U.S. President Joe Biden urged Americans to "bring down the temperature" on Thursday following Republican Donald Trump's election victory and sought to console fellow Democrats who were alarmed by the former president's stunning comeback.
"Setbacks are unavoidable. Giving up is unforgivable," Biden said at the White House Rose Garden as he addressed staff who were disappointed in Vice President Kamala Harris' defeat. "A defeat does not mean we are defeated."
Biden said Tuesday's election had proven the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and pledged an orderly transfer of power - an implicit rebuke of Trump, who sought to overturn his 2020 defeat to Biden and raised baseless claims of fraud during this year's campaign as well.
"Something I hope we can do no matter who you voted for is see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans, bring down the temperature," Biden said. "I also hope we can lay to rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent. And it can be trusted, win or lose."
Biden invited Trump to come meet at the White House -- a courtesy Trump did not offer to Biden in 2020 -- and Trump's campaign said the president-elect would go. In the weeks ahead, Trump will select personnel to serve under his leadership.
Some Democrats have blamed Biden, 81, for Harris' defeat, saying he should not have sought reelection. Biden only dropped his reelection bid in July after a disastrous TV debate with Trump raised alarm bells about his mental fitness.
"We lost this battle. The America of your dreams is calling for you to get back up," he said.
Harris sought on Wednesday to console supporters. Like Biden, she promised to aid Trump's transition before his inauguration on Jan. 20 but urged Democrats to continue to fight for what they believe in.
Some Democrats worried the loss means their values – left-leaning, socially liberal – are now firmly a minority among Americans. Others were frustrated with the party's leadership, who they said had lost touch with voters who wanted help with the high cost of living.
Biden did not address his role in the election or criticism from members of his party. He has said repeatedly that he ran for office in 2020 to "restore the soul of America" from the chaos around Trump. Biden's own legacy now will be bookended by the Republican's return instead.
DECISIVE VICTORY
Trump's victory, surprisingly decisive after opinion polls had shown a neck-and-neck contest, underscored how disenchanted Americans had become with the economy - in particular inflation - along with border security and the direction of the country and its culture.
Hispanics, traditionally Democratic voters, and lower-income households hit hardest by inflation helped fuel Trump's victory.
Harris' campaign pressed the message that Trump was unfit to serve again as president, as a convicted felon and one whose false claims of voting fraud inspired a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed bid to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden.
The former president will face far fewer limits on his power in his second White House term, as the head of a Republican Party that he has remade in his image over the last eight years.
World stocks gained on Thursday after a record rise for U.S. shares overnight, and U.S. Treasuries remained under pressure as investors processed the impact of a second Trump presidency.
Wall Street executives expected smaller government, broad deregulation as well as tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, although fresh tariffs could bring challenges in the form of a higher deficit and inflation.
Among people who may figure in Trump's leadership, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a prominent Trump donor, has been promised a role in his administration, as has former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson and investor Scott Bessent were seen as possible cabinet officers in his administration, while former Trump officials Robert O'Brien and Mike Pompeo could return to office.
On trade, Trump is expected to revive policies he favored during his first term, notably tariffs that he has called the "most beautiful word."
That could set him on a collision course with China, which has the world's second-largest economy, sow discord with allies and roil global industries from automakers to chipmakers.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent Trump a congratulatory message and said he hopes the two powers will coexist peacefully, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among world leaders congratulating Trump. But Trump has been critical of U.S. assistance for Ukraine in its war with Russia. He has said he could end the war in 24 hours but has not said how.
The White House plans to rush billions of dollars in security assistance to Ukraine before Biden leaves office in January, sources said on Wednesday, hoping to shore up the government in Kyiv before Trump takes over.
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
43 Comments
Toblerone
Sputterings from a crushed party.
dagon
The Dems will always take the 'high road' because the duopoly always comes out on top.
You can see Trump is fighting for workers and the little guy and real Americans already.
falseflagsteve
Trump can’t do any worser than Biden has the last four years to be honest.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Nobody is seriously changing anything in the Democratic Party. Hate is the MAGA constituency.
TaiwanIsNotChina
I would say as long as you aren't burning things down, you are at the appropriate temperature.
Underworld
falseflagsteve
You think so? Just wait and see…
NOMINATION
So nothing said by your side of the aisle including posters here is hate?
Underworld
NOMINATION
Hate is the MAGA constituency.
Yup.
bass4funk
So why did they engage in 3 weeks of summer riots back in 2020? And we didn’t get to the swearing in ceremony, so we have a bit to go and we shall see if the Dems are the peaceful group they claim to be.
Absolutely
Jimizo
This,is,Trump,Steve.
He is capable of going lower than anyone in many ways.
oldman_13
I am struck at how gracious Biden and Harris have been in defeat. Both have talked to and congratulated Trump on his victory.
A far, far cry from Trump's disgraceful conduct in 2020. And absolutely guaranteed Trump would have done the same few days ago had he lost.
I'm just disappointed Harris was the only option for the democrats this year. She avoided the limelight for most of the past 4 years, so to thrust her into that spot with no primaries was a disaster in the making.
JJE
If one pulls the plug on the funding of the Kyiv regime, the collapse will be a matter of minutes: not a day or even hours. This would be a positive development for those that support peace.
Think about it: the US pays for the salaries of the regime's army and civil servants. This includes pensions too. It basically underwrites a basket-case of an economy. UAF will refuse to fight when they are not paid; may even mutiny.
And we know the EU is not up to the challenge of funding this circus by the billions, which ultimately is a house of cards that will collapse the moment money spigots are turned off.
Jimizo
Not sure how much praise they deserve.
That’s what leaders in democracies should do.
bass4funk
We all know why, but that’s history, and this is the best comeback to all the people particularly on the left that thought the man was dead and done for.
None of us know that.
Wokeness, transgender issues, embracing very unpopular progressive policies, allowing men to play in women’s sports, that the majority of Americans rejected.
Antiquesaving
Meanwhile, Legacy Media is spewing more crazy and more fear mongering with people like Rachel Maddow saying Trump is going to have internment camps and reporters are going to be pick up and locked up.
Joe Scarborough goes off blaming white men, black men, says Hispanic won't vote for a Black person, Sunny Hostin blames "white women, uneducated white women".
Yep the left sure is "bringing down the temperature".
Instead of asking why so many voted Trump, rejected the Dems, or didn't vote.
The Dems, the Legacy Media, the far left are just circling the wagons and doubling down on the hate, fear mongering and increasing the identity politics increasing the list of enemies to include everyone that even remotely disagrees with them.
dagon
You will never get a rational answer because it is all based on Trump dogma for the MAGA faithful:
But why didn't the Dems deploy their incredible election stealing illegal immigrant fueled machinery in this election to steal it from Trump?
bass4funk
You do, you did.
Easy, because thanks to the RNC and Lara Trump, they were genius in using the lefts get out the vote, early voting, they even got the Amish to vote, they got more new Republicans registered than Democrats, harvest votes and overwhelming the system the way they did, doubling the poll watchers in every state and county employing over 5,000 people to make sure every ballot is counted and to report immediately on any irregularities (which they did and were immediately addressed) they had over 2,000 lawyers present, so their ground game was unmatched and they checkmated the Dems at every turn. This is why the Dems have no possible way of messing things up.
Yrral
I accept the outcome of the election,but people should not accept his behavior of racism and sexism
Antiquesaving
Not one to subscribe to the crazy "stealing the election" theory of the right. I do believe the 2020 election was done legally and Biden won.
But I do have some questions about those that now seem to have a strangle hold on the Democrat party, the crazy far left.
Why would they be challenging the removal of known non citizens that were illegally registered to vote?
And it isn't just a single case but multiple cases and the left challenged their removal each time and the courts including those with left leaning judges disagreed with this crazy idea of leaving non citizens on the voter registration.
We are not talking about "they may not be citizens" we are talking about "they actually admitted to not being citizens".
But the Dems fought having their names removed.
Why would they do this and all that did was fuel the conspiracy theories about illegals voting!
It made no sense, but that seems to be how much the crazy far left has gotten control of the Democrat party.
Toblerone
Hate is the MAGA constituency.
You must be joking!
Tokyo Guy
I don't see much dropping of temperature.
Already seeing reports about boys - not even young men, boys - in Texas and other such bastions of conservatism - gloating as they strut around proclaiming "your body, my choice" to the girls at school. And this is a couple of days after the election.
Now we could excuse this because, well, it's Texas and the girls have probably been conditioned to say "yes, Sir" to any man who speaks to them. But once a meme kicks off, who knows where it will end up.
I personally wasn't that surprised that Trump was elected. Having seen the various swings to the political right and left going on throughout the world recently, there's no reason why the US shouldn't be subject to the same pendulum effect.
What will be interesting is how far it will go - if it will at all - until his most hardcore fans find something to be unhappy about. I'm sure they'll be fine with a nationwide abortion ban, deportations, and cuts to social security, but who knows what else the new administration will have up its sleeve.
Blacklabel
I have never seen a more obvious “I told you so” and all knowing type smile from Joe.
He appears to be the happiest and most energetic that he has been in some time.
has it sunk in yet to liberals that Joe was actually the best candidate? That Tim Walz was a joke? That Kamala has the intelligence of a French fry?
Antiquesaving
Can you give links to these claims?
You are "seeing reports".
We are not just seeing reports of sexist racists from the legacy Media we actually have them live on TV and YouTube saying these things.
Sunny Hostin: it is the fault of "white women, uneducated white women"
Joe Scarborough: "white men black men Hispanic men are misogynist, Hispanics won't vote for black candidates."
Van Jones blamed white racism, black men sexism, etc...
And the list goes on.
These are not " reports" without proof, these are all available on YouTube and on the legacy Media's own websites.
Tokyo Guy
Antiquesaving, I don't know you from Adam, but to respond:
I saw in from random accounts on X / Twitter, and the MAGA / conservative types on here always cite X/Twitter users, so they must be telling the truth. Otherwise why would paragons of honesty like MAGA people cite them?
u_s__reamer
The reason Trump will be the next Potus is that on Jan. 7 Biden & Garland didn't turn the heat UP on Trump and his treasonous co-conspirators in the White House and both the other Houses. That America has its first convicted felon president is now a fact of history as is the massacres in Gaza and beyond, both major legacies owned by Biden in his disastrous failure of leadership.
Antiquesaving
Not conservative and I don't even have X never had Twitter.
I quote actual media.
Tokyo Guy
Not conservative and I don't even have X never had Twitter.
I quote actual media.
Given that all media is biased in one direction or the other (and now we have to factor in trolls, AI-created bots, human bot farms, as well as the traditional editorial interference), that's a fairly meaningless statement. I honestly think that social media is no more and no less trustworthy than the so called mainstream.
Anyway, like it matters. If you're on Trump's side you won't care if boys are going around telling girls that they are property, and if you're not on Trump's side you'll decry it, so my initial post is hardly going to change your point of view anyway.
DaDude
Democrat spokesperson Cardi B said after Trump won- ‘This Is Why Some of Y’all States Be Getting Hurricanes’
Read on the Politics sub of Reddit with thousands of upvotes- 'I hope another pandemic hits so we don't have to deal with MAGA after Trump'
Tokyo Guy
Antiquesaving, for your elucidation;
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2024/11/07/demonstrators-at-texas-state-spark-large-counter-protest
A quote from that article:
Photos posted of the demonstrators show a couple of individuals holding signs that read “women are property,” “homo sex is sin,” and “types of property: women, slaves, animals, cars, land, etc…”
Toblerone
If you're on Trump's side you won't care if boys are going around telling girls that they are property, and if you're not on Trump's side you'll decry it, so my initial post is hardly going to change your point of view anyway.
Just more “progressive” fake news. You guys never stop it, do you?
Toblerone
I have never seen a more obvious “I told you so” and all knowing type smile from Joe.
He appears to be the happiest and most energetic that he has been in some time.
has it sunk in yet to liberals that Joe was actually the best candidate? That Tim Walz was a joke?
Joe looks overjoyed, alright. Understandably. Betrayed by Obama, Kamala and the whole rotten Dem crew - not to mention those “celebrities”.
Why on earth did they ever think the hapless Harris could ever be a viable candidate?
Antiquesaving
Oh wow how massive, a couple of individuals.
Seriously?
Joe Scarborough, Rachel Maddow, Van Jones, Al Sharpton, Sunny Hosting, Joy Behar, woopy Goldberg, all the CNN ABC NBC MSNBC etc...hosts all calling men in general sexist, white men and women racist, Hispanics racist, black and Hispanic men sexist is far more serious than " a couple of individuals holding signs "
Tokyo Guy
Oh wow how massive, a couple of individuals.
How many would make it an unacceptable situation for you? A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? Or would you agree with it no matter the number of people?
rcch
[ “ DECISIVE VICTORY
Trump's victory, surprisingly decisive after opinion polls had shown a neck-and-neck contest, underscored how disenchanted Americans had become with the economy - in particular inflation - along with border security and the direction of the country and its culture. “ ]
So here’s the thing—it wasn’t shocking at all—a lot of people (including me) expected Trump to win and some of us also expected a landslide victory—but a lot of people (including some of my fellow JT readers) had completely different expectations (hence the shock and sadness) and that’s why Elon Musk said what he said:
“ For anyone, whether in America or other countries, who finds this result shocking, they should reconsider where they get their information.
This trend was obvious on X for months, but almost all the legacy mainstream media pushed a completely false reality. “
—
“ Some Democrats worried the loss means their values – left-leaning, socially liberal – are now firmly a minority among Americans. Others were frustrated with the party's leadership, who they said had lost touch with voters who wanted help with the high cost of living. “
The American people have objectively rejected and repudiated woke culture and the WMV—let’s get back to reality and common sense.
Tokyo Guy
https://www.al.com/educationlab/2024/11/black-students-at-alabama-colleges-get-racist-texts-about-cotton-plantations-after-trump-win.html
Here's another one, if the previous one wasn't enough.
Alabama law enforcement is investigating after Black college students in Alabama received a barrage of racist text messages following the re-election of former President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Screenshots shared by parent groups and several Facebook users Wednesday show unknown phone numbers referencing students by name and telling them they have been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.”
Antiquesaving
So basically you are agreeing with MSNBC, CNN, the view, joe Scarborough, Van Jones, Sunny Hostin, etc...
That Latinos are racist, sexist and white women are uneducated and racist, and Black men are sexist.
Ok good to know!
Tokyo Guy
So basically you are agreeing with MSNBC, CNN, the view, joe Scarborough, Van Jones, Sunny Hostin, etc...
That Latinos are racist, sexist and white women are uneducated and racist, and Black men are sexist.
Ok good to know!
Er, no. I just posted some links. Everything else is you making inferences.
Are you OK? You seem rather upset given that you seem to be on the republican side of things and your side just won a pretty convincing victory. Is that not enough?
I mean, as long as this site permits the free exchange of opinions, I will post links which imply a causal link between Trump being elected for a second time and minorities and women being the subject of threats and harassment. You have the free will to disbelieve them, but I honestly thought, seeing your overall rhetoric, that you'd actually be in favour of such things.
Antiquesaving
Harris surrogate are out in force.
On the night of the election when it was already clear she lost.
It started with her main mouthpiece saying Walz was a mistake and saying she was pushed to pick a "straight white man" by the white men advising her.
In the 48 hours since, her campaign people have been whispering this narrative all over legacy Media.
They need a scapegoat and what better one than a middle aged straight white man.
She can't even admit she made a poor choice, it is everyone elses fault.
mrtinjp
I have never seen a more obvious “I told you so” and all knowing type smile from Joe.
He appears to be the happiest and most energetic that he has been in some time
Yep, he is having the best time of his life, probably could get some things done now..which he could not in the last 3.10 yrs.
Blacklabel
The increased temperatures are within the Democrat party looking for someone to blame:
its quite joyous to see and its not like we didn’t tell them exactly what would happen. It was obvious to anyone with eyes and ears how this would all turn out.
dagon
Might not be seeing much of Joe after January but I just wanted to say how much he looks like the aged Steve Rogers Captain America for Avengers:Endgame.
If he had not been suffering from age-related debilities he probably would have wiped the floor with Trump one more time.
Blacklabel
Joe Biden is simply unburdened by what has been and enjoying the significance of the passage of time.
Kamala struggled for 3 months to try to distance herself from Joe.
it took him a 5 minute speech to act like he never knew her and then he happily and casually went back inside for ice cream. Master class level.
wallace
Biden holds a significant part of the responsibility for the failure of the Harris election.