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    • Biden says ‘giving up is unforgivable’ after Trump’s election victory
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    Biden says ‘giving up is unforgivable’ after Trump’s election victory

    Pabio Posted on

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    WASHINGTON − President Joe Biden He pledged Thursday that he would ensure a peaceful transfer of power after President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding election victory and told supporters that “defeat does not mean we are defeated.”

    “Setbacks are inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable,” Biden said in a brief speech from the White House Rose Garden. “We are all knocked down, but the measure of our character – as my father would say – is how quickly we get back up.”

    Biden, two days after his vice-president, Kamala Harris, lost the elections to Trump, who made it clear to Americans that he accepted the result. Trump refused to accept his defeat to Biden four years ago.

    “I know for some people this is the moment of victory — to state the obvious,” Biden said. “For others, it’s a time of loss. Campaigns are contests of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice it made. I told Many times, you can’t love your country only when you win.”

    He added: “On January 20, we will have a peaceful transfer of power here in America. »

    Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president in 78 days. Over the past two years, Biden has warned that a second Trump presidency would threaten American democracy. But in his speech, he did not address that concern and instead sought to assuage Democrats’ concerns.

    “We lost this battle,” Biden said of the 2024 election results. “The America of your dreams is calling on you to rise again. This has been America’s story for over 240 years and this continues. This is a story for all of us, not just for some of us. The American experiment continues. We must continue. We must continue. keep the faith.”

    Biden, 81, did not take questions from reporters after his speech, which lasted about seven minutes. After Trump’s victory, Biden was criticized by fellow Democrats for initially deciding to seek re-election despite concerns about his age, only to drop out less than four months before Election Day.

    Biden called on Americans to “lower the temperature” now that the election is over and said he hopes the 2024 election “can settle the question of the integrity of the American electoral system.”

    “It’s honest, it’s fair, it’s transparent, and it can be trusted — win or lose,” Biden said.

    More: How Kamala Harris Lost the Election: The Fatal Flaws of a Doomed Election Campaign

    In a stunning political comeback, Trump won a landslide victory, winning or holding comfortable leads in all seven swing states, making significant gains across the country — including among Latino and black men — and garnering at least 295 votes in the electoral colleges. That number will rise to 312 if Trump wins Arizona and Nevada, where he is leading.

    Biden has touted his record in the White House over the past nearly four years as a “historic presidency,” highlighting his legislative record that includes historic spending on infrastructure and clean energy production.

    “The work we’ve done is already being felt by the American people, and the vast majority of it will be felt over the next 10 days,” Biden said. “The legislation that we passed has only just really come into effect.

    In a phone call Wednesday, Trump accepted an invitation from Biden to meet with the outgoing president at the White House in the near future. On the call, Biden congratulated Trump on his victory and pledged to ensure a smooth transition, Biden said.

    “I assured him that I am directing my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. This is what the American people deserve,” Biden said.

    In 2020, Trump did the opposite by pushing baseless claims of voter fraud in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, culminating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters.

    Trump has not spoken publicly since his Remarks early Wednesday morning from West Palm Beach, Florida. The president-elect has also not posted on X or Truth Social since regaining the White House.

    Biden initially sought re-election and secured the Democratic nomination in the party’s primary. But under growing pressure from leading Democrats, he dropped out of the race weeks after a disastrous debate. Her decision cleared the way for Harris to secure the nomination, but left her with only 107 days to make her case to voters.

    More: ‘The light of America’s promise’: Harris concedes to Trump as Democrats enter political wilderness

    In 2020, after Trump lost to Biden, the long-standing tradition of the sitting president welcoming the president-elect was not followed. Trump also did not attend Biden’s inauguration and has refused to date to concede the 2020 election.

    Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal. Contact Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

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