Editorial: By ousting Donald Trump, Biden will give America a second chance
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris wave to the crowd after Biden delivers his victory speech in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
It's all over but the incumbent's increasingly hysterical shouting, his false claims of invented conspiracies and some desperate court challenges and recounts: Having been projected victor in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin, and holding on to leads in Georgia and Nevada, Joe Biden will get over the 270 electoral vote threshold and become the 46th president of the United States of America.
We wish great luck to this good man as he seeks to heal a country rubbed raw by four years of Donald Trump's mendacity, nastiness, corruption and relentless attacks on core American institutions and values.
Biden, who won over a majority of American voters to rack up more votes than any candidate in U.S. history, will take the oath amid a deadly pandemic and a perilous economic recovery, and will likely face a Republican-majority Senate hunkered down to thwart every attempt to achieve bipartisan progress.
From left, Douglas Emhoff, Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, President-elect Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden celebrate with supporters after declaring victory in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
He is well-suited to the challenge. The Washington veteran who pledged to represent Democrats, Republicans and independents in equal measure, who Sen. Mitch McConnell once called "a real friend" and "trusted partner," can show that where Trump gleefully divided state against state, immigrant against citizen, city against rural area against suburb, Black against white, people against government, he will chart a new course.
Trump wasn't swept aside in anything close to the hoped-for landslide. Biden knows that and must reach out with magnanimity to people Hillary Clinton wrongly painted with a broad brush as "deplorables." He must also work with his own restive left flank within the Democratic Party.
Among the first tasks: a coordinated federal plan to control coronavirus, now spreading out of control across the country. The next, and essential for New York City, is negotiation and passage — hopefully through a lame-duck Congress, with guidance from the president-elect — of a coronavirus relief bill that includes aid to states, localities and public transit.
Presidential election results. Tribune News Service 2020
The most urgent imperative is to stabilize a shaken nation. What Trump has put asunder, let Biden now join together.
President-elect Joe Biden addresses the nation after joining Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in being named the victors in the presidential election on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)President-elect Joe Biden addresses the nation after joining Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in being named the victors in the presidential election on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Presidential election results. Tribune News Service 2020Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris addresses the nation after joining President-elect Joe Biden in being named the victors in the presidential election on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)President-elect Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden wave to supporters after his victory speech in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)President-elect Joe Biden addresses the nation after joining Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in being named the victors in the presidential election on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris and President-elect Joe Biden celebrate with supporters after declaring victory in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)President-elect Joe Biden delivers his victory speech after defeating Donald Trump in the presidential election on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris and President-elect Joe Biden celebrate with supporters after declaring victory in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Supporters watch President-elect Joe Biden delivers his victory speech after defeating Donald Trump in the presidential election on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris and President-elect Joe Biden celebrate with supporters after declaring victory in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Children sit on the roof of a car before the start of a speech by President-elect Joe Biden outside the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)President-elect Joe Biden holds his grandchild, watching fireworks after his victory speech in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Presidential election results. Tribune News Service 2020Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris and President-elect Joe Biden celebrate with supporters after declaring victory in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris addresses the nation after joining President-elect Joe Biden in being named the victors in the presidential election on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)President-elect Joe Biden delivers his victory speech after defeating Donald Trump in the presidential election on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)President-elect Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden wave to supporters after his victory speech in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris greets the crowd as she and President-elect Joe Biden deliver victory addresses at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)President-elect Joe Biden addresses the nation after joining Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in being named the victors in the presidential election on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)President-elect Joe Biden delivers his victory speech after defeating Donald Trump in the presidential election on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris and President-elect Joe Biden celebrate with supporters after declaring victory in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris and President-elect Joe Biden celebrate with supporters after declaring victory in the presidential election at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris waves to the crowd as she and President-elect Joe Biden deliver victory addresses at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
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