courtesy HTYES, HE CAN TOO
Joe Biden elected comfortably after dramatic count; Kamala Harris is first woman Veep
President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate, US Senator Kamala Harris, in Wilmington, Delaware. AFP FILE
Yashwant Raj
letters@hindustantimes.com
Washington : Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, was on Saturday elected the 46th President of the United States, beating Donald Trump in a bitterly contested fight, and Kamala Harris made history by becoming the first woman, the first person of Indian descent and the first Black person elected to the office of the Vice President.
Biden, 78, won the 2020 White House race after he was projected to win Pennsylvania, the tipping-point state whose 20 electoral college votes carried the Democrat well past the 270-vote. He also clinched Nevada on Saturday afternoon, shortly after he won the presidency by taking Pennsylvania, increasing his tally from 264 to 290.
Donald Trump, whose tally stood at 214 (the figure may change), will be the first one-term US President in 30 years. He was on his golf course when Biden was declared winner.
“I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris. In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America,” President-elect Biden said in a statement, adding: “With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It’s time for America to unite. And to heal. We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together.”
Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials went through mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots. Biden was the Vice President during President Barack Obama’s two terms. Obama, whose campaign during his presidential election pivoted on the slogan “Yes, We Can”, endorsed Biden and his running mate Harris for the 2020 race.
Vice President-elect Harris said she and President-elect Biden have a lot of work to do. “This election is about so much more than Joe Biden or me. It’s about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
US President Donald Trump has put together a legal team to shepherd the challenges, hoping, perhaps, for a repeat of the 2000 recount which gave George W Bush his first term as President.
The Trump campaign has called for donations to fund the legal fight. “This Election Isn’t Over,” it has said in texts and mail to supporters. “The President needs YOUR HELP! We can’t allow the Left-wing MOB to undermine our Election. President Trump needs his fiercest and most loyal defenders, like YOU, to step up and FIGHT BACK!”
But the President’s aides and allies in the Republican Party are also reportedly trying to prepare him for conceding, while arguing for his right to seek a recount of votes and sue to correct irregularities. “Mr. Trump’s legacy will be diminished greatly if his final act is a bitter refusal to accept a legitimate defeat,” The Wall Street Journal, a conservative media giant, wrote in an editorial on Saturday