Paula lugones
11/07/2020 10:36 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 11/08/2020 3:24 AM
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, a 77-year-old Democrat, called for unity and to
"rebuild the soul of the country"
in his first speech as president-elect of the United States, after defeating the controversial Donald Trump in a very tight election, who resisted accept defeat and renew the judicial offensive for an alleged fraud.
As Biden supporters throughout the country flooded streets, squares and parks with festivities
, dancing and singing in favor of the winner and against Trump, the president-elect last night delivered a victory speech from Wilmington, Delaware, in which he he saw a long way from being "Sleepy Joe," the nickname Trump had given him.
Joe Biden greets supporters Saturday night in Delaware, where he gave his first speech as president-elect.
Photo: AP
He entered the stage at the rhythm of a trot and immediately launched a strong call to close the unprecedented rift that has deepened in the United States in the last four years.
"We must end this sinister age of demonization," he roared.
“The soul and the pillars of this country must be rebuilt.
And it doesn't go through Democrats or Republicans.
We cannot think of ourselves as enemies.
The United States is a single country ”, he remarked.
He also spoke to Trump supporters.
“I understand that you are sad, I have also lost elections.
But it is time to all be together, it is time to unite to heal the country, "he asked.
Biden arrived at the scene surrounded by increased security measures in recent hours for his new rank of president-elect.
All those who occupied the stage did so with a chinstrap.
They greeted the people who were in the parking lot in their cars, with masks and social distance.
Biden also referred to the coronavirus crisis, saying his job began with "keeping the disease under control
.
"
And that on Monday a team of experts will announce that will take care of the issue.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris at the rally in Delaware on Saturday night.
Photo: AP
Kamala Harris had spoken shortly before, who will make history for several reasons: she will be the first female vice president, the first black and of Asian origin
in that position.
“They chose hope, unity, science, decency and, yes, the truth,” she said dressed in white, the color suffragettes wore when fighting for the female vote.
"Joe is a healer, a unifier," he said, adding that they will seek "to heal the soul of the nation.
The road is not easy, but the United States is ready and so are Joe and I ”.
It was the end of a day that had started with news at 11:30 a.m., Washington time, when the television networks finally announced what the world had been waiting for since Tuesday, Election Day, in a dramatic finale that left the Americans awake and glued to the screens for several days.
There was already a winner: Biden.
After a count that was unusually extended by a barrage of more than 100 million mail-in votes, it
was announced that the disputed state of Pennsylvania had finally turned in favor of Biden
, when it was initially in favor of Trump.
Thus, the former senator and vice president of Barack Obama managed to reach the 270 minimum electoral votes necessary to reach the presidency and erase the aspirations of the Republican, who was seeking a second term.
Then Biden added Nevada.
Supporters of Joe Biden rallied to hear his first speech as president-elect.
Photo Reuters.
The final turn towards the Democrat in those states was thanks to the vote by mail - coming from very urban districts and with people very fearful of the coronavirus - that was registered after the face-to-face vote and that was massively in favor of Biden.
Trump thus became one of the few presidents of the United States who did not achieve reelection
.
The most recent were Jimmy Carter and George Bush Sr.
The president has been denounced fraud - without mentioning specific facts - and said that "if they count the legal votes, I win easily, and if they count the illegal votes, they will try to steal the election" and promised "a lot of litigation" in Justice.
When it was anticipated that Biden would win, Trump left the White House and went to play a nearby golf course in Virginia.
He then insisted on a tweet written in capital letters that he "had won the election."
The Republican campaign launched a legal offensive in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia to recount votes and stop the count because it alleged "irregularities" and that its delegates were not allowed to come near to supervise the count.
Some demands were rejected by the courts.
It is not clear for now what he will do with the rest of those resources since until the last moment he had asked that they stop the count and that he would even go to the Supreme Court
because his leadership in some states "had miraculously disappeared."
Due to his temperament, it
is unlikely that he will concede victory to his rival.
It remains to be seen how long the judicial fight extends because it is unsuccessful: no matter how much they agree with him in some state, Biden had several options to win because he prevailed in several.
Biden arrives anointed by a record number of more than 74 million votes and will enter the White House on January 20 with the urgent mission of closing the rift
in a country more divided than ever and facing the drama of the coronavirus, which is reappearing in these weeks in the United States and that already has 233,000 dead even before winter.
These elections had been raised almost like a referendum on the president, a New York real estate magnate who surprised with his triumph in 2016, when he won by a handful of votes in states of the “rust belt”, the country's rusted and deindustrialized belt, about Hillary Clinton.
Trump imposed an unprecedented style of management
, with insults to his adversaries, fights with the press, allegations of corruption, a chaotic White House - as described by several of his former officials - and a leadership focused on the slogan of "America first" (United United First), with policies that broke the Republican Party tradition on trade, multilateralism, immigration and the environment.
With that baggage on top, plus a controversial management of the pandemic, Trump has also garnered more than 70 million votes - four million more than in 2016 - and had clear victories in key districts such as Florida and Ohio.
This shows that "Trumpism" is a movement that still has strong roots in the country.
Biden, who was a senator, vice president and politician for more than 47 years, sought to establish himself as the opposite face of the voluptuous Trump.
He presented himself as a calm and moderate man, with middle-class roots from a small Pennsylvania city, who would face a model of a predictable country, inserted in the world and without the surprises that reigned in these last four years.
While Trump won many votes by calling Biden a "radical socialist" and linking him to models such as the Castro in Cuba and Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, the Democrat is far from extreme and authoritarian positions and is a Wall favorite. Street.
Biden comes to the presidency thanks to a historic turnout of 66%, which even surpassed that of 2008 when Obama won.
There were 100 million votes of citizens who voted early, the vast majority by mail, for fear of catching the coronavirus or possible disturbances in the voting centers.
The Democrats managed to overcome the votes of 2016 and thus managed to incorporate many people who had stayed at home
in that election that they ended up losing.
Youth and African-Americans were key in this year's high turnout, although the latter group was not monolithically aligned with Biden.
Trump is a man who does not like to lose anything and does not seem willing to leave the White House
.
He will likely fight until he can exhaust judicial remedies or his legal advisers convince him that he already has to throw in the towel.
The transition, when it finally begins, threatens to be a battlefield.
Biden said last night that it was time to restore democracy.
And that the whole world was watching.
"We will lead not only by the example of our power, but by the power of our example," he roared.