That’s — that’s wrongheaded. 

It — it is not who we are as Americans to suggest that’s the sign of the strength of a leader.  When what we know — and you look at someone like Joe Biden for empirical evidence of it — is that the real measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up — (applause) — who you lift up, having that level of concern and care about the well-being of other people, and then dedicate a lifetime to doing something about it.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We did it, Joe!  You did it!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  (Laughs.)  So, that’s what today was about.  And we thank you, Joe.

AUDIENCE:  Thank you, Joe!  Thank you, Joe!  Thank you, Joe! 

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And thank you, Maryland.  Remember to vote.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.) 

THE PRESIDENT:  Guys, remember, not a joke — (applause) — 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible) University in the house!  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Whoa!

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible) President Biden.  (Laughter and applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, by the way, we were able to get $15 billion to HBCUs — (applause) — $15 billion — billion, billion, billion.

And, by the way, j- — the second thing is — look, guys —

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible) loves you.

THE PRESIDENT:  We’ve had this going on for a long time.  I got my start at Delaware State University.  (Applause.)  But I tell you what, man — I tell you what.  You got this Howard stuff going.  (Applause.) 

Anyway, thank you.  You’re the reason we’re going to win.  Not a joke.  (Applause.)  That is no joke.  That is not a joke.

You know what?  You all — all underestimate, I think — most people do — is people who respect you look at you and you say, “Why do you like that woman or that man?”  It impac- — it impacts on them.  It matters a lot.

And we’re — I’m so sick and tired of all the division in this country.  (Applause.)  When I ran last time — when I ran the first time, I said was running for three times [things]: to restore the soul of this country, a sense of decency and honor.  No, I really mean it.  We’re a decent, honorable people, and the other team is not playing that way.

And, by the way, this is not — you know, the Republican Party that’s out there now isn’t the party that I grew up with knowing about.  There were a lot of really conservative people in the Republican Party in the 800 years I was a senator.  (Laughter.) 

But th- — these guys, as my br- — my brother would say, are a different breed of cat.  And Donald Bump or Trump or whatever his name — (laughter).

By the way, I kind of like the idea of getting these nicknames.  He — I (inaudible) — (laughter).

(Addressing an audience member wearing a hat.)  Anyway, I have one request: Where the hell did you get that lid, man?  (Laughter and applause.)  I got one similar to it.  I got one similar to — anyway. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  (Applause.)  Go out like our country depended on it, because it does.

God love you all.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  (Applause.)

3:04 P.M. EDT