Finally, Joe Biden is accepted as the winner of the U.S. presidential election after winning the Electoral College vote.
On Monday, he said in a speech that he felt the US democracy had been “pushed, tested and threatened” and “proved to be resilient, true and strong”.
He rescinded President Trump’s efforts to retract the voting results and said that the will of the people carried all before one.
The Republicans had to take a strict decision: to accept Biden the president-elect or keep standing silently by as Trump wages a potentially damaging campaign to overturn the election.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., remained quiet about the whole matter. But other members believe that the time has come to accept the prevailing change.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking GOP leader said, “At some point, you have to face the music. Once the Electoral College settles the issue today, it’s time for everybody to move on.”
Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the chairman of the inaugural committee, declared that the panel would “deal with Vice-President Biden as the president-elect” after the win of the U.S Electoral College certified the vote.
Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn said, “That’s sort of the nature of these elections. You got to have a winner. You got to have a loser,” while adding that Trump’s legal arguments are baseless, so “Joe Biden’s on a path to be president of the United States.”
The confirmation was one big step that Mr. Biden had to achieve in order to use the presidential office.
Under the US system, voters are allowed to drop their ballots for “electors” and they will formally vote for the political candidates, weeks after the election. Democrat Joe Biden won November’s contest with 306 Electoral College votes to Republican Donald Trump’s 232.
Though the former president Donald Trump hasn’t accepted the result quite clearly, he refused to make any comments.
Publicly speaking in Delaware, Mr. Biden showered his gratefulness towards “ordinary men and women” who stood against bullies and protesting against Trump’s influence of overturning the voting results.
“The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago,” he said. “And we know that nothing, not even a pandemic or an abuse of power can extinguish that flame.”
Biden also added in his speech and said, “Turn the page, as we’ve done throughout our history, to unite, to heal”.
Some GOP lawmakers seem determined to carry the fight to Jan. 6. Congress will decide to vote against or for the Electoral College results.
“It’s a very, very narrow path for the president,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a top Trump ally. “But having said that, I think we’ll let those legal challenges play out.”
On Monday, Biden said: “It’s my sincere hope we never again see anyone subjected to the kind of threats and abuse we saw in this election.”
