US elections: Joe Biden vows to ‘unify’ the country in his victory speech

Joe Biden has said it is “time to heal” the United States in his first speech as president-elect, promising “not to divide but to unify” the country.

“Let’s give ourselves a chance,” Biden said at an event in Delaware, addressing those who voted against him.

Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump after a failed vote count after Tuesday’s election.

Trump has yet to relent and has not spoken publicly since his loss was announced while playing golf.

The result makes Trump the first president in a term since the 1990s. His campaign has filed a series of lawsuits in several states, but election officials say there is no evidence the vote was rigged against him.

Spontaneous celebrations broke out in major cities after the media announced Biden’s victory on Saturday. Trump supporters angered by the outcome demonstrated in some cities, but there were no reports of incidents.

Addressing supporters in a parking lot in his hometown of Wilmington, Biden said: “I promise to be a president who does not seek to divide, but to unify; who does not see red states and blue states, he only sees America.”

Biden, who has won more than 74 million votes so far, the most for a US presidential candidate, praised the “diverse” support he garnered during the campaign, but also reached out directly to Trump supporters.

“It’s time to put aside the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, hear yourself again,” Biden said. “And to progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies.”

The president-elect, who arrived on stage wearing a face mask, announced that he would form his coronavirus response committee to ensure that he is ready to implement decisions from the day of his inauguration in January.

The Trump administration’s response to the pandemic was at the center of the presidential campaign and drew strong criticism from Biden. More than 237,000 Americans have died, more than any other country.

Biden will be 78 when he takes office, making him the oldest first-term president in US history.

Biden was introduced by his running mate, Kamala Harris, who is about to become the first vice president in the country’s history.

She will also be the first Black and Asian-American vice president when she takes office, after a year that has seen protests across the country on the issue of racial injustice.

Ms. Harris paid tribute to her late mother, an Indian immigrant to the United States, and the other generations of Black, Asian, White, Latina and Native women who “paved the way for this moment tonight.”

“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” she added.

Reflecting on the election campaign, he told his supporters: “When our own democracy was on the ballot, America’s soul at stake, and with the whole world watching, you ushered in a new day for America.”

“You chose hope and unity, decency, science and yes, the truth; you chose Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. And the road ahead will not be easy, but America is ready, as is Joe and me. “

At an earlier point, Joe Biden’s victory speech would have seemed pretty routine. The president-elect spoke of unity, of ending acrimony, of the potential and power of the American people. Those are sentiments that many winning politicians have touched on in the past.

However, hot on the heels of Donald Trump’s presidency, they mark a stark contrast. The president who will replace Biden was one he often criticized for stoking cultural divisions and doing little to quell the unrest that broke out in many US cities earlier this year.

Biden spoke of his election as a “turning point” that would allow the American people to make a decision about “who we are and who we want to be.”

As the Saturday night speech demonstrated, at the very least, Biden’s presidency will mark a shift in presidential rhetoric. The American people have an elected president who talks about uniting the country; to be a leader for all the people. Saying it is the easy part; now you have to.

The BBC projected Biden’s victory on Saturday, after gains on key battlefields in Pennsylvania and Nevada propelled him above the 270-vote electoral college threshold required to win the White House.

This prediction is based on unofficial results for states that have already finished counting their votes and expected results for states like Wisconsin, where the recount continues.

Trump has not spoken publicly since the figures were announced, but he repeated earlier claims of voter fraud in a tweet, which Twitter soon marked as a “disputed” claim. The Trump campaign has indicated that its candidate does not plan to budge.

After Biden was projected to win, Trump remained defiant, saying that Biden was “falsely posing as the winner” and insisting the election was “far from over.” The president has obtained more than 70 million votes, the second highest tally in history.

The response from senior Republicans has been muted. Republican Party Chair Ronna McDaniel tweeted that “the media doesn’t decide who wins the election, the voters do.”

But Sen. Mitt Romney, a critic of Trump, congratulated Biden and Harris. He said he and his wife “know them both as people of good will and admirable character.”

Trump has promised to challenge the election results on several fronts. A recount will take place in Georgia, where margins are tight, and Trump wants the same in Wisconsin. He has also promised to take legal action before the Supreme Court, alleging electoral fraud without proof.

If the election result is challenged, legal teams would be required to challenge it in state courts. State judges would have to defend the challenge and order a recount, and then Supreme Court justices could be asked to overturn a ruling.

Meanwhile, votes are still being counted in some states and the results are never official until final certification, which occurs in each state in the weeks after the election.

This must be done before 538 elected officials (electors) from the Electoral College, which officially decides who wins the election, gather in their state capitals to vote on December 14.

Votes from electors usually reflect the popular vote in each state. However, in some states this is not a formal requirement.

The new president officially takes office on January 20 after a transition period that gives them time to appoint cabinet ministers and make plans.

The handover of power takes place in a ceremony known as the Inauguration, which takes place on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington DC. After the ceremony, the new president heads to the White House to begin his four-year term.

Biden ran for the White House twice before.

In 1988, he withdrew from the race after admitting to plagiarizing a speech by then-British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.

In 2008, he tried again for the Democratic nomination before retiring and joining Barack Obama’s roster.

His eight years as vice president allowed him to reclaim much of Obama’s legacy, including the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

The six-term senator from Delaware was first elected in 1972.

Early in his career, he sided with southern segregationists by opposing court-ordered school transportation to racially integrate public schools.

He was also a fierce advocate for a 1994 crime bill that many on the left now say encouraged long sentences and mass incarcerations.

Most Americans know that Joe Biden’s life has been marked by personal tragedy, experiences to which he often refers.

In 1972, he lost his first wife, Neilia, and his young daughter, Naomi, in a car accident. He made famous the oath of office for his first term in the Senate from the hospital room of his young children Beau and Hunter, who survived the accident.

In 2015, Beau died of brain cancer at the age of 46, and Joe Biden said this played a role in his decision not to run for president in 2016.