It should have been a party, but it turned out to be a funeral. The vice president and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, appeared this Wednesday afternoon to offer her speech accepting defeat at Howard University, where the night before she had hoped to declare herself the first president of the United States. Instead, he acknowledged that “the result is not the one we voted for” but assured that “we must accept it” and offered his Republican rival, Donald Trump, a smooth transition. He also launched a call for hope: “The light of America’s promise will continue to shine if we do not give up.”
The location was the same, the Yard, the esplanade in the center of the campus. The attendees, the same guests—students and Democratic voters—as for Tuesday’s big event, which the campaign had called again by email. Also your number twocampaign, Tim Walz, and his wife, Gwen, as well asrepresentatives of the senior Democratic hierarchy, such as the president emeritus of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, in a gesture of support for the candidate who had to organize a campaign in record time. But the atmosphere was very different. Instead of the celebration with which the election night had begun, and despite the music that had tried to liven up the wait, solemnity weighed on the atmosphere.
“One of the foundations of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results. “That principle distinguishes democracy from tyranny,” he said, in words dedicated to a Republican candidate who has declared that on his first day in office he will be a “dictator,” and who refused to admit his defeat in 2020. “We do not owe our loyalty to a president, but to the Constitution of this country.”
“Although I admit defeat, I do not renounce the spirit of the fight that encouraged this campaign,” he added. “To the young people who listen to me, and may feel sad and disappointed, know that we are going to be okay… sometimes fighting (for what you want) takes time. That doesn’t mean we won’t win. The important thing is not to give up.” And he continued: “This is not the time to give up, it is the time to roll up your sleeves. It is time to organize, mobilize and remain involved, for the sake of justice and freedom, and for the future that we know we can build together,” urged the vice president, with a tired expression but maintaining a smile.
Trump’s victory has had no palliatives. Not only has he surpassed the Democrat in electoral votes and he has won at least five of the seven pivotal states at stake (Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina). He has also won, unlike 2016, the popular vote, by more than five million ballots. His party has taken the majority in the Senate from its rival, and could complete the triangle of power if it maintains the control it already enjoyed in the House of Representatives.
A couple of hours earlier, Harris had done what her Republican electoral rival never wanted to do in 2020, or after: call Joe Biden to congratulate him and acknowledge her own defeat. In their conversation, Harris insisted to the past and future president about the need for “a peaceful transition of power” and to govern “for all Americans,” according to a senior official in her campaign.
It is the great fear of the Democrats. The Republican candidate has spoken during his campaign, and especially in the last stretch, of “retribution” against his political enemies, which includes the media and, of course, opposition officials. He has also boasted that on the first day of his return to the Oval Office he will be a “dictator.” His campaign already assures that one of its first measures will be to launch a large deportation operation of immigrants in an irregular situation.
After Harris, it was President Biden who telephoned his successor to congratulate him and invite him to the White House. In a statement, the presidential office indicated that the Democrat has emphasized his commitment to “guarantee a transition of power without incident.” The outgoing head of state also stressed the “importance of collaborating to achieve the unity of the country.” Biden, who has also spoken with Harris, will address the nation this Thursday in a speech on the election result.
