Democrat Joe Biden captured the US presidency on Saturday,
several major television networks said, as voters narrowly rebuffed
Republican incumbent Donald Trump`s tumultuous leadership and
embraced Biden’s promise to fight the coronavirus pandemic and fix
the economy in a divided nation.
![image](/2020/10/lawreport.jpg")
When the former vice president enters the White House on Jan.
20, the oldest person to assume the office at age 78, he likely
will face a difficult task governing in a deeply polarized
Washington, underscored by a record nationwide voter turnout in a
fight to the finish.
![image](/2020/10/NWLRland.jpg")
His projected victory came after four days of nail-biting
suspense over the outcome of Tuesday’s election, with the counting
of votes in a handful of battleground states ongoing thanks to a
flood of mail-in ballots.
Biden said on Friday he expected to win the race but stopped
short of giving a victory speech. A Trump adviser acknowledged on
Friday that the race had tilted against Trump, but said the
president was not ready to admit defeat.
Biden had a 273 to 214 lead in the state-by-state Electoral
College vote that determines the winner, having won Pennsylvania`s
20 electoral votes to put him over the 270 he needed to secure the
presidency, according to Edison Research.
To secure the win, Biden faced unprecedented challenges. These
included Republican-led efforts to limit mail-in voting at a time
when a record number of people were due to vote by mail because of
the pandemic, which has killed more than 235,000 people in the
United States.
Both sides characterized the 2020 election as one of the most
crucial in U.S. history, as important as votes during the 1860s
Civil War and the 1930s Great Depression.
For months, officials on both sides raised the spectre of the
United States not being able to pull off a fair vote. In the end,
however, voting at the polls proceeded with limited disruption as
millions lined up patiently to vote. Thousands of election monitors
from both parties worked for four days to ensure the votes were
being counted.
The election drama is likely to play out for weeks, if not
months. Trump, 74, is contesting the vote in the courts, but legal
experts said his challenges had little chance of affecting the
outcome.
Biden’s victory was driven by strong support from groups
including women, African Americans, white voters with college
degrees and city-dwellers. He was more than four million votes
ahead of Trump in the nationwide popular vote count.
Biden, who has spent half a century in public life as a US
senator and then vice president under Trump’s predecessor Barack
Obama, will inherit a nation in turmoil over the coronavirus
pandemic and the related economic slowdown as well as disruptive
protests against racism and police brutality.
Biden has said his first priority will be developing a plan to
contain and recover from the pandemic, promising to improve access
to testing and, unlike Trump, to heed the advice of leading public
health officials and scientists.
Biden also has pledged to restore a sense of normalcy to the
White House after a presidency in which Trump praised authoritarian
foreign leaders, disdained longstanding global alliances, refused
to disavow white supremacists and cast doubt on the legitimacy of
the U.S. election system.
Despite his victory, Biden will have failed to deliver the
sweeping repudiation to Trump that Democrats had hoped for,
reflecting the deep support the president enjoys despite his
tumultuous four years in office.
This could complicate Biden`s campaign promises to reverse key
parts of Trump`s legacy. These include deep Trump tax cuts that
especially benefited corporations and the wealthy, hardline
immigration policies, efforts to dismantle the 2010 Obamacare
healthcare law and Trump`s abandonment of such international
agreements as the Paris climate accord and Iran nuclear deal.
Should Republicans keep control of the U.S. Senate, they would
likely block large parts of his legislative agenda, including
expanding healthcare and fighting climate change. That prospect
could depend on the outcome of four undecided Senate races,
including two in Georgia.
Biden, set to become the 46th U.S. president, mounted
unsuccessful bids for the presidency in 1988 and 2008. His running
mate, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, will become the first woman, the
first Black American and the first American of Asian descent to
serve as vice president, the country`s No. 2 office.
`TRYING TO STEAL AN ELECTION`
For Trump, it was an unsettling end after an astonishing political
rise. The real estate developer who established a nationwide brand
as a reality TV personality upset Democrat Hillary Clinton to win
the presidency in 2016 in his first run for elected office. Four
years later, he becomes the first U.S. president to lose a
re-election bid since Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Despite his draconian immigration curbs, Trump made surprising
inroads with Latino voters. He also won battleground states such as
Florida, where his pledge to prioritize the economy even if it
increased the threat of the coronavirus appeared to have
resonated.
In the end, though, Trump failed to significantly widen his
appeal beyond a committed core of rural and working-class white
voters who embraced his right-wing populism and “America First”
nationalism.
Prior to the election, Trump had refused to commit to a peaceful
transfer of power if he lost to Biden – and he stuck to that
approach. He falsely declared victory long before counting was
complete.
Before Biden`s victory projection and with Trump`s re-election
chances fading as more votes were counted, the president launched
an extraordinary assault on the country`s democratic process from
the White House on Thursday, falsely claiming the election was
being stolen from him.
Offering no evidence, Trump assailed election workers and
alleged fraud in the states where results from a dwindling set of
uncounted votes pushed Biden nearer to victory.
“This is a case where they`re trying to steal an election,”
Trump said on Thursday.
Urging patience as votes were counted, Biden responded on
Twitter: “No one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not
now, not ever.”
Democrat Joe Biden captured the US presidency on Saturday,
several major television networks said, as voters narrowly rebuffed
Republican incumbent Donald Trump`s tumultuous leadership and
embraced Biden’s promise to fight the coronavirus pandemic and fix
the economy in a divided nation.
When the former vice president enters the White House on Jan.
20, the oldest person to assume the office at age 78, he likely
will face a difficult task governing in a deeply polarized
Washington, underscored by a record nationwide voter turnout in a
fight to the finish.
His projected victory came after four days of nail-biting
suspense over the outcome of Tuesday’s election, with the counting
of votes in a handful of battleground states ongoing thanks to a
flood of mail-in ballots.
Biden said on Friday he expected to win the race but stopped
short of giving a victory speech. A Trump adviser acknowledged on
Friday that the race had tilted against Trump, but said the
president was not ready to admit defeat.
Biden had a 273 to 214 lead in the state-by-state Electoral
College vote that determines the winner, having won Pennsylvania`s
20 electoral votes to put him over the 270 he needed to secure the
presidency, according to Edison Research.
To secure the win, Biden faced unprecedented challenges. These
included Republican-led efforts to limit mail-in voting at a time
when a record number of people were due to vote by mail because of
the pandemic, which has killed more than 235,000 people in the
United States.
Both sides characterized the 2020 election as one of the most
crucial in U.S. history, as important as votes during the 1860s
Civil War and the 1930s Great Depression.
For months, officials on both sides raised the spectre of the
United States not being able to pull off a fair vote. In the end,
however, voting at the polls proceeded with limited disruption as
millions lined up patiently to vote. Thousands of election monitors
from both parties worked for four days to ensure the votes were
being counted.
The election drama is likely to play out for weeks, if not
months. Trump, 74, is contesting the vote in the courts, but legal
experts said his challenges had little chance of affecting the
outcome.
Biden’s victory was driven by strong support from groups
including women, African Americans, white voters with college
degrees and city-dwellers. He was more than four million votes
ahead of Trump in the nationwide popular vote count.
Biden, who has spent half a century in public life as a US
senator and then vice president under Trump’s predecessor Barack
Obama, will inherit a nation in turmoil over the coronavirus
pandemic and the related economic slowdown as well as disruptive
protests against racism and police brutality.
Biden has said his first priority will be developing a plan to
contain and recover from the pandemic, promising to improve access
to testing and, unlike Trump, to heed the advice of leading public
health officials and scientists.
Biden also has pledged to restore a sense of normalcy to the
White House after a presidency in which Trump praised authoritarian
foreign leaders, disdained longstanding global alliances, refused
to disavow white supremacists and cast doubt on the legitimacy of
the U.S. election system.
Despite his victory, Biden will have failed to deliver the
sweeping repudiation to Trump that Democrats had hoped for,
reflecting the deep support the president enjoys despite his
tumultuous four years in office.
This could complicate Biden`s campaign promises to reverse key
parts of Trump`s legacy. These include deep Trump tax cuts that
especially benefited corporations and the wealthy, hardline
immigration policies, efforts to dismantle the 2010 Obamacare
healthcare law and Trump`s abandonment of such international
agreements as the Paris climate accord and Iran nuclear deal.
Should Republicans keep control of the U.S. Senate, they would
likely block large parts of his legislative agenda, including
expanding healthcare and fighting climate change. That prospect
could depend on the outcome of four undecided Senate races,
including two in Georgia.
Biden, set to become the 46th U.S. president, mounted
unsuccessful bids for the presidency in 1988 and 2008. His running
mate, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, will become the first woman, the
first Black American and the first American of Asian descent to
serve as vice president, the country`s No. 2 office.
`TRYING TO STEAL AN ELECTION`
For Trump, it was an unsettling end after an astonishing political
rise. The real estate developer who established a nationwide brand
as a reality TV personality upset Democrat Hillary Clinton to win
the presidency in 2016 in his first run for elected office. Four
years later, he becomes the first U.S. president to lose a
re-election bid since Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Despite his draconian immigration curbs, Trump made surprising
inroads with Latino voters. He also won battleground states such as
Florida, where his pledge to prioritize the economy even if it
increased the threat of the coronavirus appeared to have
resonated.
In the end, though, Trump failed to significantly widen his
appeal beyond a committed core of rural and working-class white
voters who embraced his right-wing populism and “America First”
nationalism.
Prior to the election, Trump had refused to commit to a peaceful
transfer of power if he lost to Biden – and he stuck to that
approach. He falsely declared victory long before counting was
complete.
Before Biden`s victory projection and with Trump`s re-election
chances fading as more votes were counted, the president launched
an extraordinary assault on the country`s democratic process from
the White House on Thursday, falsely claiming the election was
being stolen from him.
Offering no evidence, Trump assailed election workers and
alleged fraud in the states where results from a dwindling set of
uncounted votes pushed Biden nearer to victory.
“This is a case where they`re trying to steal an election,”
Trump said on Thursday.
Urging patience as votes were counted, Biden responded on
Twitter: “No one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not
now, not ever.”