Chennai: Joe Biden was confirmed as the next US president on Monday as the Electoral College formalised his victory over Donald Trump, all but closing the door on the incumbent’s efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election.
As Biden appealed to Americans to ‘turn the page’ on the divisive contest, electors met across all US states to seal his win, with California pushing Biden over the majority of 270 votes – and clearing the way for him to take office on 20 January.
But with his ability to steal the spotlight still intact, Trump announced moments later that Attorney General Bill Barr, who contradicted the outgoing president’s claims the 3 November election was marred by fraud, would leave his post next week.
“Our relationship has been a very good one”, Trump tweeted, making no mention of their divergence. “Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family”.
While a senior administration official said Barr resigned of his own accord and was not pushed out, the extraordinary convergence of events highlighted the tensions underlying Trump’s ‘lame duck’ final weeks in office.
The 200-plus-year-old Electoral College procedure is merely a formality in confirming the will of the people expressed at the polls, but the process carried added significance given the turbulence of last month’s election and Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his own defeat.
California’s electors burst into applause as the presiding officer read out the tally of 55 in favour of Biden and none opposed — confirming Barack Obama’s former vice president as the nation’s 46th president.
“Now it is time to turn the page, to unite, to heal”, Biden said. “I will be a president for all Americans”.
Soundly beaten by Biden on 3 November, Trump continues to claim, without evidence, that he was the real winner.
Court after court has turned down the Republican team’s claims of election fraud and last Friday the US Supreme Court dealt a final legal blow when it threw out an appeal lodged by Trump allies from Texas and other Republican-led states.
Formal Electoral College confirmation drew a further line under the election, which saw Biden make Trump a rare one-term president after campaigning on a message of vanquishing the Covid-19 pandemic, healing political division and restoring traditional US diplomacy.
Polls show as few as one in four Republican voters accept the election results.
Trump maintained his stream of threats and unsubstantiated claims on Twitter Monday, citing “massive VOTER FRAUD” and declaring that certifying election results would be “a severely punishable crime.”