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Joe Biden has been elected as the 46th president of the United States, signaling a return to political norms in America after four years of strident populism and administrative turmoil under Donald Trump.
Thousands of Americans took to the streets, cheering, banging on pots and pans and honking car horns to celebrate the result after four anxious days of waiting for the votes to be counted. Trump was at his golf course in Virginia when the result was announced and he refused to budge.
Biden claimed victory in the state where he was born, Pennsylvania, whose 20 electoral college votes put him above the 270 threshold. He had more than 74 million votes in total, higher than any other presidential candidate in history.
The former senator and vice president said he felt “honored and humiliated” by the people’s verdict. “With the campaign over, it is time to leave anger and harsh rhetoric behind and unite as a nation,” he said in a statement. “It is time for the United States to come together. And to heal.
“We are the United States of America. And there is nothing we cannot do, if we do it together. “
Biden was due to address the nation from Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday night.
From Atlanta to New York, from Philadelphia to Washington, there were spontaneous outbursts of joy. A crowd gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza outside the White House, cheering and holding balloons depicting Trump’s face and hair. One person brandished a sign that, quoting Trump on his reality show The Apprentice, proclaimed, “You’re fired!”
In Times Square, New York, people danced, shouted and punched the air as they realized that Trump would be consigned to the history books as a single-term president.
Biden’s triumph is likely to be greeted by international allies as a course correction after 2016, when a shocking election result represented a leap into the political unknown, shaking the consensus on immigration, trade and the global order.
Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, tweeted his congratulations to Biden and said he looked forward to working with him.
Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, France, tweeted: “Welcome back America!”
Trump, a real estate mogul and reality TV star, was the first president with no prior political or military experience. Even as a headline, he continued to present himself as the disruptor and outsider who once boasted, “Only I can fix it.”
Biden, by contrast, sealed the presidency 48 years after winning the Senate election at the age of 29. He served for eight years as Barack Obama’s right-hand man and, turning 78 later this month, will be the president of Older. in American history.
Her running mate, Kamala Harris, will become the first woman and second person of color to serve as Vice President; the first was Charles Curtis, vice president of Herbert Hoover, who was a member of the Kaw Nation. Harris tweeted images of her wearing sunglasses and running clothes in a park, talking to Biden on the phone: “We did it, we did it, Joe. You are going to be the next president of the United States! “She laughed exultantly.
Hillary Clinton, the former senator and secretary of state who lost her candidacy to become the first female president in 2016, tweeted: “This is a ticket that makes history, a repudiation of Trump and a new page for America.”
Biden, whose life has been marked by tragedy, made empathy, decency and democracy a central aspect of his candidacy in an election that he characterized as a battle for the soul of America. He called on voters to reject Trump’s chaotic management style, cascade of lies, inflammatory racism, and failed response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 235,000 in the US.
The nation had to wait longer than in any presidential election since 2000 for the outcome, and the vote count was slowed by massive turnout and a record number of mail-in ballots due to the pandemic.
On Saturday, Trump continued to wage a months-long campaign to undermine the integrity of the democratic process, tweeting allegations of fraud without evidence as his campaign filed lawsuits that legal experts said had little to no merit. He showed no signs of admitting defeat, a move that has no constitutional or legal relevance.
In a statement, Trump declared that “this election is far from over” adding: “Starting Monday, our campaign will begin to process our case in court to ensure that electoral laws are fully enforced and that the rightful winner is seated. .
“… I will not rest until the American people have the honest vote count they deserve and that democracy demands.”
The mood in the White House, which had been secured by high barrier walls, was said to oscillate between despair and defiance. “They know he is lost, but no one seems willing to tell King Lear or Mad King George that they have lost the empire,” an unnamed Republican source told the Washington Post.
The president received a brief notice from Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who said Friday that Trump should “put on his big boy pants” and bow to the inevitable.
Trump’s authoritarian stance against democracy exposed fractures on his own side. Armed supporters in Phoenix and Detroit have insisted the election is being stolen and have planned dozens of rallies under the banner “Stop the Steal” on Saturday. Election officials say there has been no evidence of fraud.
Some Republicans backed Trump’s false claims about wrongdoing, while others backed off. Trump’s two oldest sons, Donald Jr and Eric, used Twitter to lash out at Republicans for not doing more to fight their father’s cause.
Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, tweeted in response to the result: “For Americans to have confidence in our elections, we need time to allow the scrutiny and certification process to take place, along with any investigation of wrongdoing or fraud. finish.”
But Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland and a potential candidate for the presidential nomination in 2024, said this week there was “no defense” for Trump’s comments “that undermine our democratic process.” The United States is counting the votes and we must respect the results as we have always done before. “
There were also signs that Rupert Murdoch could turn against Trump. The editorial board of the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal wrote: “Trump’s legacy will be greatly diminished if his final act is a bitter refusal to accept legitimate defeat. Republican officials will turn around, and eventually so will the American public who wants the election resolved. “
Both sides had framed the 2020 election as one of the most crucial in American history, as important as the votes during the Civil War in the 1860s and the Great Depression in the 1930s. The process went smoothly. problems despite the pandemic and fears of foreign interference, producing the largest turnout in more than 100 years.
Biden mounted unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nomination in 1988 and 2008 and looked destined to fail again in this year’s primary after heavy defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire. But after a solid victory in South Carolina, the party joined him, including those seeking a more leftist agenda.
Her victory over Trump was fueled by strong support from groups that included women, African Americans, white voters with college degrees, and city residents. He was more than 4 million votes ahead of Trump in the national popular tally.
As president, Biden’s honeymoon will be short. He inherits a nation in crisis as Covid-19 hits record highs, the economy struggles, and riots over racism and police brutality continue. He also faces a deeply polarized Washington where Republicans appear to retain the Senate and the ability to block his more ambitious plans.
Obama, congratulating his former vice president, said: “We are fortunate that Joe has what it takes to be president and he already behaves that way. Because when he enters the White House in January, he will face a series of extraordinary challenges that no incoming president has ever faced: a raging pandemic, an uneven economy and justice system, a democracy at risk, and a climate in danger. “
Biden has said his first priority will be to develop a plan to contain and recover from the pandemic and, unlike Trump, to follow the advice of scientists and public health experts. He has also vowed to restore White House competence after Trump praised authoritarian foreign leaders, offered encouragement to white supremacists and refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power.
But for now, millions of supporters felt a simple sense of relief that Trump could not continue his emotionally and morally draining war on institutions and the truth for a second term. Some recalled President Gerald Ford’s words after Richard Nixon’s resignation amid the Watergate scandal: “Our long national nightmare is over.”
Bob Shrum, who was an advisor to the Al Gore and John Kerry presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, said he hoped the Trump administration “would see itself as an aberration in American travel, as an attempt to roll back, which at least, in terms of the supreme court, it will have succeeded It diminished the position of the United States in the world, which will take time to repair.
“I think the world was surprised that the United States could choose someone like that.”
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