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Democrat Joe Biden called for unity Saturday night and promised “a new day for America” in his first national address since winning a tense US election and ending the historically turbulent and divisive era of Donald Trump.
After taking the outdoor stage to the sounds of Bruce Springsteen in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Biden delivered a message of hope and healing to a crowd of fans and tens of millions more on television.
The victory speech followed a desperately bitter election held amid a coronavirus pandemic. But rather than sounding triumphant, Biden’s accent was more on changing hearts in a country divided in half between Democrats and Republicans.
Promising “not to divide but to unify,” Biden directly approached Trump supporters, stating that “they are not our enemies, they are Americans.”
“Let’s give ourselves a chance,” he said, urging the country to “lower the temperature.”
“That this grim age of demonization in America begins to end, here and now.”
Looking further afield, Biden said it would “bring America back to being respected around the world,” a reference to Trump’s breaking of traditional diplomatic relations.
“Tonight, the whole world is looking at America and I believe that, at our best, America is a beacon to the world,” he said.
Addressing the coronavirus, which has killed more than 237,000 Americans amid Trump’s erratic leadership, Biden said he would form a task force of “leading scientists” as early as Monday.
– Fireworks –
While attendance was limited for social distancing reasons to about 360 cars at the drive-in event, crowds of thousands of people, many of them dancing and waving American flags, lined the road leading to the facility.
This was Biden’s first public appearance since American television networks declared early Saturday that he had taken an insurmountable lead in Tuesday’s near-full election, giving him victory against Trump, who will now become a rare president. single term.
The celebratory event, which featured a confetti canon, fireworks and a soundtrack featuring Springsteen and Tina Turner, also gave Americans a closer look at Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris, who will do history as the country’s first black woman and vice president.
In his speech, cheered every few seconds by the exulting crowd, Harris praised the record turnout of some 160 million people in the election and said that after so much division, “Joe is a healer.”
“When our own democracy was on the ballot in this election, with the soul of America at stake and the world watching, you ushered in a new day for America,” he said.
Biden, who is 77 and will turn 78 later this month, will be the oldest person to become president when he takes office on January 20.
– No Trump concession –
Crowds took to the streets in major U.S. cities to celebrate Trump’s defeat, while key Western allies like Germany, which had a stormy relationship with the Republican, were quick to congratulate Biden.
But Trump, becoming the first term president since George HW Bush in the early 1990s, refused to budge and went on to claim he was the victim of fraud.
Biden was rushing to pose as the winner, Trump said in a statement as he arrived at a golf course he owns in Virginia, on his first trip out of the White House since Election Day.
There is no evidence to support Trump’s unprecedented claims of massive fraud.
Tuesday’s vote was conducted without any serious incidents or even technical failures being reported, despite the shadow of a still-out-of-control Covid-19 pandemic and volcanic political tensions.
With the vote count nearly complete across the vast country, Biden built up an irreversible edge. New counts from the state of Pennsylvania early Saturday put it at the top, ending four days of tense waiting and allowing specialized data analysts at broadcasters to call in the overall result, as they do in every election.
– Spontaneous celebrations –
In Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Washington and other cities with a Democratic majority, people spontaneously took to the streets to celebrate, car horns sounded.
An excited crowd of several thousand gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza next to the White House, giving a hostile reception to Trump as his caravan passed by as they returned from the golf course.
“So many years have been waiting for this day to come,” said Jack Nugent, a 24-year-old software engineer.
There were similar scenes in New York, Trump’s birthplace.
“I am happy that Trump is gone from our lives, hopefully forever,” Catherine Griffin, 47, said in New York through happy tears.
Yet in Arizona, where the race was closed, a group of nearly 1,000 Trump supporters gathered in Phoenix to protest what they said was a stolen election.
“There is a lot of fraud here. It needs to be completely redone or recounted, ”said Donna McCollum, 77.
– Western allies send congratulations –
For Biden, who garnered more than 74 million votes, a record, the triumph was the culminating achievement of his half century in American politics, including eight years as an MP for Obama, the first black US president to claim victory. ” historical and decisive “. .
Biden vows to control the coronavirus pandemic. He also promises to restore traditional American diplomacy after Trump’s dramatic turn toward one-sided nationalism.
The leaders of Great Britain, Germany, France and other European countries were the first, along with Canada, to send congratulations. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga sent “warm congratulations.”
The head of NATO’s military alliance, reeling from Trump’s disruptive approach after decades of American leadership, was also quick to welcome Biden’s victory.
“A strong NATO is good for both North America and Europe,” said NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted about Biden’s “spectacular victory,” but there was no immediate reaction from other big players in US relations, including China, Israel, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
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