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WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – In a day of grace and grievance, President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Americans to join a common goal against the coronavirus pandemic and their political divisions as the man he will replace stoked the embers which are fading from his campaign to “overthrow the election”.
Biden, in a Thanksgiving eve address to the nation, brought the growing pandemic to the fore, pledging to harness the “vast powers” of the federal government and “turn the tide of disease” once in power. . But for this to work, he said, Americans must act for their own safety and that of their fellow citizens.
“This is the time when we need to strengthen our thorns, redouble our efforts and re-engage in this fight,” Biden said. “Each of us has a responsibility in our own life to do what we can to slow the virus down.”
President Donald Trump, who barely spoke about the pandemic in recent days even as it reached record highs, remained obsessed with his electoral defeat.
He sent his attorney Rudy Giuliani and other members of his legal team to meet with Senators from the Republican state of Pennsylvania in Gettysburg. Inside a hotel near the holy battlefields of the Civil War, they again aired complaints about the election and repeated allegations of Democratic wrongdoing that have already disintegrated under review by the courts.
“We need to reverse the election,” Trump said from the Oval Office, where he joined the meeting via loudspeaker.
“It was an election that we won easily,” he said. “We won it a lot.” In fact, the election gave Biden a clear mandate and no systemic fraud was uncovered. Judge after judge has dismissed the Trump campaign accusations as baseless, and Biden’s transition to the presidency is underway.
Nonetheless, Trump reiterated: “This election must be reversed.”
Trump was scheduled to appear in person in Gettysburg, but not after another member of his legal team tested positive for the coronavirus. Few people at the meeting wore masks.
Overall, the forum heard – and applauded – another statement from a US president seeking to reverse a democratic election and the will of the voters because he wants to stay in power. The setting was about a mile from the scene of Pickett’s Charge, where Union troops repelled a desperate Confederate attack in July 1863 and helped turn the tide of the Civil War.
The president continued by pardoning former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump’s second associate convicted in the Russia probe for securing clemency from Trump.
The pardon was part of a larger effort to overturn the results of an investigation that for years followed the Trump administration and resulted in criminal charges against half a dozen associates. Clemency quashes criminal case against Flynn just as a federal judge ruled whether or not to grant a Justice Department request to dismiss the lawsuits despite Flynn’s own guilty plea of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia.
For his part, Biden largely projected serenity as the necessary elements of a presidential transition – money, access to office space and more – were kept at bay for nearly three weeks by Trump’s machinations and a delayed audit by The General Service Administration he had won the election. On Wednesday, he only touched on Trump’s raw tactics in passing.
“Our democracy has been tested this year,” Biden said, “but the people of this nation are up to the task.”
“In America we have full, fair, and free elections and then we honor the results,” he said. “The people of this nation and the laws of the land will represent nothing else.”
And he offered an optimistic view, calling on Americans to “dream again” and predicting that “the 21st century will be an American century.”
Biden has promised more virus tests, more protective gear, and clearer guidelines for businesses and schools to reopen when he becomes president. Until the vaccines are distributed, he said, masks, social distancing and limits on the size of gatherings “are our most effective tools in fighting the virus.”
Biden’s remarks came as cases of COVID-19 increase across the country. Hospitalizations, deaths and the rate of positivity testing have also risen sharply as the country heads into Thanksgiving, and public health experts have warned that large family gatherings scheduled for the holiday are likely to prolong and worsen the outbreak.
He has formed a coronavirus advisory board made up of scientists, doctors and public health experts, and plans to create a COVID-19 coordinator in the White House to lead his administration’s response.
This week, however, Biden focused beyond the crisis in the United States and on Tuesday unveiled his national security team, including his nominees for Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence and US Ambassador to the United States. United Nations. Drawing implicit contrasts with Trump, Biden said the team “reflects the fact that America is back, ready to rule the world, not walk away from it.” He is also expected to appoint Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary in the coming weeks.
Urging Americans to be vigilant with their Thanksgiving plans, Biden said on Wednesday he was taking his own precautions, avoiding his traditional big family reunion and spending the holidays instead with only his wife, daughter and son-in-law.
He travels with his wife, Jill, to Rehoboth Beach, the small seaside town in Delaware where the two have a vacation home. This is where they will be hosting their families for Thanksgiving dinner. Biden is expected to stay in Rehoboth all weekend before returning to Wilmington to continue his work on the transition.
Trump will forgo his usual plans to celebrate Thanksgiving at his private club in Florida and instead stay at the White House.
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Colvin reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Mark Scolforo contributed to this report from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
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