BREAKING: Biden, Harris Win Historic Presidential Race

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bidenIn historic election, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win, becoming President and VP President-Elect, respectively. Photos: Gage Skidmore

Posted By: The Rainbow Times November 7, 2020

Biden and Harris win contested presidential race, earning more votes than any other candidates in American history; Trumps Reign of Terror is finally over; Trump puts out a statement saying he doesn’t accept Biden has won

By: Audrey Cole/Reporter—

In a decisive and historic victory, former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris, clenched the presidential election, effectively becoming the President and Vice President-elect of a seemingly divided nation, according to the Associated Press, which made the call based on receiving a majority of votes in the electoral college. This announcement ends a historic election, which saw one of the highest voter turnouts in modern history. Winning the states of Pennsylvania, and Nevada gave Biden the decisive win, crossing the 270 threshold needed to ensure victory, according to America’s electoral system—the polls show Biden ahead in Georgia and Arizona. The wave of mailed ballots, mostly cast by Democrats who avoided voting on Election Day because of COVID, surged after the initial count of in-person, and mostly Republican, ballots.

Congratulating President-elect Biden and Madam VP-elect Harris, former President Barack Obama spoke with Pride via a press statement to the nation.

“In this election, under circumstances never experienced, Americans turned out in numbers never seen. And once every vote is counted, President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris will have won a historic and decisive victory,” the statement read. “We’re fortunate that Joe’s got what it takes to be President and already carries himself that way. Because when he walks into the White House in January, he’ll face a series of extraordinary challenges no incoming President ever has – a raging pandemic, an unequal economy, and justice system, a democracy at risk, and a climate in peril. …”

Others remember the losses and the turmoil that many underrepresented communities faced under Trump’s four years in the White House and those who were emboldened by his “divisive” rhetoric.

“With the results of the presidential election announced today, we now know that millions of Americans across the country have come together to say no more to carelessness, cruelty, and dishonesty,” said Janson Wu GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Executive Director (GLAD) … “But today is only the next step in putting our nation on a path toward true equity, liberation, and justice for all. The damage done during the years of the Trump administration – the racist rhetoric and policies that have hurt immigrants, Muslims, Black Americans and so many people of color; the complete failure to address the COVID-19 pandemic that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and livelihoods; the relentless attacks on the LGBTQ community that have not let up from day one – this damage won’t be reversed overnight. This fight was never just about one election. Our work continues.”

Stressing the count of every vote and the historical context of the election, others also shared their views of the result.

“… By all accounts, this has been a historic election. Our democracy rests on the foundation that our leaders are elected by the people of this country and despite calls to do the contrary, we made the simple but powerful demand that we count every vote. They were counted. And the people have spoken,” said Imani Rupert-Gordon, NCLR Executive Director via a press statement.

The President-Elect repudiated Trump from the moment he decided to take him on. He ran a campaign of honor, compassion, and empathy, as reported by many. He ran exhibiting American values and protecting the democracy he has worked under most of his life. Opposite to Trump, Biden’s character (in spite of not having in-person rallies or events), proved to be key to his win. He would not even accept a win until experts counted the final votes. In the end, Black voters in Philadelphia and throughout the country sent a message to the rest of the nation, signaling that their votes, just as their lives, matter.

Biden expressed confidence that the campaign was “on track to win the election,” ahead of yesterday’s final tally that ultimately lead to the Biden and Harris victory. Harris will be the first black and Asian American woman to become Vice President of the U.S. The President-elect will speak to the nation tonight at 8 p.m. EST.

Biden’s campaign, focusing on health and safety amid the pandemic, did not hold events to follow medical experts’ advice. His campaign, nonetheless, earned more votes than any presidential candidate in American history.

“With the country in the midst of a recession, nearly eight-in-ten registered voters (79%) say the economy [was] very important to them in making their decision about who to vote for in the 2020 presidential election,” Pew Research found.

Also significant to voters’ presidential choice included topics such as healthcare, followed by Supreme Court appointments, the handling of the coronavirus, violent crime, foreign policy, gun policy, racial and ethnic inequality, immigration, climate change, and reproductive rights, Pew found.

Pledging support to the LGBTQ+ community, as he has in the past, Biden took it a step further. In the first 100 days, Biden has vowed to sign the Equality Act to protect LGBTQ+ Americans, in what would be a landmark civil rights law.

In contrast, Trump’s 100 days were filled with erasure of the LGBTQ+ community starting on day one.

“From the Census exclusion, to rescinding Obama’s guidance for trans youth in schools, and lack of any LGBTQ mentions on the White House website, he [Trump] has spent the early days of his administration trying to remove us from the very fabric of this country, and we must resist,” said GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis to NBC News.

For the LGBTQ+ community and voters nationwide, equal rights and protections under the law have been of utmost importance and something that was not addressed at all during Trump’s administration. Under Trump, attacks to the LGBTQ+ community suffered the rolling back sexual orientation and gender identity nondiscrimination provisions in health care, employment, and housing, while expanding discriminatory religious refusal policies.

A bipartisan piece of legislation, the Equality Act (re-introduced in 2017) will provide clear and equal protections under federal law for all Americans in vital areas of life, like employment, access to public spaces, housing, credit, education, jury service, and federally-funded programs.

“President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris have stated their commitment to equality and justice, and to governing with reason, fairness, and compassion,” said Wu of GLAD. “We look forward to working with the new administration to undo the harms done to the LGBTQ community under the Trump administration, and to joining with all who care about equity to hold the incoming administration accountable to their commitment.”

According to NBC News, the Equality Act would “protect U.S. citizens from discrimination based on sexual identity and gender identity by amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the most revered accomplishments of the civil rights movement, which banned discrimination based on race, religion, sex and national origin,” its website read.

“I will make enactment of the Equality Act a top legislative priority during my first 100 days—a priority that Donald Trump opposes,” Biden said of the Republican incumbent, to NBC News at the time.

With coronavirus ravaging the country, president-elect Biden has a plan ready to launch, as he becomes inaugurated in January 2021, to save American lives and rid our shores of the virus.

“Biden knows how to mount an effective crisis response and elevate the voices of scientists, public health experts, and first responders because he has done it before,” his campaign website read. To date, Trump never followed medical experts’ advice and did not take responsibility for knowing about the virus since January and having almost 240,000 Americans die from it under his watch.

All during the vote counting democratic process, Trump has continued to disregard the democratic process, to encourage the cessation of vote tallying, to spread falsehoods about the legitimacy of the election, further sowing division and creating chaos in a country already divided by race, ethnicity, faith and policies. In the past four years the country has been highly divided by a president who has voiced his disdain for the media, LGBTQ+ people, Muslim Americans, women in positions of power, the Black Lives Matter movement, and more, while encouraging white supremacist groups and lauding support for people to hurt members of the media and others who disagreed with him.

Joe Biden’s inauguration will be held on January 20, 2021.

[This is a developing news story. Come back for updates.]

Twitter reacts, in the era of COVID:

 

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