ELATION & ANGER
Some Americans express joy and relief, while others say election was stolen
As soon as the news buzzed on their phones, Americans gathered spontaneously on street corners and front lawns — honking their horns, banging pots and pans, starting impromptu dance parties — as a vitriolic election and exhausting fourday wait for results came to an end Saturday morning. And for all that joy, there was equal parts anger and mistrust on the other side.
Across the United States, the dramatic conclusion of the 2020 election was cathartic. Just after The Associated Press and other news organizations declared that former Vice President Joe Biden beat President Donald Trump, fireworks erupted in Atlanta. In Maine, a band playing at a farmers’ market broke into the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
People waved Biden signs from car windows and balconies, and a massive pro- Biden crowd gathered in the streets outside the White House. In New York City, some stopped their cars wherever they happened to be, got out and danced in the streets. Car horns and bells echoed through neighborhoods across Puerto Rico. In Louisville, Kentucky, Biden supporters gathered on their lawns to toast with champagne. In Kansas City, they swayed in a park to the song “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang.
Trump’s supporters have for days been protesting outside of ballotcounting operations, alleging without evidence that the slow- moving results were proof of cheating. “This isn’t over! This isn’t over! Fake news!” some shouted Saturday as about 1,000 gathered at the Georgia State Capitol after news organizations’ decision to call the election.
But across America, it was mostly the Democrats taking to the streets in jubilant displays, celebrating what was to them an end to four years of constant crises, chaos and anxiety.
“America can exhale. Decency, civility and democracy won,” said Fred Guttenberg, who became an outspoken opponent of the president after his 14- year- old daughter Jaime was one of 17 slain by a gunman at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. He had been sitting in front of his television since waking up Saturday, waiting for the news. He said it made him “ecstatic.”
In Minneapolis, Ella Mitchell, 30, and Pardha Ponugoti, 29, visited the memorial at the street corner where George Floyd died.
Ponugoti said it was important to be at the Floyd memorial to mark Biden’s win. “It’s like a reminder of the problems that still exist in our society. Just because Biden is president doesn’t mean that all these systemic issues are fixed.”
Scott VanderWal, a farmer in Volga, South Dakota, said he heard the news as he was loading hay bales into his barn.
Unlike those celebrating in the streets, he said he was disappointed, but held out a glimmer of hope that Trump could still contest the results and find path to victory: “I wouldn’t say it’s totally over until all the legal avenues are exhausted,” he said.
More than 100 pro- Trump demonstrators assembled outside Florida’s state Capitol in Tallahassee Saturday afternoon. The crowd toted signs suggesting the election was fraudulent, and they chanted “stop the steal.”
Dozens of the president’s backers began gathering, too, from North Dakota to Georgia to the election tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, where counting remains underway.
Shortly after the news broke, Jake Angeli yelled, “This election has not been called!” Angeli, a regular at proTrump rallies who typically wears a wooly fur hat with horns, shouted. He remained hopeful: “Trump always looks like he’s going to lose. And then he wins,” he said.
But for Biden supporters at home and abroad, Saturday was a day to celebrate, dance and dream of a less contentious future.
Residents of Ballina, Ireland, Biden’s ancestral hometown, had draped the streets in American flags and Biden- Harris banners for days as they awaited the results. Joe Blewitt, a heating and plumbing engineer and a cousin of Biden’s, said the town was ecstatic.
“Now he’ll be the President of the United States, they’re delighted, they’re absolutely delighted,” Blewitt said. “To think one of their own is one of the most powerful men in the world.”