President-elect Joe Biden vowed to be a president for "all Americans," as he delivered a prime-time address to the nation last night following his victory in the US presidential election.
Outgoing president Donald Trump showed no sign of concession on Sunday as he posted remarks on Twitter from commentators casting doubt on the election's integrity.
However, former Republican US president George Bush struck a more concilliatory tone as he congratulated Joe Biden and described him as a “good man” on Sunday.
In a statement, the former American leader said he also congratulated Kamala Harris on her historic election to the vice-presidency.
He said: “Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country.
“The President-elect reiterated that while he ran as a Democrat, he will govern for all Americans.
“I offered him the same thing I offered Presidents Trump and Obama: my prayers for his success, and my pledge to help in any way I can.”
Republican Senator Mitt Romney said he understood why Trump wants to continue fighting. “I do believe, however, that it’s destructive to the cause of democracy to suggest widespread fraud or corruption. There’s just no evidence of that at this stage,” Romney said.
Symone Sanders, a senior Biden adviser, told CNN's "State of the Union" programme on Sunday that "a number of Republicans" have reached out to the president-elect but "I don't believe anyone from the White House has."
In an electrifying victory speech on Saturday night, following a day of celebrations in many cities across the United States, Mr Biden pledged to unite the country and “to make America respected around the world again.”
“The people of this nation have spoken. They’ve delivered us a clear victory, a convincing victory, a victory for ‘we the people’,” he said to cheers and a cacophony of car horns at a drive-in victory event in Wilmington, Delaware.
Without mentioning president Donald Trump by name, he said: “I’ve lost a couple of elections myself. But now, let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric — to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to each other again. To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy.”
“This is the time to heal in America,” he said.
The former vice president, who will become the 46th president of the United States after he won the presidential election earlier on Saturday, struck a note of unity throughout.
“Folks, I’m a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president. I will work as hard for those who didn’t vote for me as those who did,” highlighting his track-record as a politician with a reputation for bipartisanship. “Let this grim era of demonisation in America begin to end — here and now. “
“Tonight, the whole world is watching America,” he said. “I believe at our best America is a beacon for the globe, and we lead not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.”
First woman
Vice-president elect Kamala Harris spoke before the president-elect, delivering a speech imbued with the history of the moment as she became the first ever woman and person of colour to win a vice-presidential contest.
Quoting the late civil rights icon and congressman John Lewis, who said that "democracy is not a state; it is an act," she thanked voters for "turning out in record numbers to make your voices hear."
“You chose hope, unity, decency, science, and – yes — truth. You chose Joe Biden as the next President of the United States of America. Joe is a healer, a uniter, a tested and steady hand. A person whose own experience of loss gives him a sense of purpose that will help us, as a nation, reclaim our own sense of purpose.”
Paying tribute to the women, and women of colour, who have come before her, she said: “I stand on their shoulders.”
“While I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,” she declared.
“What a testament it is to Joe’s character that he had the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country and select a woman as his Vice President,” describing black women as “so often...the backbone of our democracy.”
She said she hoped to be the same kind of vice-president that Mr Biden was to former president Barack Obama – "loyal, honest and prepared, waking up every day thinking of you and your families."
Mr Biden was joined on stage as he concluded his speech by his wife Jill and extended family, and Ms Harris and her husband and family members.
Spontaneous celebrations
Mr Biden was declared the winner of the election by news networks earlier in the day, after he won the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, delivering him the required number of electoral college votes needed to win the contest.
Mr Trump was at his golf course in Virginia when news of Mr Biden’s victory broke, and arrived back to the White House as demonstrations intensified in central Washington.
He tweeted several times throughout the afternoon, claiming that he had “won the election – got 71,000,000 legal votes,” a tweet that prompted a warning from twitter.
He returned to the golf course in Sterling, Virginia, on Sunday, his motorcade met by a smattering of pedestrians holding Biden-Harris and Trump 2020 signs.
Mr Trump’s allies made it clear the president does not plan to concede anytime soon. One Trump loyalist said the president was not ready to admit defeat even though there would not be enough ballots thrown out in a recount to change the outcome. “There’s a mathematical certainty that he’s going to lose,” the loyalist said.
Mr Trump has filed a raft of lawsuits to challenge the results, but elections officials in states across the country have said there has been no evidence of significant fraud, and legal experts say Mr Trump’s efforts are unlikely to succeed.
Reverse Trump policies
Ms Sanders sidestepped a question on whether Biden planned to sign a series of executive orders shortly after taking office on January 20th that would reverse several contentious Trump policies. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Biden plans to sign orders repealing a ban on travellers from several Muslim-majority nations, rejoining an international climate accord, reversing Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organisation and buttressing a programme protecting from deportation “Dreamers” immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.
Even with the national outcome determined, vote-counting continued in some states. Biden’s lead in Georgia widened to about 10,200 votes on Sunday morning, according to Edison Research. Georgia had not backed a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992.
As the news of Biden’s win broke, cheers and applause were heard in big cities including Washington, where people emerged onto balconies, honked car horns and banged pots. Throngs of people streamed to the White House to rejoice outside a security fence as the sound of fireworks boomed overhead. Trump supporters reacted with a mix of disappointment, suspicion and resignation, highlighting the difficult task that Mr Biden faces winning over many Americans, especially in more rural areas, who believe Trump was the first president to govern with their interests at heart. –Additional reporting Reuters
