This Saturday morning, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected to office as America’s 46th president and vice president. Harris made history as the first female, African American, and Asian American vice president. Biden won against incumbent President Trump, making him the first president in 28 years to fail to be re-elected to a second term.
With this election came many mixed reactions both within America and globally. Within America, there was a general feeling of relief in Democrats and both disappointment and support for Biden in Republicans. Carolyn Gibbs, a worker for Progress PA, a political group that aims to help Democrats get into office, says that while she feels a sense of relief, she is also tense about the divide in our country. Gibbs, an avid protestor who frequently dressed in costume for protest, said, “There are still 74 days left in the Trump presidency, and I would not be surprised if I need those costumes before January 20, 2021.” Several Republican leaders such as Senator Mitt Romney and Senator Marco Rubio criticized Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud. However, there were a number of Republican leaders, and Republican citizens, who defended Trump’s false claims that the Democrats are trying to steal the election. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, for example, tweeted: “There are still serious legal challenges that have been made, and until that process is resolved, the election is not final.” Of the Republican citizens in America, Christian conservatives and evangelicals are one of the most disappointed about the change in leadership. While Trump was in power, they got a lot of what they wanted: two hundred federal judges and three Supreme Court Justices, an embassy in Jerusalem, and anti abortion policies. With Biden’s election and his vastly different views on topics of interest, they are concerned and fearful of the power they may lose.
Canada’s Justin Trudeau was one of the first leaders to congratulate Biden and Harris on their victory. In Europe, Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin was one of the first leaders to congratulate Biden. Martin referenced Biden’s Irish-American heritage in his tweet, saying: “Joe Biden has been a true friend of this nation throughout his life and I look forward to working with him in the years ahead. I also look forward to welcoming him back home when the circumstances allow!” Many other leaders such as Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed a similar sentiment. Palestinian Authority President Madmoud Abbas, who had been largely sidelined by Trump stated that he was “looking forward to working with President-elect Biden and his administration in order to enhance the Palestinian-American relations and achieve freedoms, independence, justice, and dignity for our people.” Many leaders such as Colombia’s mayor of Bogota Claudia Lopez, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite being a close Trump ally, offered hearty congratulation to Kamala Harris for being the first African-American and Indian-American female vice president.
World leaders also commented on the election process and the events that unfolded during this past week. Several senior German politicians described Trump’s claims of voter fraud as “unbelievable” and “awful behaviour”, expressing a disapproval of the Russia’s foreign ministry tweeted that the close race was evidence of problems in the US electoral system. Finally, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose relationship with America worsened under Trump tweeted: “The situation in the US & what they themselves say about their elections is a spectacle! This is an example of the ugly face of liberal democracy in the US. Regardless of the outcome, one thing is absolutely clear, the definite political, civil, & moral decline of the US regime.” Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani added that the new US administration now had a chance to make up mistakes in the past. This general attitude indicates that many world leaders disapproved of the way Trump handled his position of power and expected Biden to reverse the damage he caused in ways such as putting the US back in the Paris Climate Accords.
However, one world leader has remained unsurprisingly quiet about the Biden victory - Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Four years ago, the Kremlin was quick to send a message to President Trump within hours of the 2016 race being called. While Trump didn’t act to strengthen Russian ties to America, his America-first policy fell in agreement with the Kremlin’s hopes of weakening the Western alliance to expand Russian influence in the world. His current silence indicates that Putin is preparing for a hard and deeply conflicting relationship with President Biden, especially because he knows that Biden sees Russia as one of America’s biggest security threats. As a vice president, with Barack Obama, Bideen worked actively to support pro-Western politicians in Ukraine, which is a country at war with Russia.
Both within the United States and globally, leaders and citizens recognize a sharp change in power and have both great hopes and fears about the future steps of our new president.
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It pains me when I reach the part about power. It makes it seem like a new party taking over means the undoing of the intricacies set in place before. On other matters, there already begins the desire for radical change from the previous term, obviously, America thought that since Trump wasn't reelected but many national leaders around the globe really expect change. This sets an expectation that may not be completely achieved especially with a part of congress being of the opposite party. This is also a testament towards the progressiveness of American politics, it seems that America is ready to have a Female figure in power, and along with the liberal views offered from the democratic head, we can expect to see much more topics surrounding gender equality, LGBTQ+, and others in that nature being tackled.
Biden's victory is likely a major relief for many Western countries around the world. Military officials such as five-star admiral William McRaven have openly criticized Trump's actions with regard to the current global environment, and view Biden as someone that will help to rebuild confidence in the United States while also strengthening alliances against many of the world's threats. Quite frankly, it is very upsetting to see Donald Trump, the president of the United States, so desperate to uproot the very traditions of American democracy by baselessly attacking the system that has persisted for so long. Furthermore, in many cases, the courts that the Trump campaign has brought issues to have refused to accept their efforts due to the complete lack of evidence for the alleged problems. On a world stage, leaders of countries are making fun of the humiliating actions of President Trump, and many Americans, while not necessarily in agreement with Democrats, have elected Democratic candidate Joe Biden, viewing him as someone that can help to undo the damage of President Trump. Furthermore, Biden has actively campaigned as an American President, seeking to represent and support all Americans, not just those that voted for him. Whether or not Biden will be successful in his goals depends a lot on the January runoffs in Georgia for the senate seats, but as a whole, I look forward to seeing him usher in a new era of respect for the position as one of the most powerful people on the planet.
At this point, the near consensus of political scientists, domestic politicians, and international governments has made clear that there is an overwhelming likelihood that Biden will justly win the 2020 presidency. The domestic and global reactions to Biden’s win are unsurprising, as many liberals and conservatives both strongly support a just, democratic election. I would hesitate to conflate the number of Republicans who unyieldingly support Trump’s voter fraud claims regardless of the popular evidence with Steve Scalise’s comment that the election is not over until the legal proceedings are over. The key word is legal, and if Trump has the right under law to challenge certain voting outcomes (the court cases of which he’s lost) and ask for a recount, yes, the election is not over until legal challenges are resolved.
On the foreign side, it’s not surprising that many European countries strongly supported Biden because many of them are under liberal leadership, had good relations with the Obama-Biden presidency, and Trump exited a number of European-U.S. alliances like the Paris Accords which Trump deemed unfair to the U.S., who was giving far more than many other European countries. Regarding the undemocratic, corrupt governments, their reactions are unsurprising as well. It’s sad yet expected that Iran’s president would use this turbulent, contested election to excoriate democracy in general as well as imply that the new presidency can “fix it’s errors” and resume providing millions in aid through JCPOA. This again brings up the difficult question of whether to fund a terrorist regime in Iran in order to try and stop their buildup of nuclear weapons. Or, whether to use sanctions, threats, diplomacy that might anger this despotic regime. Second, it’s obvious that the Palestinian Authority’s President would strongly support the Biden presidency because Trump was far more hawkish on the Palestinians than was Obama. Like Iran, this brings up the difficult question of how to deal with Palestine. Should we stop providing the corrupt Palestinian Authority aid and trust them to distribute it to their starving, war-torn, suffering citizens rather than engage in terrorism? Or do we risk American and Israeli lives by forcing U.S. and Israeli forces to provide aid inside the West Bank and Gaza? Trump often took away aid from Palestine entirely and didn’t negotiate with them; Biden will likely do some of the opposite and some of the same. Russia...is Russia. Putin can’t be happy.
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