President Biden Details Call With Donald Trump After Election Win, Promises Peaceful Transfer of Power
In a speech from the White House on Thursday, President Joe Biden said that he has spoken with President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on his election win and to ensure that a peaceful transfer of power will occur when he takes office on Jan. 20.
“I assured him that I would direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That’s what the American people deserve,” Biden said.
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On Tuesday, Trump handily won the presidency after Wisconsin’s electoral votes went to him, pushing him over the 270 electoral vote threshold. Biden said he has invited President-elect Trump to a meeting at the White House ahead of Trump’s move back into his former residence during his first term as president from 2017-2021.
For years, Biden and Trump have been bitter rivals as the heads of the nation’s two major parties, with Trump frequently lobbing insults at the president over his age and cognitive abilities and Biden saying that Trump is a threat to America’s democracy and that only he can stop him. Trump has never accepted that he lost to BIden in the 2020 election and has since fanned the flames of conspiracy of large-scale voter fraud in that race.
On Thursday, Biden said in his speech that he also spoke with Harris after her defeat, which he called a “setback.”
“Yesterday, I also spoke with Vice President Harris,” he said. “She’s been a partner and a public servant. She ran an inspiring campaign, and everyone got to see something that I learned early on to respect so much. Her character—she has a backbone like a ramrod. She has great character, true character. She gave her whole heart effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran.”
In a concession speech made on Wednesday from her alma mater, Howard University, Harris said that while she concedes the race, “I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.”
From the White House on Thursday, Biden also offered wisdom and comfort to those upset with the election results and reassurance that democracy can remain intact under a Trump presidency. Biden dropped out of the race in July over concerns about his age and left Harris with three months to build and execute a winning campaign. During both Biden and Harris’ White House runs in this election cycle they said that Trump represents a genuine threat to democracy.
“The struggle for the soul of America since our very founding has always been an ongoing debate and still vital today,” Biden said on Thursday. “I know for some people, it’s a time for victory to state the obvious. For others, it’s a time of loss. Campaigns are contests of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made. I’ve said many times, ‘You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor, only when you agree.’ Something that I hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, is see each other, not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans.”
Biden also discussed the final weeks of his presidency while touting the recovering economy and, in vague terms, the work that his administration accomplished over the past four years.
“The road ahead is clear, assuming we sustain it. There’s so much we can get done, and we’ll get done, based on the way the legislation was passed. And it’s truly historic,” Biden told the nation. “You know, we’re leaving behind the strongest economy in the world. I know people are still hurting, but things are changing rapidly. Together, we’ve changed America for the better. Now we have 74 days to finish the term, our term — let’s make every day count. That’s the responsibility we have to the American people.”
For those heartbroken over Harris’ loss and the Democrats no longer controlling the Senate and possibly the House of Representatives beginning next year, Biden offered a platitude that he said he heard from a generation before his own.
“Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable,” the president said. “We all get knocked down, but the measure of our character, as my dad would say, is how quickly we get back up.”
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