President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he accepts President-elect Donald J. Trump’s victory and vowed to honour the Constitution with a peaceful transfer of power, even as he acknowledged the pain felt by his supporters.
“I know for some people, it’s a time for victory, to state the obvious. For others, it’s a time of loss, campaigns or contests of competing visions,” he said from the Rose Garden at the White House. “The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made.”
“I’ve said many times you can’t love your country only when you win,” he added.
Ahead of the election, Biden had repeatedly called Trump an existential threat to democracy who would shatter efforts to rebuild the economy and strengthen alliances overseas.
But Biden said his administration committed to a peaceful transfer of power, which Trump did not do four years ago when he refused to concede and urged supporters to march to the US Capitol on January 6 as the electoral votes were certified.
“Yesterday, I spoke with President-elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory, and I assured him that I will direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition,” Biden said after receiving a standing ovation from members of his staff. “That’s what the American people deserve.”
For most of the past four years, Biden expected that he would be the one to face Trump again. But concerns among Democrats about his age and mental fitness forced him to abandon his re-election bid to Vice-President Kamala Harris. In his remarks, Biden praised her for giving her “whole heart” to the campaign.
“She has a backbone like a ramrod,” he said. “She has great character, true character. She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran.”
Defiant Harris
On Wednesday, Harris formally acknowledged her loss to Trump in a defiant and emotional speech, defending her campaign as a fight for democracy that she would continue, even if not from the Oval Office.
“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuelled this campaign,” Harris said.
“Hear me when I say, the light of America’s promise will always burn bright,” she added. “As long as we never give up. And as long as we keep fighting.”
Harris, her voice cracking with emotion at times, made the final speech of her presidential campaign at Howard University, her alma mater, in Washington.
The results, still trickling in as Harris spoke, showed her on track to lose both the national popular vote and the top seven battleground states.
On Wednesday, in what seemed a pointed reminder, Harris said she had called Trump earlier in the day to offer her congratulations — but also to promise that the Biden administration would “engage in a peaceful transfer of power”.
New York Times News Service
