US election 2020: Joe Biden calls for healing, unity in first speech as US president-elect

Biden pledges not to divide, but to unify, and not to see red states and blue states, but to only see the United States

His team’s work starts with getting the coronavirus pandemic under control to rebuild the economy, he says

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US president-elect Joe Biden says getting the coronavirus under control is the first item on his team’s agenda. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 11:22am, 8 Nov 2020Updated: 8:40pm, 8 Nov 2020

Democrat Joe Biden said he would seek to bridge the widening political divide in the United States and stressed the need for unity, strength and faith in the nation in his first speech as US president-elect.

He also made clear that fighting the Covid-19 pandemic would be a priority.

“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again and to make progress. We have to stop treating our opponents, as our enemies. They are not our enemies, they’re Americans,” he said, after being introduced on stage by vice-president-elect Kamala Harris, the first woman to hold that office, in Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday night.

The former vice-president under president Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017 defeated the Republican incumbent Donald Trump in a closely fought, drawn-out race in which voters cast ballots in record numbers.

States took days to count an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots from those who opted to avoid in-person voting because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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