Joe Biden promises 'peaceful transition of power' to Trump, tries to lift spirits of Democrats
Biden succeeded Trump as president, and will now precede him, after bowing out of race in July
U.S. President Joe Biden addressed the nation for the first time since Tuesday's election sent Donald Trump back to the White House, with the incumbent promising the kind of transition he was denied when the roles were reversed four years ago.
Biden, 81, ended his re-election campaign in July, weeks after an abysmal performance in an atypically early presidential debate. He was the first incumbent since Lyndon Johnson in 1968 to bow out ahead of a potential second term.
Biden endorsed Harris and handed over his campaign operation to her, allowing access to a considerable war chest. While it wasn't enough to prevail over Trump, he praised her "true character."
"She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran," he said.
As to the election result, in which Trump will capture between 295 and 314 electoral college votes, Biden said, "the will of the people always prevails."
"The struggle for the soul of America since our very founding has always been an ongoing debate that's still vital today," he said.
Orderly transition will take place, Biden says
Biden took office during the height of the pandemic in January 2021, a month in which an estimated 77,400 people in the U.S. died of COVID-19, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, as vaccines were not universally available.
Despite the perilous times, the incoming Biden administration did not receive the traditional full transition from the outgoing Trump administration, according to several reports.
Trump fumed about his election loss, and riled up supporters with false accusations of widespread voting fraud. Two weeks after a mob descended on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump departed from modern tradition by not attending Biden's inauguration.
Biden, who arrived in the Rose Garden on Thursday morning to applause from White House staffers, said things would be different this time.
"I'll fulfil my oath, and I will honour the constitution. On January 20th, we'll have a peaceful transfer of power here in America," he said.
Biden on Wednesday invited Trump to the White House for an upcoming meeting, which the president-elect accepted.
Defends record, acknowledges suffering
In a brief address, Biden took time to emphasize there were lasting achievements from his administration. But it will take years for historians to assess, and for the electorate to see the results of, legislative accomplishments such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act.
"Much of the work we've done is already being felt by the American people, but the vast majority of it will be felt over the next 10 years … it's only now just kicking in," said Biden.
But voters in exit polls run by multiple news agencies expressed broad dissatisfaction among the electorate about rising costs in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns about the U.S. immigration system. Biden's administration and the Harris campaign struggled to assuage the concerns of enough Americans.
"We're leaving behind the strongest economy in the world. I know people are still hurting, but things are changing rapidly," said Biden.
Biden ran four years ago against Trump to "restore the soul of the country" — he cited Trump's equivocating after the Charlottesville riots that erupted after a protest organized by white nationalists — but he will now make way after just one term for his immediate predecessor.
"Maybe in 20 or 30 years, history will remember Biden for some of these achievements," Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University, told the Associated Press on Wednesday. "But in the shorter term, I don't know he escapes the legacy of being the president who beat Donald Trump only to usher in another Donald Trump administration four years later."
Rare incumbent decision
Biden's summer debate performance sent his party into a spiral and raised questions about whether he still had the mental acuity and stamina to serve as a credible nominee and serve until 86, his age at the end of the next presidential term. Not-so-subtle nudges from Democratic Party power brokers, including former president Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, paved the way for his depature.
Harris managed to spur far greater enthusiasm than Biden was generating from the party's base. But she struggled to distinguish how her administration would be any different in a campaign about one-quarter of the length of the typical modern presidential nominee.
Harris senior adviser David Plouffe in a posting on X said the campaign "dug out of a deep hole but not enough."
Trump has vowed to radically reshape the federal government and roll back many of Biden's priorities, including on climate change. A Republican-controlled Senate will help in that regard, and the House of Representatives could remain under the party's control as well, with over 30 races still yet to be called.
Government agencies in Biden's term sometimes found themselves restricted in action by rulings from the Supreme Court. The court has a 6-3 conservative lean, with three of the justices nominated and approved during Trump's first term in office.
Biden had failed presidential bids in 1988 and 2008. And his decades-long career in Washington, D.C., almost ended before it began, when his wife and baby daughter were killed in a car accident that seriously injured his two sons, just weeks after he won his first Senate election.
He told the members of his administration on Thursday, "Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable."
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With files from the Associated Press