SORRY DONALD, EVEN RUSSIA SAYS THAT BIDEN WON
BUT TRUMP STILL REFUSES TO ACCEPT ELECTION DEFEAT
VLADIMIR PUTIN has added himself to the list of world leaders congratulating Joe Biden on a US election win that is still being disputed by Donald Trump.
The Russian president said he wished the Democrat ‘every success’ after the outcome was formally confirmed by electoral college voters.
He said Russia shares a ‘special responsibility for global security’ with the US. And he expressed confidence that – despite their differences – the two countries can ‘really contribute to solving many problems and challenges that the world is currently facing’.
President Putin said he was ready for ‘interaction’ with Mr Biden and had been keeping silent until the ‘ end of the internal political confrontation’.
That is now officially over after the electoral college vote, which is usually a mundane step but gained significance after Mr Trump refused to concede.
Mr Biden said it was ‘time to turn the page’ and accused his rival of threatening core principles of democracy with his allegations of ballot box fraud – found by top judges to be baseless.
Democracy had been ‘pushed, tested, threatened’, but proved to be ‘resilient, true, and strong’, he told a crowd in Wilmington, Delaware.
The president-elect also noted he won with the same number of electoral votes – 306 – as Mr Trump did four years ago. Mr Trump had hailed that win as a ‘landslide’.
Mr Biden said: ‘By his own standards, these numbers represent a clear victory then, and I respectfully suggest they do so now.’
Senior Republican Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, yesterday congratulated the president-elect.
‘Many of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result,’ he said from the Senate floor. ‘But our system of government has the processes to determine who will be sworn in on January 20. The Electoral College has spoken.’
It was a significant moment after many top Republicans had continued refusing to accept Mr Biden’s victory, even in the wake of Monday’s college vote.
But Mr Trump (pictured) tweeted: ‘Tremendous evidence pouring in on voter fraud. There has never been anything like this in our country!’
After losing dozens of legal challenges, he is set to push forward with fresh legislation this week. His lawyer
Rudy Giuliani says he expects five more lawsuits. Even with Mr Trump losing support in his own party, Mr Biden is unlikely to enjoy the usual honeymoon period when opponents hold back from criticism of the new president. But he struck a conciliatory tone in his speech, pledging to ‘work just as hard for those of you who didn’t vote for me as I will for those who did’. ‘We need to work together, give each other a chance and lower the temperature,’ he added. ‘Now it is time to turn the page as we’ve done throughout our history. To unite. To heal.’