Celebration in New York City as the victory of Joe Biden in the US Presidential election is announced (Todd Heisler/New York Times)


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UPDATE, 1125 GMT:

The Biden transition team says that, on his first day in office, President Joe Biden will:

  • Rejoin the Paris Accords on climate
  • Reverse Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization
  • Repeal Trump’s ban on immigration from Muslim-majority countries
  • Reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, protecting almost 700,000 “Dreamers” — the children of undocumented immigrants — from the deportation threatened by the Trump Administration

All of those actions can be pursued through executive order, in the event that GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell and Republican senators try to block any Administration policies.


UPDATE, 1115 GMT:

Naomi Biden, the granddaughter of Joe Biden, posts a photo of the moment that the family learned of his victory.

Walking in the garden, the President-elect and his wife Jill heard applause and went into the house to be greeted by their grandchildren.

And a reminder of the significance of Kamala Harris as Vice President-elect:


ORIGINAL ENTRY: President-elect Joe Biden and his Vice Presidential running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, have pledged a Presidency for all Americans, seeking an end to division and effective action against the Coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 237,000 people in the US.

Biden spoke on Saturday night, hours after he clinched victory with triumph in Pennsylvania, before a drive-in audience in Wilmington, Delaware.

Joe Biden Will Be The 46th President of the USA

“Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end here and now,” Biden appealed. He continued:

For all those of you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment tonight. I’ve lost a couple times myself. But now, let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again.

This is the time to heal in America.

The two Democrats focused on a message of practical steps to approach the public health, economic, and social challenges and on “decency”.

Harris invoked her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who came to the United States from India at the age of 19, and said Americans had chosen “hope and unity, decency, science and, yes, truth”.

The first woman, Black American, and Asian American to hold the Vice Presidency, she paid tribute to the women “who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight”.

While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.

Biden echoed: “What is our mandate? I believe it’s this: Americans have called upon us to marshal the forces of decency, the forces of fairness, to marshal the forces of science and the forces of hope in the great battles of our time.”

Harris said simply, “You delivered a clear message. You chose hope.”

A Task Force on Coronavirus

During the campaign, Biden and Harris prepared for immediate action on Coronavirus as soon as they are inaugurated on January 20, with briefing from the medical and public health experts pushed away by the Trump Administration.

Biden said in his Saturday night speech, “Our work begins with getting Covid under control.”

His staff indicated that the three co-chairs of the 12-member panel will be former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy; former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler; and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Yale University professor.

On Saturday, the US recorded more than 100,000 Coronavirus cases for the fourth straight day. The 121,013 new infections raised the total to 9,860,958.

The death toll reached 237,113, with 1,014 fatalities. For the first time since August 11-15, there were more than 1,000 deaths for the fifth straight day.

Biden pledged, “I will spare no effort, none, or any commitment to turn around this pandemic.”

The Biden-Harris team have convened an internal group of about two dozen health policy and technology experts. They are pursuing the development and delivery of a vaccine, improvement of health data, and the securing of supply chains.

With Donald Trump denying the threat of the virus, the White House Coronavirus Task Force is all but dormant. It meets only once a week, and the chair, Vice President Mike Pence, has not attended a meeting for almost two months.

The Government’s top Coronavirus expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been vilified as a “disaster” by Trump and his inner circle, and Trump has called scientists “idiots”. Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House Task Force, has been ignored even as she warns of a winter surge of the virus.

On Wednesday, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, four other White House aides, and a Trump campaign worker tested positive for the virus.

See Coronavirus — Another US Daily Record as White House Chief of Staff Tests Positive