KEEP FIGHTING
Joe urges us to make war on virus, not each other
Thanksgiving is a time for reflection, family get-togethers and — apparently — baseless accusations of voter fraud.
President-elect Joe Biden urged Americans on Wednesday to keep their Thanksgiving gatherings small this year and brace themselves for a “long, hard winter” amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic — while President Trump went on a falsehood-filled tirade against the integrity of the election he lost.
In a nationally televised Thanksgiving address from his transition team headquarters in Delaware, Biden said he understands it’s hard for Americans to give up on holiday traditions, especially at a time when families have been forced to not see each other for months on end.
“I know the country has grown weary of the fight,” Biden said. “But we need to remember we’re at a war with a virus — not with each other. This is the moment where we need to steel our spines, redouble our efforts and recommit ourselves to the fight.”
With more than 260,000 Americans already dead from COVID-19 and infection rates surging in nearly all 50 states, Biden said three crucial precautions are required.
“Wearing masks, keeping social distancing, and limiting the size of any groups we’re in,” he said. “Until we have a vaccine, these are our most effective tools to combat the virus.”
Trump, who has barely been seen in public since losing the Nov. 3 election, offered a distinctly different holiday message for pandemic-weary Americans.
“This was an election that we won easily. We won it by a lot,” Trump said falsely while calling in over speakerphone to an event hosted at a Pennsylvania hotel by Rudy Giuliani to amplify the president’s baseless claim that Democrats rigged the election for Biden.
The lame-duck president continued, “This election was rigged and we can’t let that happen ... This election has to be turned around.”
Trump’s remarks were false.
Not a shred of evidence has emerged to suggest widespread fraud or irregularities hampered the 2020 election.
In fact, the Trump administration’s own top cybersecurity official said it was the “most secure election in American history” — an assessment backed by international observers and elections officials from both sides of the aisle in all 50 states.
Meanwhile, judges across the country have dismissed evidence-free Trump campaign lawsuits seeking to get millions of ballots invalidated.
Biden, who won by a decisive 306-232 margin in the Electoral College, only touched briefly on Trump’s undemocratic legal battle during his Thanksgiving address.
“Our democracy was tested this year. And what we learned is this: The people of this nation are up to the task,” he said. “In America, we have full and fair and free elections, and then we honor the results. The people of this nation and the laws of the land won’t stand for anything else.”
Biden was expected to travel with his wife and daughter to their vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he said they’ll have a small Thanksgiving dinner.
Trump was expected to spend the holiday at the White House, unlike the past three years when he spent it at his private beach club in Florida.
After the holiday weekend, Biden plans to continue working with his transition team to prepare for his Jan. 20 inauguration. On Monday, he will receive his first top-secret presidential intelligence briefing, according to his transition team.
The briefing is being made available to him after Trump’s General Services Administration earlier this week finally declared Biden was president-elect — a bureaucratic designation that Trump had blocked for 16 days while waging his futile war on the election results.
Though Trump’s refusing to admit defeat, the GSA ascertainment means Biden can proceed with his transition regardless of what the outgoing president says.