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The Democrat delivered a nightly speech in the tone of a president-elect and vowed to address the COVID-19 pandemic when new cases on Friday hit a new record of more than 127,000 cases.
FIELD: Joe Biden named Kamala Harris, a high-profile black senator from California, as his vice presidential pick on August 11, 2020, culminating a months-long search for a Democratic partner to challenge President Donald Trump in November. Image: AFP
WILMINGTON – Joe Biden, drawing ever closer to victory after a bitter presidential election, called on Americans Friday to turn the page on divisions when Donald Trump warned him not to declare victory.
As returns from Pennsylvania and three other states made Trump’s path to a second term increasingly unlikely, Biden repeated that he believed he would win but said he would wait for the process to complete.
Instead, Biden delivered a late-night speech in the tone of a president-elect and vowed to address the COVID-19 pandemic when new cases on Friday hit a new record of more than 127,000 cases.
“We must leave anger and demonization behind. It is time for us to come together as a nation and heal ourselves,” Biden said in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, accompanied by his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris.
“My responsibility as president will be to represent the entire nation,” he said, in stark contrast to Trump’s nearly four years of provocative rule.
Biden spoke as the US media began reporting that 61-year-old White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had contracted the virus, underscoring criticism leveled at the president for months for his handling of the crisis. its administration.
Meadows tested positive for the first time on Wednesday, the day after the election, according to The New York Times.
Biden said he and Harris had already met with experts on how to control cases of COVID-19 that have “skyrocketed,” which has claimed more than 230,000 lives in the United States, more than in any other country.
“I want everyone to know that on day one, we are going to put into action our plan to control this virus,” Biden said.
“That may not save any of the lives that have been lost, but it will save many lives in the coming months.”
MOVING FORWARD TO GAIN
After Biden’s campaign said he would address the nation, speculation grew that he would make a formal victory declaration, but he appeared to be waiting for confirmation of an unassailable lead and said he would speak again on Saturday.
Biden’s lead grew inexorably in Pennsylvania, which would hand him the keys to the White House if he achieves his 20 votes in the Electoral College that determines presidential careers.
By late Friday he had a nearly 29,000 vote lead over Trump, though he was still within the narrow range that would likely trigger a recount.
Biden was also ahead in Arizona and Georgia, two states that have not voted for Democrats in the 21st century, as well as Nevada, while Trump had a slight lead in North Carolina.
Georgia said it was ordering a recount due to the narrow margin and that the southern state will also have runoff races in January for its two Senate seats, which will likely determine whether Democrats take control of the upper house and give it to Biden a broader path to legislative victories. .
Trump has prematurely named himself the winner several times, refusing to accept the data that shows Biden is headed for victory.
In his latest volley, he warned on Twitter that “Joe Biden should not unfairly claim the position of president. I could make that claim too.”
The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits across the country alleging fraud, but made little progress, with no evidence being presented to support the alleged tampering with the ballot or other major incidents.
SEEKING JUDICIAL ACTION
Pennsylvania Republicans made one last pitch for the United States Supreme Court to intervene in emergency to stop the counting of votes in the state, as late ballots reached Biden.
Judge Samuel Alito, considered a conservative, refused to order an immediate dismissal, but said the full court would consider the challenge on Saturday.
He ordered Pennsylvania to keep late ballots separate, affirming a policy already implemented by state electoral authorities.
In another tweet, Trump complained that he had “such a big head start” on election night, “only to see the clues miraculously disappear” later in the week.
Trump has now falsely said several times that ballots are being fabricated for Biden or stolen.
But the unprecedented attacks on America’s electoral integrity by a president ignore a simple fact about the different types of votes cast.
Votes cast in person on Election Day and counted first largely favored Trump, who has questioned mail-in ballots and actions to stop COVID-19.
Later, the count turned into the flood of votes sent by mail by Americans who did not want to go to crowded polling stations amid the coronavirus pandemic, disproportionately voters for Biden.
Wrath of Trump’s defenders
When Trump unleashed his offensive, his supporters vented their anger in front of electoral offices in several cities.
The protests were largely peaceful, but in Philadelphia, prosecutors said they were charging two men who drove with guns to the convention center where votes are tabulated.
In Atlanta, a poll worker went into hiding after facing death threats, with his car’s license plate number exposed online, after he was falsely accused of throwing a ballot.
The worker was seen on video throwing a sheet, which was in fact an instruction sheet mailed by a voter, said Richard Barron, Fulton County Supervisor of Elections.
Most of Trump’s Republican Party stood firm behind him.
“Far from over,” tweeted Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives. “The Republicans will not back down from this battle.”
But several Republicans voiced alarm over a president’s unprecedented attacks on the US electoral process.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the only Republican member of the Senate to vote to convict the president in his impeachment earlier this year, said Trump’s impeachment of a stolen election “hurts the cause of freedom here and everywhere. the world weakens the institutions that lie at the base of the Republic and recklessly ignites destructive and dangerous passions, “said Romney.
Republican strategist Karl Rove, who helped George W. Bush to victory in the 2000 race ultimately decided by the United States Supreme Court, said fraud involving hundreds of thousands of ballots across the country “would require a conspiracy. on the scale of a James bond movie.”
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