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Tag: Joe Biden

  • Biden to Trump: Time to respect the people’s will

    Biden to Trump: Time to respect the people’s will

    U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Monday said it was time for outgoing President Donald Trump to stop grandstanding and concede the Nov. 3 election.

    Addressing the nation shortly after the Electoral College confirmed his victory in the Nov. 3 general polls, Biden said the “will of the people prevailed”.

    He said Trump’s refusal to accept defeat after his several lawsuits failed up to the Supreme Court was an “unprecedented assault on our democracy”.

    He stated that the country’s democracy had been “pushed, tested and threatened” but “proved to be resilient, true and strong”.

    “The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago, and we now know that nothing, not even a pandemic or an abuse of power can extinguish that flame.

    “This is the biggest voter turn out in the history of the United States of America.

    “The number is so big that this election now ranks the clearest demonstration of the true will of the American people.

    “Together, Vice President-elect Harris and I earned 306 electoral votes, well exceeding the 270 electoral votes needed to secure victory.

    “Three hundred and six electoral votes is the same number of electoral votes that Donald Trump and Vice President Pence received when they won in 2016.

    “At the time, President Trump called the electoral college a landslide. And I respectfully suggest he does so now,” the president-elect said.

    Biden won the November election with received 306 electoral votes, against Trump’s 232.

    The next step is the transmission of the votes to a joint session of Congress presided over by Vice President Pence on Jan. 6 for counting and final confirmation.

    This will pave the way for Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

    Trump said in November that he would step aside in January if the electoral college ratified Biden’s victory.

  • U.S.-Russia rivalry will continue under Biden, says Russian lawmaker

    U.S.-Russia rivalry will continue under Biden, says Russian lawmaker

    Senior Russian lawmaker, Konstantin Kosachev, says there will be no breakthroughs in the U.S.-Russia relations under President-Elect Joe Biden as Washington’s military and political rivalry with Moscow will continue.

    Kosachev, who is the chairman of the Russian upper house’s foreign affairs committee, made the remarks to Sputnik on Tuesday.

    Biden was on Monday confirmed as the next president by the U.S. Electoral College, with 306 electoral votes against incumbent Donald Trump’s 232.

    The U.S. Congress will certify the results on January 6.

    “I assume that under the next president, the U.S. will base its relations with the outside world, including Russia, on the same ‘America First’ principle, no matter what new rhetoric accompanies it.

    “Thus, there will be no breakthroughs in the Russia-U.S. relations, the bitter rivalry in the political and military areas will persist as well as the economic competition,” Kosachev said.

    The lawmaker recalled that Biden’s predecessors, Trump and Barack Obama, both started their presidential tenures promising to revise the country’s foreign policy and prove the U.S. leadership by showing off its achievements instead of imposing its interests.

    “Biden has not made such pronouncements and is unlikely to do so. Firstly, because the U.S. has fewer and fewer achievements, the Americans are starting to lose on the global competition.

    “Secondly, the U.S. can secure its global dominance only through brutal imposition of its interest on both allies and opponents,” Kosachev stressed.

    The lawmaker went on to say that Biden in fact has even less room for maneuvering than his predecessors.

    As Biden heads to the White House, many experts and officials around the globe speculated his presidency will represent a sharp break with Trump’s foreign policy approach.

  • Putin congratulates Biden on U.S. election victory

    Putin congratulates Biden on U.S. election victory

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a congratulatory message to Joe Biden after the U.S. Electoral College confirmed the latter as winner of the U.S. presidential election, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

    The Russian leader noted that U.S.-Russian bilateral cooperation would serve the interests of the whole world.

    “Russian Federation President Putin sent a congratulatory message to Joseph Biden on the occasion of his victory in the U.S. presidential election.

    “The Russian president noted that the Russian-U.S. cooperation, based on the principles of equality and mutual respect, would serve the interests of the two countries’ people and the international community,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

    According to the Kremlin, Putin wished Biden success and expressed confidence that Russia and the U.S., “bearing a special responsibility for global security,” can contribute to solving many problems and challenges that the world is facing.

    “I am ready for cooperation and contacts with you,” Putin said.

  • End of the road for Donald Trump as Electoral College confirms Joe Biden next U.S. President

    End of the road for Donald Trump as Electoral College confirms Joe Biden next U.S. President

    Joe Biden was confirmed as the next US president on Monday as the Electoral College formalized 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 January 20.

    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 that the November 3 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 favor of Biden and none opposed — confirming Barack Obama’s former vice president as the nation’s 46th president.

    “Democracy prevailed. We the people voted…. The integrity of our elections remains intact,” Biden said in excerpts from a speech he was expected to deliver in his home city of Wilmington, Delaware later Monday.

    “Now it is time to turn the page, to unite, to heal,” Biden said. “I will be a president for all Americans.”

    This year, the somewhat arcane Electoral College procedure was at the center of an ugly — and many warn dangerous — challenge led by Trump against the credibility of US democracy.

    Soundly beaten by Biden on November 3, 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.

  • Joe Biden, Kamala Harris emerge TIME Magazine’s ‘Person Of The Year’

    Joe Biden, Kamala Harris emerge TIME Magazine’s ‘Person Of The Year’

    TIME Magazine has named U.S. president-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris as its person of the year.

    “For changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are TIME’s 2020 Person of the Year,” TIME editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal said in a statement.

    Biden and Harris claimed victory in the presidential election on Nov. 7, after running a cautious yet focused campaign, pledging to unite the country, end the chaos of Donald Trump and get a grip on the coronavirus pandemic which is rampaging through the country.

    The 77-year-old Biden has spent most of his life working in Washington.

    He served as Barack Obama’s vice president, while Harris is the first African-American, first woman, and the first person of Asian descent to serve as vice president.

    The shortlist unveiled earlier on Thursday included Biden, incumbent president, Donald Trump, Frontline Health Care Workers, and top U.S. infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci as well as the Movement for Racial Justice.

    In 2019, TIME voted Swedish youth climate activist, Greta Thunberg as its person of the year.

    Since 1927, the editors of TIME have used the title to honour the world figures, who have had the greatest impact on the past year.

  • Coronavirus, ASUU, Davido, others top Google search

    Coronavirus, ASUU, Davido, others top Google search

    Internet search engine, Google, on Wednesday said that Coronavirus, Joe Biden, Davido, Kobe Bryant and Martinis topped the results of its 2020 Year-in-Search.

    Mr Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Communication Officer, WEST Africa, Google, said in a statement that Google’s 2020 Year-in-Search compiled the moments, people, topics, events, and places that captured the world’s attention in the year.

    Kola-Ogunlade said that just as Search helps people to explore and discover a world of information, there were many ways to explore the year through the lens of Google Search.

    He said that from overall global stories to hundreds of top 10 lists of trending topics across pop culture and lifestyle, sports, music, news, and more from across almost 70 countries.

    According to him, Coronavirus was top on everyone’s minds in 2020 and the pandemic’s impact was reflected also in the Search lists.

    ‘’Pandemic notwithstanding, Nigerians’ interest in celebrities, music, movies and TV shows showed strongly again in 2020 Year-in-Search lists.

    ‘’From ‘how to make hand sanitiser’ to ‘Rema’, ‘Betty – Butter’ and ‘Mulan’, Nigerians use Search to explore their world.

    ‘’Other top trending global search included election results, zoom, India Vs News Zealand, Google classroom, ASUU, Naira Marley, among others,’’ he said.

    Kola-Ogunlade listed other trending searches as recipes, trending questions, trending people, trending songs, and others.

  • U.S. President-Elect’s son, Hunter Biden facing tax probe

    U.S. President-Elect’s son, Hunter Biden facing tax probe

    Hunter Biden, the son of President-elect Joe Biden, announced he is facing a federal probe into his taxes, without elaborating further, but insisting he has done nothing wrong.

    The younger Biden’s business dealings abroad provided fodder for the Trump campaign this year.

    “I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs,” the son said in a statement on Wednesday.

    “I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately,” the younger Biden said.

    In a brief statement, the president-elect said his son had faced “vicious personal attacks” in recent months.

  • Biden hints at scaled down inauguration

    Biden hints at scaled down inauguration

    U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has given a preview of what his January inauguration will look like, noting that the event will not be typical due to the pandemic.

    “We’re gonna follow again the science and recommendation of the experts on keeping people safe.

    “So, it is highly unlikely there’ll be a million people on the mall going all the way down,” Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware.

    He added: “I think you’re going to see something that’s closer to what the convention was like, than the typical inauguration,” referring to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, which was held primarily online.

    “First and foremost, my objective is to keep America safe and still allow people to celebrate.

    “To celebrate and see one another celebrate,” he noted.

    The president-elect said discussions are currently ongoing with leading members of congress.

    Biden hinted that the large, in-person events that are usually held during a presidential inauguration, including a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, will likely not take place.

    He also spoke of “a lot of virtual activity in states all across America, engaging even more people than before.”

    The inauguration will be held on January 20, and the number of confirmed coronavirus cases is expected to continue to rise until then.

    The number of coronavirus cases in the US has spiked sharply in recent weeks.

    More than 14.14 million Americans have been infected with the novel virus since the beginning of the outbreak and over 276,000 people have died from the disease, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

  • Biden appoints Nigerian-American as Deputy Treasury Secretary

    Biden appoints Nigerian-American as Deputy Treasury Secretary

    U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is set to announce the appointment of Nigerian-American, Adewale Wally Adeyemo as Deputy Treasury Secretary.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Adeyemo will become the highest ranking Nigerian-American to serve in the American government with the appointment.

    According to a US-based media Politico reported, Adeyemo will serve under former Federal Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen, who Biden plans to appoint to lead the US Treasury Department.

    Adeyemo was a senior international economic adviser during the former President Barack Obama administration.

    His appointment is one of many key cabinet positions Biden is expected to announce in the coming days.

    Born in Nigeria, Adeyemo was raised in California where he obtained a bachelor’s degree before proceeding to Yale Law School for his legal education.

    Before his appointment into the Obama administration, Adeyemo worked as an editor at the Hamilton Project, then served as senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to Jack Lew in the United States Department of Treasury.

    He later worked as the chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and also served as the first chief of staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Elizabeth Warren.

    In 2015, he was appointed to concurrently serve as Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics and deputy director of the National Economic Council.

    He went on to become the first president of the Obama Foundation.

    According to Politico, Biden is also expected to name Cecilia Rouse, an African American economist at Princeton University, to lead the Council of Economic Advisers.

  • Biden presents his national security team

    Biden presents his national security team

    United States (U.S.) president-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday presented his future national security team to the public, highlighting their decades of experience in public service.

    Biden stressed that his nominees would help return the U.S. to its position as a global leader following the unpredictable years of the Trump administration.

    ”If confirmed by the Senate, his nominees would include the first Latino to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the first woman to be director of national intelligence.

    “I’ve long said that America leads not only by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.

    ”And I’m proud to put forward this incredible team that will lead by example,” Biden said.

    Both Antony Blinken, Biden’s pick for secretary of state, and Alejandro Mayorkas, the future administration’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, described how their families fled communist regimes in Europe and Latin America and eventually settled in the U.S.

    Among the speakers was former secretary of state John Kerry, who Biden nominated to be the first presidential envoy for climate.

    Kerry noted that the U.S. will rejoin the Paris climate agreement on the first day after Biden takes office, and will take additional steps to combat climate change over the next four years.

    “America is back, multilateralism is back, diplomacy is back,” said Biden’s nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.