U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on Earth Day at Seward Park in Seattle on April 22, 2022. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)Last week, President Joe Biden spent two days in the Seattle area. His two primary events focused on the cost of prescription drugs and an Earth Day commemoration.

The President began his Pacific Northwest visit in Portland, arriving in Seattle on Thursday night. He kicked off Friday morning with an Earth Day speech in Seattle’s Seward Park, where he announced additional protection for old growth forests.

The President followed that speech with another in the student union building at Green River College in Auburn. Following brief speeches by Governor Jay Inslee, Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Representative Kim Schrier, the President told the crowd of 14,000 students that the federal government needs to take action to rein in prescription drug prices. Referring to a drug to treat leukemia that costs $6,000 a month in France but $14,000 in the U.S., President Biden said, “The same exact drug, the same exact company, same distribution— it’s unconscionable.”