Updated: November 8, 2020 5:06:10 pm
Left to right, Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Harris, President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden react after confetti was thrown in Wilmington on Saturday. [AP]
President-elect Joe Biden declared it was “time to heal” America in his first speech after prevailing on Saturday in a bitter election, even when President Donald Trump refused to budge.
Biden’s victory in the battlefield state of Pennsylvania put him above the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes he needed to win the presidency, ending a four-day suspension and sending his supporters to the streets. from the main cities to celebrate it.
“The people of this nation have spoken. They have delivered us a clear victory, a convincing victory, ”Biden told supporters in a parking lot during his victory speech in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
“I promise to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify,” he said, and then addressed Trump supporters directly.
“Now, let’s give ourselves a chance. It is time to put aside the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to us again, “he said. “This is the time to heal in America.”
He was introduced by his running mate, US Senator Kamala Harris, who will be the first woman, the first African American and the first American of Asian descent to serve as Vice President, the second office in the country.
“What a testament to Joe’s character is that he had the audacity to break down one of the most substantial barriers in our country and select a woman as his vice president,” Harris said.
The congratulations came from overseas, including from conservative British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, making it difficult for Trump to push forward his repeated claims, without evidence, that the election was rigged in her against.
Trump, who was playing golf when major television networks projected that his rival had won, immediately accused Biden of “rushing to falsely pose 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 election officials in states across the country say there has been no evidence of significant fraud, and legal experts say Trump’s efforts are unlikely to be successful.
When news of his victory broke, loud cheers broke out in the corridors of the hotel where the former vice president’s aides were staying.
Cheers and applause were also heard across Washington, with people coming out onto balconies, honking car horns and banging on pots. The wave of noise in the nation’s capital increased as more people heard the news. Some sobbed. The music began to play, “We are the champions” thundered.
In the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, some people erupted in shouts of joy as word spread. Several residents danced on a building’s fire escape, cheering while others yelled “yes!” as they passed.
Trump supporters reacted with a mixture of disappointment, suspicion and resignation, highlighting the difficult task facing Biden in winning over many Americans in more rural areas who believe Trump was the first president to govern with their interests at heart.
“It’s disgusting and sad,” said Kayla Doyle, a 35-year-old Trump supporter and manager 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 at 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 were no signs of the violence or unrest that many feared, and the pro-Trump protests mostly faded as the results plunged. Before the election, Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost, falsely declaring victory long before the count was complete.
Past and current political leaders also weighed in, including congratulations from former Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican United States Senator Mitt Romney. Trump’s ally Senator Lindsey Graham asked the Justice Department to investigate the allegations of voting irregularities.
The networks’ statement in favor of Biden came amid concerns within Trump’s team about strategy going forward and pressure on him to choose a professional legal team to outline where they believe voter fraud occurred and provide evidence. .
Trump’s allies made it clear that the president does not plan to budge any time soon.
A Trump loyalist said Trump was simply not ready to admit defeat even though not enough ballots would be thrown out in a recount to change the outcome. “There is a mathematical certainty that he is going to lose,” said the loyalist.
Biden’s victory ends Trump’s chaotic four-year presidency in which he downplayed a deadly pandemic, imposed tough immigration policies, launched a trade war with China, broke international agreements and deeply divided many American families with his incendiary rhetoric, lies and willingness to quit. democratic norms.
On Saturday, Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien urged supporters to be prepared to attend protests or rallies that the campaign “is supporting across the country,” according to a person familiar with the situation.
DIFFICULT TASKS IN THE FUTURE
For Biden’s supporters, it was appropriate for Pennsylvania to ensure their victory. He was born in the northeastern industrial city of Scranton and, touting his middle-class credentials, secured the Democratic nomination by promising to win back working-class voters who had supported Trump in 2016.
He launched his campaign in Pittsburgh last year and closed 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 voting by mail at a time when a record number of people were required to vote by mail due to the pandemic, which has killed more than 236,000 people in the United States.
When Biden enters the White House on January 20, the oldest person to take office at 78, he will likely face a difficult task ruling in deeply polarized Washington, underscored by record turnout across the country.
Both sides characterized the 2020 election as one of the most crucial in American history, as important as the votes during the Civil War of 1860 and the Great Depression of 1930.
Biden’s victory was fueled by strong support from groups including women, African Americans, white voters with college degrees, and city dwellers. He beat Trump by more than four million votes in the popular vote count nationwide.
Biden, who has spent half a century in public life as a U.S. senator and then vice president under Trump’s predecessor Obama, will inherit a nation in crisis from the coronavirus pandemic and related economic slowdown, as well as protests against racism and police brutality. He has said his first priority will be to develop a plan to contain and recover from the pandemic, promising to improve access to testing and, unlike Trump, to follow the advice of leading scientists and public health officials.
In addition to taming the health crisis, Biden faces a great challenge to remedy the economic difficulties caused by the pandemic. Some 10 million Americans who were left without work during the coronavirus lockdowns remain inactive and federal relief programs have expired.
The US economy remains technically in recession and the prospects for millions of people to return to work are bleak, especially in service industries like hospitality and entertainment, where job losses hit women and minorities especially hard.
Biden has also vowed to restore a sense of normalcy in the White House after a presidency in which Trump praised authoritarian foreign leaders, scorned long-standing global alliances, refused to repudiate white supremacists and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the US electoral system.
Despite his victory, Biden will have failed to deliver the radical repudiation of Trump that Democrats hoped for, reflecting the deep support the president still retains.
This could complicate Biden’s campaign promises to reverse key parts of Trump’s legacy. These include deep Trump tax cuts that especially benefited hardline and wealthy corporations and immigration policies, efforts to dismantle the 2010 Obamacare healthcare law, and Trump’s abandonment of international agreements such as the agreement. Paris climate and the Iran nuclear deal.
If Republicans maintain control of the United States Senate, they are likely to block much of its legislative agenda, including expanding health care and fighting climate change. That prospect could hinge on the outcome of four undecided Senate races, including two in Georgia that won’t be resolved until the second round in January.
For Trump, 74, it was an unsettling ending after a staggering political rise. The real estate developer who established a national brand as a reality TV personality upset Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the presidency in 2016 in her first run for elected office. Four years later, he becomes the first US president to lose a re-election bid since Republican George HW Bush in 1992.
Despite his draconian restrictions on immigration, Trump made surprising gains among Latino voters. He also won battle states like Florida, where his promise to prioritize the economy even as the coronavirus threat increased seemed to have resonated.
In the end, however, Trump failed to significantly broaden his appeal beyond a committed core of rural and working-class white voters who embraced his right-wing populism and “America First” nationalism.
Duane Fitzhugh, a 52-year-old teacher celebrating Biden’s victory outside the Trump Hotel in Washington, said it was as if an evil spell was being lifted.
“It is as if a cloak fell over the country four years ago and we have been waiting years for it to end,” he said.
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