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Rarely has a formality been charged: the Electoral College confirms Joe Biden’s election as president, thereby increasing pressure on Republicans to distance themselves from Trump.
“Democracy has triumphed”: Joe Biden before his speech on December 14, shortly after the electoral body confirmed his electoral victory.
Photo: Mike Segar (Reuters)
They met in state parliaments, in gymnasiums and, due to the corona pandemic, in video conferences. The 538 members of the Electoral College met this Monday in the 50 states and in the capital Washington to cast the votes that will make the result official six weeks after the US presidential election.
There is no longer any doubt: Joe Biden was elected as the new 46th president of the United States with 306 votes. And even before the last electorate voted, Biden said: “In the fight for America’s soul, democracy has triumphed.»
Threats against voters
In a normal election year, Electoral College meetings receive little attention. They are just the formal execution of the election – quite a boring process, in which the electorate votes in writing for the candidate who won the elections in their respective state.
This time, however, much was different. Cable stations followed the proceedings live throughout the day, with photographs of parliamentary halls and conference rooms, with reporters and guests in the studios who kept saying things like: “We are living democracy in action here..»
Not that there is tension in all of this: In most states, voters are legally bound to abide by election results, and even where they are not, voters tend to abide by the mandate, which they received from the voters.
Under Tight Security: A voter voting in the Michigan Parliament.
Photo: Carlos Osorio (Reuters)
It was thanks to Donald Trump that the whole day was so important. The defeated incumbent has spent the weeks since the election fighting his defeat, rhetorically and in court. Trump’s demands have failed across the board, but at least he managed to get most of the top Republicans to pretend the election has yet to be decided, as if there is a realistic chance that Trump will remain president. .
This can no longer be said of that at the latest. Biden received 306 votes from voters, Trump 232, it’s over. “Trust in our institutions has been maintained. The integrity of our elections remains intact, ”the president-elect said, when he addressed Americans from his home in Delaware that night.
“Time to move on to the next chapter.”
It was the first time in a long time that Biden commented on the election in detail. He praised workers and local election officials who have been insulted by Trump in recent weeks and threatened with violence by his supporters: “Our democracy survived because of them.”
Biden also knows that Trump’s speech about alleged systematic electoral fraud has radicalized some of his supporters. As a result, voters in several states were only able to meet with stricter protective measures on Monday because there had been threats against them. In Michigan, where right-wing extremist militias planned to kidnap the Democratic governor in the summer, the government cordoned off the entire parliament following warnings from police.
In his speech, Biden noted that Trump took every possible opportunity to challenge the election result in court, ruling dozens of times. The country must now unite and heal, the Democrat demanded: “It is time to open the next chapter.”
Quit the party in protest
There were cautious signs on Monday that this could happen, at least if the initial reactions of Republican politicians are taken as the yardstick. Sen. Mike Braun, a loyal Trump supporter, described the Electoral College vote as a “turning point” and called for respect for the process that will determine the outcome of the presidential election, which could be read as criticism of the president. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s most ardent defense attorneys, also admitted to reporters for the first time that Biden would become the next president.
Other Republicans became even clearer. Paul Mitchell, a member of the House of Representatives, announced Monday that he was leaving the party in protest. It could no longer be partly responsible for the fact that Republicans helped Trump cause “long-term damage to our democracy” by tolerating or promoting his baseless accusations.
And on Fox News television, the commentator Geraldo Rivera called on “my friend the President” to admit his defeat: “The longer it goes on, the more we damage our democracy.”
Trump’s last fight
The next few days will show if those votes will increase among Republicans or if they will remain the exception. In any case, the election is not over yet for Trump, and it was probably no coincidence that the president announced Monday night that his attorney general William Barr would resign in the next few days, as if he wanted to. Triumph distracting attention from the Electoral College confirmation of Biden’s victory.
Get ahead of the president: After Attorney General Bill Barr refused to discuss voter fraud, Donald Trump announced Monday night that Barr would resign.
Photo: Carlos Barria (Reuters)
There has been speculation in the US media about Barr’s early departure for some time. Trump is upset after these reports that the Attorney General stated in an interview that he saw no evidence of voter fraud. In addition, the president accuses Barr of having defrauded him because he was aware of the FBI investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, before the election, but kept it secret. Barr betrayed Trump and the conservative media complained about it.
Biden won’t mind. He may want to announce this week who he will appoint as the new justice minister after taking office on January 20. Even if Trump doesn’t see it yet, even if he and his allies are planning one last desperate move in Congress on January 6 to somehow avoid Trump’s defeat – Trump’s time in the White House will soon be over.
