'Democracy prevailed,' Biden says after U.S. Electoral College

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'Democracy prevailed,' Biden says after U.S. Electoral College

Electoral College Vote Officially Affirms Biden’s Victory

Now that the Electoral College has followed voters, state authorities, judges and the Supreme Court in affirming his victory, Biden is seeking to intensify his effort to create the symbolism of a transfer of power that is being denied him by Trump's refusal to concede an election he clearly lost.

The President-elect gave his most robust sign yet Monday that it is time for the President and his acolytes to drop their corrosive and self-indulgent attempts to overturn the election and deny his victory. He made his appeal in a speech in Delaware on a day of hope, tragedy and constitutional affirmation, when the United States could at last sense eventual deliverance from the twin menaces of 2020: a murderous virus and a vanquished President's quest to extinguish democracy.

In a twist of history, the first injections that will end the pandemic went into American arms just as the Electoral College, in a pageant showcasing the country's resilient system, confirmed Biden as the winner of a legitimate election.

"The integrity of our elections remains intact. Now it is time to turn the page as we've done throughout our history. To unite, to heal," Biden said.

The Electoral College vote on Monday and Biden's most blunt attempt yet to establish himself as the next President in the mind of all voters -- not just the more than 80 million Americans who cast ballots for him -- is unlikely to change the delusional approach of a President who appears highly doubtful to show up to his successor's inauguration ceremonies. 

But it will crank up more pressure on Republican lawmakers in Washington -- who will soon be faced with a new power in the White House -- to publicly admit reality.

On Tuesday, the most prominent GOP national power broker, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, finally stated in public that Biden would be the next president.

"As of this morning, our country officially has a President-elect and a Vice President elect," McConnell said.

"The Electoral College has spoken," said the Kentucky Republican, who will become his former Senate colleague and President-elect's chief sparring partner in Washington.

"Today I want to congratulate President-Elect Joe Biden."

Biden anchored his case in the fact that US governing institutions have held firm in the face of an unprecedented assault by a defeated president.

"The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know that nothing -- not even a pandemic or an abuse of power -- can extinguish that flame," Biden said from Wilmington in a televised address.

Ever since he was elected, Biden has attempted to create a picture of a new administration ready to take charge -- rolling out his picks for Cabinet officials and appearing in Delaware in presidential-style settings -- even as Trump initially denied him the funding and trappings of an official transition. To begin with, Biden's rhetoric was measured and subtle, offering the impression that he was giving the current President and his supporters time to digest his defeat.

But in his appearance on Monday evening, the President-elect was scathing about attempts to deny him his rightful victory -- especially a Trump-backed bid by Texas that was summarily rejected by the Supreme Court to throw out the legally cast voters of millions of people in battleground states that Biden won. He pointed out the size of his victory in electoral votes, 306 to 232, was the same achieved by the current President in 2016.

"At the time, President Trump (called) the Electoral College tally a landslide. By his own standards these numbers represented a clear victory then and I respectfully suggest they do so now," Biden said, before going into detail on Trump's multiple court defeats and failed attempts to pressure local and state officials to steal the election.

The President-elect, previewing his inaugural address on January 20, then flipped to appeals for national unity, for Americans to stand firm, together to face a dark winter ahead with the pandemic raging out of control and with its consequential economic impact deepening.

"We need to work together, to give each other a chance, to lower the temperature. And most of all, we need to stand in solidarity as fellow Americans, to see each other, our pain, our struggles, our hopes and our dreams," Biden said.