With Pennsylvania voting for him, Biden, already ahead in the popular vote, got 273 electoral college votes, crossing the 270 halfway mark. Republican Donald Trump, with a few states still counting votes, was at 213 and not ready to concede defeat. Yet, should the president win all the remaining states, he still cannot extend his term in the White House which comes to an end in January next year. As per the results, come January 20, 2021, the Democrats will be back at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue after a four-year gap, but the two months of transition will not prove to be smooth for the takeover by the Biden Administration.
With the networks calling Biden the winner, this should have brought to an end an acrimonious campaign that at times bordered on the juvenile. Unfortunately for America, as the world watches in bemusement, the clowning around of the campaign has extended now even after the winner has been called. Trump is not prepared to accept that the American people have not given him a second term, and has accused Biden of “rushing to falsely pose as the winner,” with promises to take the election fight to the courts from Monday. “I will not rest until the American people have the honest vote count they deserve and that democracy demands,” was Trump’s reactions after the Pennsylvania count and the networks calling the winner.
Biden, now the president-elect and with decades of experience in the Senate, which for four years as vice president he also chaired, displayed his statesman-like quality with his statement saying, “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.” Healing is something that the country now needs, especially after the Black Lives Matter protests across the country that spilled over to other countries too. And, as Biden said in the statement, “We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together.” But, it is here – doing it together – that Biden will probably face his toughest challenge as he assumes the presidency.
With the Biden victory, will America remain as the nation for all Americans? America was seen to be divided in the past years, as white supremacy gained currency in the past years and the Black Lives Matter protest deepened the divisions. But with the democratic ticket winning, this could change. Biden’s victory is backed by the largest turnout in America, and he has received the highest number of votes that any one has received in American electoral history. The difference in the popular vote is over four million, and that proves to be an overwhelming victory for the president-elect. Biden has to now prove that he will be the president for everyone of the American citizens, no matter their colour or race.
He can do it. With long experience in politics, he has been senator from 1973 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2017 vice president, Biden will come to the White House at the age of 78 (currently 77, will turn 78 on November 20) as no stranger to Washington DC and Capitol Hill. He has friends in both parties and both house of Congress, though the bitter campaign of the last few months could have roughened a few of these relationships. His long experience is perhaps the reason why the people reposed their faith in him, preferring him to the political outsider Trump who never held public office until he became president four years ago.
For the Biden presidency, the months ahead will not be easy. The tasks are piling up, beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic. USA not only has the highest number of cases, but also of deaths. He has to bring down the numbers, and while doing so also bring in other reforms, build bridges of trust among the people. But, Trump is not going to bow out easily. There is already speculation that he could be back as Republican nominee in 2024. His has been one of the rare defeats of a president seeking a second term. The last president to lose a re-election bid was George Bush in 2002. But for the next four years, it is Joe Biden and the Democrats in the White House.
