Biden urges unity in victory speech after beating Trump

After jogging onto the outdoor stage in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Biden delivered a message of hope and healing to a crowd of cheering supporters and tens of millions more on television, AFP reported.

The Democrat's victory speech followed a desperately bitter election conducted in the midst of a raging coronavirus pandemic. But instead of sounding triumphant, Biden's accent was more on changing hearts in a country split down the middle between Democrats and Republicans.

Promising "not to divide but unify," Biden reached out directly to Trump supporters, declaring "they're not our enemies, they're Americans."

"Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end, here and now," he said.

Addressing the coronavirus, which has killed more than 237,000 Americans under Trump's erratic leadership, Biden said he would form a taskforce of "leading scientists".

While attendance was limited for social distancing purposes to about 360 cars at the drive-in style event, crowds numbering thousands of people lined the highway leading to the facility.

US television networks declared earlier Saturday that Biden had taken an insurmountable lead in the nearly complete count from Tuesday's election, giving him victory against Trump, who will now become a rare one-term president.

The celebratory event also gave Americans a closer look at Biden's running mate Kamala Harris, who will make history as the country's first female and first Black vice president.

In her speech, cheered every few seconds by the ecstatic crowd, Harris lauded the record turnout and said that after so much division, "Joe is a healer."

"When our very democracy was on the ballot in this election, with the very soul of America at stake, and the world watching, you ushered in a new day for America," she said.

Biden, who turns 78 later this month, will be the oldest person to become president when he takes office on January 20.

No Trump concession

But Trump – becoming the first one-term president since George H. W. Bush – refused to concede and continued to claim he was a victim of fraud.

Biden was "rushing to falsely pose" as the winner, Trump said in a statement as he arrived to play golf at a course he owns in Virginia, his first trip outside the White House since Election Day.

There is no evidence to support Trump's unprecedented claims of mass fraud.

Crowds took to the streets in major cities across the US in celebration of Trump's defeat, while key Western allies such as Germany, which had a tempestuous relationship with the Republican, quickly congratulated Biden.

In Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Washington and other majority-Democratic cities, people poured into the streets to celebrate and car horns honked.

However, in Arizona, where the race was close, a group of almost 1,000 Trump supporters gathered in Phoenix to protest what they said was a stolen election.

The leaders of Britain, Germany, France and other European countries were the first, along with Canada, to send congratulations.

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga sent "warm congratulations," while India's Premier Narendra Modi also tweeted on Biden's "spectacular victory."

Iran Daily