With mostly heavily Biden-leaning mail-in votes to count left in the U.S. presidential election, Joe Biden was the hot favorite to win 306 electoral votes, leaving Donald Trump with 213. Former vice president Joe Biden was most likley to win the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania, and that is how the cliffhanger election played out. Pennsylvania alone could push former vice president Biden over the finish line. Arizona and Nevada together, too. Other options were obviously also possible. The road to victory for Biden was a highway. Trump needed to win both Pennsylvania and Georgia to be reelected. It did not happen. However, votes had to be counted first. Therefore, “forever”, the electoral vote count stood at 253 for Biden and 213 for Trump, still far from the 270-threshold to win the election, with the four oustanding races too close to call.
On November 7, 2020 at 16:24 Madeira time, the vote count in Pennsylvania finally arrived at the pivotal moment when CNN projected that Joe Biden will become the next U.S. president. The 20 votes from Pennsylvania put Joe Biden to 273 electoral votes, clearly above the magical treshold of 270 electoral votes. Joe Biden can now be called president-elect. Trump, you’re fired!
As for the balance in the Senate, a January runoff-election in Georgia will decide who will control a majority: Biden’s Democrats or Trump’s Republicans.
Warm up to president-elect Joe Biden by reading reading Jules Witcover’s biography: Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption, 2019, 576 pages. Order the paperback written by political columnist and veteran Washington correspondent Jules Witcover (*1927) from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk. Order the Kindle eBook from Amazon.com.
In addition, also read the book by the decade-long reporter for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos: Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now. Scribner, 2020, 192 pages. Order the hardcover from Amazon.com. Order the Kindle eBook from Amazon.com.
Trump’s terrible record
President Donald Trump turned his presidency and the 2020 presidential election into a circus, a disgraceful reality TV show. Despite the low point in American political culture set by the GOP presidential candidate, Republican voters overwhelmingly voted for “their candidate” who does no longer stand for Republican values.
Instead of free trade, Trump favors protectionism. Instead of favoring NATO and mulitaleralism, Trump is critical of NATO while cuddling up to strongmen such as Putin, Bolsonaro and others, favoring a unilateral approach. Instead of standing for a balanced budget and reducing the debt, as did the GOP and the Tea Party, Trump let the deficit and public debt further spiral out of control — even before the covid19-pandemic struck the United States.
Instead of taking on CCP China together with the EU, Japan, South Korea and other democratic countries which all respect the rule of law, Donald Trump attacked China as well as his allies, including the EU. By dividing the EU and the U.S., Trump made a dream come true for Putin and Xi Jinping.
Let’s not forget that, during election night, Donald Trump prematurely and falsely claimed that he had been reelected, making baseless claims about fraud. He is unfit to lead the US trough the current health care, economic, political, social and moral crisis. The case against Trump was already strong in 2016. He leaves a country with many problems behind: huge deficit and debt, covid-pandemic out of control, dramatic rise in unemployment, allies worrying about the reliability of the United States, reduced softpower, confidence in U.S. politics both at home and abroad severly damaged.
Despite the record support from Republicans for the GOP candidate, the majority of U.S. citizens voted for Joe Biden. In short and in terms the man in the White House understands: Donald J. Trump, the majority of voters in the United States just decided that you’re fired!
The list of Donald Trump’s blunders, strategic errors, erratic behaviour and notorious lies is endless. Luckily, he is now history. Under president-elect Joe Biden, will now milk and honey start to flow? No. But sanity may be restored in the White House.
Final remarks
The positive note regarding the 2020 presidential election: over 74 million votes for Joe Biden and over 70 million for Donald Trump mean voter turnout reached a record high [added on July 3, 2023: this was written before all votes were counted. Biden ended up with 81.28 million votes, Trump with 74.24 million — a record for a Republican candidate, but still over 8 million votes behind the Democratic candidate]. On the flip side: the United States remain deeply divided. It’s up to president-elect Joe Biden, his party as well as the opposition to restore a certain unity. The president-elect is old, tired and dull. But luckily, Joe Biden is a centrist who can work across the aisle.
Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump. Photographed on Friday, October 6, 2017. Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead. Ousted by “Sleepy Joe” in the November 2020 presidential election.
Article added on November 7, 2020 at 16:27 local Madeira time. Grammatical detail updated at 16:45.
