Joe Biden in his first speech as president-elect at Delawaret said it is “Time to heal”, vowing “not to divide but to unify” the country.
“Let’s give each other a chance” he said addressing those who did not vote for him.
Although Mr Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump who has yet to concede and has not spoken publicly.
The result makes Mr.Trump the first one=term president since the 1990s, whose campaign has filed several lawsuits in various states but election officials say there is no evidence that the vote was rigged against him.
Addressing cheering supporters in a car park in his hometown of Wilmington, Mr. Biden who has won 74 million votes said, “ I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify who doesn’t see red states and blue states, only sees the United States.”
Mr Biden was introduced by his running mate, Kamala Harris, who is about to become the first female vice-president in the country’s history, who is also the first black and first Asian-American vice-president when she takes office, following a year that has seen nationwide protests on the issue of racial injustice. She paid tribute to her late mother, an Indian scientist immigrant to the US, and the other generations of black, Asian, white, Latina and native women who have “paved the way for this moment tonight”.
“While I may the first woman in this office, I’ll not be the last. When our very democracy was on the ballot in this election, the very soul of America at stake and with the whole world watching you ushered in a new day for America. You chose hope and unity, decency, science and yes, truth. You chose Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. And the road ahead will not be easy but America is ready and so are Joe and I”.
Although spontaneous celebrations erupted in major cities after several media outlets announced Mr. Biden’s victory on Saturday while disappointed Trump supporters demonstrated in some cities.
Mr. Trump has vowed to contest the election results on seveal fronts. A recount in Georgia where the margins are tight, and Trump wants in Wisconsin also and has vowed to take legal action to the Supreme Court, alleging feaud without evidence.
If the election result is challenged it would need legal teams to challenge this in the state courts which would then need to uphole the challenge and order a recount, and Supreme Court justices could
then be asked to overturn a ruling.
Trump campaign filed a lawsuit over ballots cast on election day in Arizona that it claims were incorrectly rejected.
The new president is officially sworn into office on 20 January at the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC, when the new president makes their way to the White House to begin their four-year term in office, after a transition period to give them time to appoint cabinet ministers and make plans.
Mr. Biden, the six-term senator from Delaware was first elected in 1972, who will be 78 when he takes office, making him the oldest first-term president in American history, ran for the White House twice before, in 1988 he withdrew from the race after he admitted to plagiarising a speech by the then leader o the British Labour Party Neil Kinnock. In 2008, he tried again to get the Democratic nomination before dropping out and joining Barack Obama’s ticket.
His eight years as vice-president allowed him to lay claim toMr Obama’s legacy, including passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Biden’s life has been marked bu personal tragedies, including in1972 he lost his first wife, Neila and baby daughter , Naomi, in a car accident. He famously took the oath of office for his first Senate term from the hospital room of his toddler sons Beau and Hunter, who both survived the accident. In 2015, Beau died of brain cancer at the age of 46, and Joe Biden said this played a role in his decision not to run for president in 2016.