US President Joe Biden called President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to congratulate him on his election victory and vowed to work toward a “smooth transition” ahead of January’s inauguration.
During a telephone call, Biden invited Trump to meet with him at the White House and said staff would work to coordinate “a specific date in the near future” for the sit-down to take place, according to the White House.
“President Biden expressed his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition and emphasized the importance of working to bring the country together,” it said.
In his first public address post announcement of United States’ election result, President Biden announced he would ensure a ‘peaceful’ transition of power to Donald Trump on January 20.
“As my duty as President, on Jan 20, we will have peaceful transfer of power,” announced President Biden in his first address to the nation post US election results. I assured President-elect Donald Trump of a peaceful transition of power, added US President Joe Biden.
“You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree. Something to hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, is see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans. Bring down the temperature,” he said in a Rose Garden address. “I also hope we can lay to rest a question about the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, it is fair and it is transparent. It can be trusted, win or lose.”
Biden’s remarks are seen as an attempt to heal a country that appeared divided into two groups after the results were out for the bitterly contested presidential election. “Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable,” he said.
Trump is the first former president in more than 120 years to win a second term after a reelection defeat. His big gains across the country helped deliver Senate control to his party. Control of the House has not yet been declared, but Republicans may well hold on to their slender majority.
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, could also be in line for a job after enthusiastically backing Trump. The incoming president has said he will ask the SpaceX, Tesla and X boss to audit the US government to cut waste.
US voters backed Trump’s hard-line right-wing policies and rejected Biden and Harris’s record, especially on the economy and inflation, exit polls showed.
Trump’s victory makes him the first convicted felon and oldest man to be elected US president, and came after a turbulent campaign in which he escaped two assassination attempts and rode out the transfer from Biden to Harris.
Armed with a sweeping mandate, Trump 2.0 is set to dismantle huge chunks of Biden’s legacy.
Trump could start by halting the incumbent’s billions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s 2022 invasion, having previously suggested he would pressure Kyiv to make a peace deal.
Trump will also return to the White House as a climate change denier, poised to take apart Biden’s green policies with his pledge to “drill, baby, drill” for oil.
Ultimately Biden’s legacy was supposed to be a Harris victory that would keep Trump out of power — but many Democrats feel he waited too long to step aside for his vice president.