2020 US presidential election: Joe Biden, 77, to become longest-serving president-elect in US history
Washington:
President-elect Joe Biden said it was ‘time to heal’ America in his first speech after winning a bitter election on Saturday, even as President Donald Trump refused to concede Biden’s victory in the state. Pennsylvania battlefield, putting him above the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes he needed to clinch the presidency, ending four days of nail-biting suspense and sending his supporters to the streets of major cities for celebrate.
“The people of this nation have spoken. They have awarded us a clear victory, a convincing victory,” Biden told cheering supporters in a parking lot during his victory speech in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
“I pledge to be a president who does not seek to divide, but to unify,” he said, before addressing Trump supporters directly.
“Now let’s give ourselves a chance. It’s time to put aside the harsh rhetoric, turn the heat down, meet again, listen to each other again,” he said.
“Now is the time to heal in America.” It was introduced by its Vice President, US Senator Kamala Harris, who will be the first woman, the first black American and the first American of Asian descent to become the Vice President of the country’s No.2 office.
“What a testament to Joe’s character had the audacity to break down one of the most important barriers that exist in our country and to choose a woman as vice president,” said Harris.
Congratulations poured in from abroad, including from conservative British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, making it difficult for Trump to assert his repeated, unproven claims that the elections were rigged against him.
Trump, who was playing golf when the major television stations projected his rival had won, immediately accused Biden of “rushing to pass himself off as the winner.” “This election is far from over,” he said in a statement.
Trump has filed a series of lawsuits to challenge the results, but state election officials across the country say there has been no significant evidence of fraud, and legal experts say Trump’s efforts are unlikely to succeed. succeed.
As news of his victory broke, loud cheers erupted in the halls of the hotel where the former vice president’s assistants were staying. Cheers and applause were also heard in Washington, with people emerging on balconies, honking cars and banging pots.
The wave of noise in the nation’s capital grew as more people heard the news.
Some were sobbing
The music started to play, “We are the Champions” yelled. In Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, some people erupted in screams of joy as the word spread.
Several residents danced on a building’s fire exit, clapping while others shouted “yes!” as they passed. Trump supporters have responded with a mixture of disappointment, suspicion, and resignation, pointing to the difficult task Biden faces in convincing many Americans in more rural areas who believe Trump was the first president to rule with their interests at heart.
“It’s sickening and sad,” said Kayla Doyle, a 35-year-old Trump supporter and director of the GridIron Pub on Main Street in the small town of Mifflintown, Pennsylvania.
“I think it’s rigged.” Angry pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” protesters gathered in state capitol buildings in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona.
Protesters in Phoenix chanted “We want audits!” One speaker told the crowd: “We will win in court!” There was no sign of the violence or unrest that many feared, and pro-Trump protests have mostly faded as the results collapsed.
Ahead of the election, Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost, and he falsely declared victory long before the tally was over.
Past and current political leaders also weighed in, including congratulations from former Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican US Senator Mitt Romney.
Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham called on the Justice Department to investigate the allegations of voting irregularities.
The networks’ statement for Biden came amid concerns within Trump’s team about the strategy ahead and pressure on him to choose a professional legal team to explain where they think the electoral fraud took. place and provide evidence.
Trump’s allies have made it clear that the president is not planning to concede anytime soon. A Trump loyalist said Trump is just not ready to admit defeat even though there won’t be enough ballots thrown in a recount to change the result.
“There is a mathematical certainty that he will lose,” said the loyalist.
Biden’s victory ends Trump’s chaotic four-year presidency in which he played down a deadly pandemic, imposed tough immigration policies, launched a trade war with China, tore international agreements apart and deeply divided. many American families with its inflammatory rhetoric, lies and willingness to give up. democratic standards.
On Saturday, Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien urged supporters to be prepared to attend protests or rallies that the campaign “supports across the country,” according to a person familiar with the situation.
DIFFICULT TASK TO DO
For Biden supporters, it was only fitting that Pennsylvania secures its victory.
He was born in the industrial city of Scranton in the northeast of the state and, touting his middle-class credentials, secured the Democratic nomination by promising to win back working-class voters who backed Trump in 2016.
He launched his campaign in Pittsburgh last year and ended it with a rally there on Tuesday.
It was a close race in industrial states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, but Biden did enough to win.
He faced unprecedented challenges.
These included Republican-led efforts to limit postal voting at a time when record numbers of people were required to vote by mail due to the pandemic, which has killed more than 236,000 people in the United States. On Jan. 20, the oldest person to take the job at 78, he will likely face a difficult task of governing in a deeply polarized Washington, underscored by a record national turnout.
Both sides called the 2020 election one of the most pivotal in US history, as important as the votes during the Civil War of the 1860s and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Graduates and townspeople.
He beat Trump by more than four million votes in the nationwide popular vote count Biden, who spent half a century in public life as a United States Senator and then Vice President under Trump’s predecessor , Obama, will inherit a nation in the grip of the coronavirus crisis. and the associated economic downturn as well as protests against racism and police brutality.
Biden said his first priority would be to develop a plan to contain and recover from the pandemic, promising to improve access to testing and, unlike Trump, to heed the advice of senior public health officials and officials. scientists.
In addition to taming the health crisis, Biden faces a huge challenge to address the economic hardships caused by the pandemic.
Some 10 million Americans laid off during coronavirus lockdowns remain inactive and federal relief programs have expired.
The US economy remains technically in recession, and the return-to-work outlook for millions of people is bleak, especially in service industries such as hospitality and entertainment, where job losses hit women particularly hard and the minorities.
Biden also pledged to restore a sense of normalcy in the White House after a presidency in which Trump praised authoritarian foreign rulers, scorned long-standing global alliances, refused to disown white supremacists, and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the US electoral system.
Despite his victory, Biden failed to deliver the sweeping repudiation of Trump that Democrats had hoped for, reflecting the deep support the president still retains, which could complicate Biden’s campaign promises to overthrow key elements of the government. legacy of Trump.
These include sweeping Trump tax cuts that have particularly benefited rich and sweeping business and immigration policies, efforts to dismantle the 2010 Obamacare health law, and Trump’s abandonment of international agreements. such as the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. Senate, they would likely block much of its legislative agenda, including expanding health care and tackling climate change.
That prospect could depend on the outcome of four indecisive Senate races, including two in Georgia that won’t be resolved until the second round in January. For Trump, 74, it was a disturbing end after an astonishing political rise.
The real estate developer who made a national mark as a reality TV personality upset Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the presidency in 2016 in her first run for office.
Four years later, he became the first US president to lose a candidacy for reelection since Republican George H.W Bush in 1992. Despite his draconian immigration restrictions, Trump has made surprising inroads with Latino voters.
He has also won battleground states such as Florida, where his promise to put the economy first even as it increases the threat of the coronavirus seemed to have resonated.
Ultimately, however, Trump failed to significantly broaden his appeal beyond an engaged core of rural and working-class white voters who embraced his right-wing populism and “American” nationalism. on board”.
Duane Fitzhugh, a 52-year-old teacher celebrating Biden’s victory outside the Trump Hotel in Washington, said it was as if a perverse enchantment was being lifted. “It’s like a veil that fell on the country four years ago and we are waiting years for it to end,” he said.
