Biden addresses nation after Harris’ loss to Trump: ‘We accept the choice the country has made’

Washington — President Biden referred to the defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election as a “setback” Thursday morning, in his first address to the nation after the election.

“Setbacks are inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable,” President Biden said. “A defeat does not mean we are defeated.”

He urged Americans to embrace unity and said he accepted the outcome of the election.

“We accept the choice the country has made,” he said. “I’ve often said, you can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree with it,” and he called for unity after the bitterly partisan election.

“One thing I hope we can do, regardless of who you voted for, is see each other not as adversaries, but as compatriots,” he said. “Turn the temperature down.”

He said he would direct his government to work with the president-elect’s team for a “peaceful and orderly transition of power.”

“For more than two hundred years, America has conducted the greatest experiment in self-government in the history of the world,” the president said in a speech in the White House Rose Garden, continuing: “where the people, the people vote and chooses. their own leaders and they do it peacefully. And where in a democracy the will of the people always prevails.”

The president also praised Harris’ campaign during his brief remarks, which lasted about six minutes.

“She ran an inspiring campaign and everyone got to see something that I learned early on that I respected so much: her character,” Biden said. “She has a backbone like a ramrod, she has great character, real character. She has given her whole heart and effort, and she and her whole team should be proud of the campaign they have run.”

It was only four months ago that Mr. Biden was himself seeking re-electionbefore leaving the race and passing the baton to Harris. Now he will hand it over to Trump.

The president also said he hopes these elections will dispel doubts about the integrity of the election and election workers, a reference to wrong information spread by Trump and Republicans about the 2020 election.

“I also hope that we can put to rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system — it is fair, honest and transparent,” Biden said. “And it can be trusted, win or lose.”

Mr Biden spoke with Vice President Kamala Harris by phone on Wednesday to congratulate her on her campaign, despite the loss. In a statement Wednesday, as he endorsed her for nomination, he said that selecting Harris as his running mate was “the best decision I have made.”

In his conversation with Trump, the president said he had also invited the newly elected president to a meeting at the White House. The Trump campaign said the former president was “looking forward to the meeting” and that Trump “greatly appreciated the call.”

Throughout the campaign, Biden has repeatedly portrayed a possible Trump return to the White House as a threat to democracy, and the two men have been bitter rivals since they faced off in the 2020 presidential election. After Biden’s victory, Trump halted the transfer of power because he refused to accept the results of the elections.

Harris formally admitted the race Wednesday afternoon in a speech from her alma mater, Howard University, in which she emphasized the need to accept the results of the election while reiterating her commitment to a peaceful transition of power.

“A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the outcome,” Harris said. She said this principle “distinguishes democracy from monarchy and tyranny.”

The vice president, who joined the campaign in late July, she said that while she conceded the election, “I am not conceding the fight that fueled this campaign.”