President Biden addressed the nation from the Rose Garden on Thursday after his vice president, Kamala Harris, conceded the 2024 presidential election to President-elect Trump.
In brief remarks, Biden announced he spoke with Trump on Wednesday to congratulate him on his victory and assure him that the entire Biden administration will work with his team ‘to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition.’
‘That’s what the American people deserve,’ Biden said.
He also praised Harris for running ‘an inspiring campaign,’ and said she has ‘great character’ and ‘backbone like a ramrod.’
Trump will make a triumphant return to the White House in January after more than 72 million Americans voted for him, securing at least 295 Electoral College votes and a majority of the national popular vote. Harris claimed 226 Electoral College votes and won at least 68 million votes. Ballots are still being counted in several states.
The results were the culmination of a tumultuous campaign, which saw the incumbent Biden win the Democratic primary only for him to withdraw from the race, at the urging of his party, after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June. Harris was then nominated by Democrats to bear their standard without contest and without earning a single primary vote.
During the campaign, both Harris and Biden called Trump a ‘fascist’ and argued that his re-election to the presidency would threaten democracy and prove dangerous to the American people.
But after Trump’s decisive win, Biden changed his tune to emphasize unity. On Thursday, the president spoke about political campaigns as a ‘contest of competing visions.’
‘A 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 I hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, you see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans.’
He also said he hopes the 2024 election will ‘lay to rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system.’
‘It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent, and it can be trusted. Win or lose.’
The televised address comes after Harris conceded to Trump on Wednesday. The vice president made her first public comments about the race at Howard University, her lama mater, where she said that ‘while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.’
In a staff memo earlier, her campaign manager and Biden ally Jen O’Malley Dillon called the defeat ‘unfathomably painful.’
‘This will take a long time to process. But the work of protecting America from the impacts of a Trump Presidency starts now,’ she vowed.
Biden, in his speech, said ‘setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable.’
‘We all get knocked down. But the measure of our character, as my dad would say, is how quickly we get back up. Remember, a defeat does not mean we are defeated. We lost this battle. The America of your dreams is calling for you to get back up.’