LANSING (US) – Hours after winning the Electoral College vote, President-elect Joe Biden gave a forceful rebuke on Monday to President Donald Trump’s attacks on the legitimacy of his victory.
“In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed,” he said in a prime-time speech from Wilmington, his hometown. “Now, it’s time to turn the page, as we’ve done throughout our history – to unite, to heal.”
Although the vote, which took place on Monday, is just a formality, it assumed global significance in the wake of Trump’s effort to scuttle the process by claiming widespread voter fraud in the Nov. 3 election.
In his 13-minute speech, Biden urged unity and voiced confidence that the democratic institutions had held in the face of Trump’s attempts to alter the outcome of the vote.
“The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago,” Biden said. “We now know that not even a pandemic or an abuse of power can extinguish that flame.”
He stressed that Trump and his allies had filed “dozens and dozens” of lawsuits challenging the vote outcome without sources and they include a lawsuit in Texas asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the results of four states. But it was quashed by the court last week.
Biden also said his 306-232 margin in the Electoral College was the same as Trump’s 2016 victory, which has hailed by his Republicans as a “landslide” win.
There were threats of violence from some Trump supporters on social media and election officials were concerned. But Monday’s vote went on smoothly without any major obstacles.
In Arizona, Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, said Trump’s claims of fraud had “led to threats of violence against me, my office and those in this room today”.
“While there will be those who are upset their candidate didn’t win, it is patently un-American and unacceptable that today’s event should be anything less than an honoUred tradition held with pride and in celebration,” Hobbs said.
In Lansing, Michigan, where the president’s loyalists urged protesters to gather outside the state Capitol, only a handful turned up.