JOE BIDEN, CLAIMING a presidential win delayed by slow vote-counting, finally got to deliver his victory speech Saturday night, calling for decency, hope and a new spirit of cooperation as he prepares to lead the nation through myriad crises when he becomes America’s 46th president in January.
In a passionate address formally declaring victory in the tumultuous 2020 election, Biden appealed to the country to “let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end, here and now” and to return to a time when the country joined the face common enemies – this time, the pandemic, systemic racism, economic struggles and climate change.
“Americans have called on US to marshal the forces of decency and the forces of fairness, to marshal the forces of science and the forces of hope in the great battles of our time,” he said in a speech filled with soaring rhetoric but lacking any gloating over his hard-fought win.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP refused to concede the election to Democratic challenger Joe Biden Saturday after the race was called for the former vice president, issuing a defiant statement insisting the race was not over.
“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed,” Trump said in a lengthy statement after Biden was declared winner. “The simple fact is this election is far from over.”
The president’s protest comes after Biden bested Trump in Pennsylvania to nab 20 Electoral College votes needed to seal the win. Biden leads in states like Georgia and Nevada that had not been called were expected to provide Biden an additional cushion. The president was reportedly on the golf course when the call was made.
Trump’s challenge to the outcome comes as little surprise, though it does mark one of the only times in American history a candidate has so forcefully rejected the results of a presidential election.
On the very day Biden spoke, Trump supporters – some of them armed – gathered at voting centers in battleground states to challenge some of the ballots and Biden’s very win, despite the fact that the race had been called by numerous news organizations.
FOR ONCE, THE WOMAN was not standing quietly behind a man. In fact, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris got to go first.
The job of vice president is to support the president of the United States– at best, offering thoughtful, appreciated advice, and at worst, attending state funerals and casting tie-breaking votes in the Senate.
But Harris was the opening act Saturday night as she and President-elect Joe Biden appeared together for the first time since Biden won the election. And Harris did not hide her pride over being so much more: a partner ready to work with Biden, and a living image of what young girls can achieve.
Trump associates have said privately that the president is unlikely to formally concede the race under any circumstances in the traditional manner of a concession speech and a phone call to Biden.
And though some aides have suggested that they are hoping to convince him to publicly commit to a peaceful transition, experts warned that Trump could work to scuttle cooperation with Biden’s team in ensuring a smooth turnover of the management of the federal government on Inauguration Day come Jan. 20.
“I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” Trump tweeted Saturday shortly before all major news organizations called the contest for Biden.
“Donald Trump is behaving like a tin-pot dictator who just lost power and refuses to accept the results,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said.
“Trump could be like Bartle by the scrivener and say, ‘I prefer not to leave the presidency.’ That is unprecedented in history,” he added, referring to a Herman Melville story about a legal aide who is forcibly removed after refusing to do his job.
Put A Wedge In It! 
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