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US Election 2020: ‘Time to unite America’
The President-elect is expected to address the nation from his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday evening.
As news channels called the United States presidential election in favour of 78-year-old Joe Biden, after he took the lead in his birth state of Pennsylvania, the president-elect tweeted: “America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country. The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans—whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith that you have placed in me.”
The President-elect is expected to address the nation from his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday evening.
The longest-serving senator of Delaware, former vice president of the United States in the Obama administration, and three-time President hopeful has been elected as the 46th President of the United States of America. His running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, will make history as the first woman, the first Black American and the first American of Asian descent (Harris’ mother hails from Tamil Nadu, her father from Jamaica), to serve as vice president.
News channels and election trackers did not make a definitive call on the results even on Saturday morning, stating that Biden was “on the verge of presidency” with Biden projected to receive between 253 to 264 electoral college votes (different news channels have varying views on Arizona’s 11 votes) at the time of going to print. However, as Biden took a lead in Pennsylvania, which has 20 electoral votes, his tally crossed the mid-way mark of 270.
Shortly after his election was made certain, Biden released a statement along the lines of what he has been saying in the past week that has seen President Donald Trump make unsubstantiated claims against postal ballots and Biden’ s lead.
“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. 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 said.
On Thursday, Biden and Harris met a group of experts on the public health and economic crises the country is facing.
Biden has promised to use his transition period to meet with the governors of every state and ask them to impose a nationwide mask-wearing mandate. Another key decision will be how Biden decides to deploy his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris. His campaign has indicated that Biden will establish a White House-level coronavirus task force like Trump did, but it’s not clear if he will tap Harris to run it.
