President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris to make first joint trip since Biden dropped out

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris next week will make their first trip together since Biden ended his candidacy and Harris took over as the Democratic standard-bearer.

The White House announced Friday morning that Biden and Harris will head to Maryland on Aug. 15 for an official, non-campaign event to “discuss the progress they are making to lower costs for the American people.” They did not disclose the location or more specifics.

Biden and Harris have appeared briefly together since the president ended his reelection bid on July 21, including an excursion to Joint Base Andrews last week to welcome home U.S. citizens who were wrongfully detained in Russia. They also participated in a Situation Room meeting together earlier this week to discuss the situation in the Middle East and had lunch together last week.

Taking additional steps to lower costs is one area Biden wants to focus on in the final months of his presidency. In repeated calls with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients shortly after ending his reelection campaign, Biden stressed that he wanted to continue work on reducing health care and housing costs and implementing his landmark bills such as the infrastructure law, while highlighting the importance of protecting U.S. democracy.

Executing his day job remains Biden’s chief priority, aides and advisers have said.

“His intention is to focus on the American people, to … continuing to deliver and build on the unprecedented successes — historic, historic successes — that he has had in the last three and a half years with the vice president,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this week. “That’s his focus.”

But his political aides are sketching out how the outgoing president can be helpful on the campaign trail for Harris. There will be a joint political event with Biden and Harris, although the timing, location or other details have yet to be determined, according to an adviser for the president. Biden also plans to headline fundraisers for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said the adviser, who was granted anonymity to discuss the president’s plans that are not yet public.

Biden also wants to do whatever else is helpful — may it be calls to allies or meeting with key groups — to ensure that the coalition of voters who turned out for him in 2020 will do so again with Harris at the top of the ticket this fall, the adviser said. Before he dropped out of the race, Biden’s campaign had largely narrowed its focus to retaining the so-called “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and that region may be where he would be the biggest asset politically on behalf of Harris.

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