Biden wins White House, ousts Trump

KABUL (Pajhwok): Joe Biden has beaten President Donald Trump to become the 46th US president, pledging to steer the country out of the coronavirus pandemic, economic crisis and social turmoil.

Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots. He crossed the 270 Electoral College votes with a thumping win in Pennsylvania.

“I sought this office to restore the soul of America,” Biden said in a victory speech close to his Delaware home. He vowed to make America respected around the world again and work for uniting the nation.

Trump, however, refused to concede, threatening further legal action on ballot count, VOA reported. But Biden held out an olive branch to those who did not vote for him.

The incoming POTUS told Trump voters that he understood their disappointment but said: “Let’s give each other a chance.”

Biden, 77, staked his candidacy less on any distinctive political ideology than on galvanizing a broad coalition of voters around the notion that Trump posed an existential threat to American democracy.

The strategy proved effective, resulting in pivotal victories in Michigan and Wisconsin as well as Pennsylvania, onetime Democratic bastions that had flipped to Trump in 2016.

Biden was on track to win the national popular vote by more than 4 million, a margin that could grow as ballots continue to be counted.

Trump seized on delays in processing the vote in some states to falsely allege voter fraud and argue that his rival was trying to seize power — an extraordinary charge by a sitting president trying to sow doubt about a bedrock democratic process.

Kamala Harris also made history as the first Black woman to become vice president, an achievement that comes as the US faces a reckoning on racial justice.

The California senator, who is also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency, will become the highest-ranking woman ever to serve in government, four years after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.

sa/mud

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