Biden calls for unity, tolerance in US

Bloomberg

President-elect Joe Biden called on Americans to put aside the divisiveness of the past four years under Donald Trump with a victory speech that promised swift action against the coronavirus pandemic and an orderly transfer of power after a bitter election.
“Let’s give each other a chance,” Biden told a cheering, honking crowd at a drive-in rally on in Wilmington, Delaware, hours after he clinched the presidency.
“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric. To lower the temperature. To see each other again. To listen to each other again. To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We are not enemies. We are Americans,” he said, even as Trump claimed victory for himself.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris acknowledged her place as the first Black and Indian-American woman to serve in the role. She told the drive-in rally that they had chosen “hope and unity, decency, science
and yes, truth.”
Harris, 56, wore white, the color of suffragettes. She said she stood “on the shoulders” of struggling women like her mother, an immigrant. “While
I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” she said.
Biden’s message of healing and unity capped a day of celebration by his supporters that contrasted with recrimination from Trump, who rejected the outcome of the election and vowed to contest individual state results in court. The Democrats’ victory was sealed shortly before noon New York time on November 07, when Associated Press and television networks called the race in his favour.
By being declared the winner in Pennsylvania, Biden, 77, passed the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to capture the presidency. He could end up with 306 votes if he wins in all the states where he is currently leading, a slightly larger edge than Trump had in 2016, when he secured 304 electoral votes.
Trump was in no mood to concede or even to signal to his supporters that it was time to stop the competition.
“I won this election, by a lot!” Trump tweeted shortly before the race was called.
Trump was notably quiet during Biden’s speech and the minutes after it ended. During the campaign, he would frequently tweet criticism of Biden and other Democrats as they spoke.
Biden moved quickly in his prime-time address to claim his place as the incoming commander-in-chief. He immediately addressed the central theme of his campaign — that he was more capable of responding to the coronavirus pandemic that has cost more than 237,000 lives in the US.

Biden announces task force for Covid response
Bloomberg

President-elect Joe Biden said he would appoint a 12-member coronavirus task force on Monday, his first step towards fulfilling one of his biggest campaign promises — to mount an effective response to the pandemic that has infected millions and damaged the US economy.
“I will spare no effort, none, or any commitment, to turn around this pandemic,” Biden said, as he delivered his victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware. The panel will
convert his coronavirus-fighting plan into an “action blueprint” that “will be built on a bedrock of science,” he added.
The task force will be co-chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor of public health at Yale University, according to a person familiar with his plans. It will also include Ezekiel Emanuel, a former Obama administration health adviser.