Barack Obama Cheered On Joe Biden & Kamala Harris After Their 2020 Win
The new president-elect was finally announced on Saturday, Nov. 7 following the call of Pennsylvania's results in the 2020 election. After several national news outlets called former Vice President Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential race, President Barack Obama shared a message on Twitter in support of his friend and former VP. It's maybe no surprise given their history, but Barack Obama's tweet about Joe Biden winning the 2020 election is quite a celebratory message.
Prior to Biden's projected win on Nov. 7, Biden and current president Donald Trump were in a close race, awaiting the results of the various battleground states. Finally, Pennsylvania made the call, bringing Biden 20 more electoral votes. The count set him over the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency. Shortly after the news, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) and Biden both tweeted out about the future, and Obama took to Twitter to congratulate the pair.
"Congratulations to my friends, @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris — our next President and Vice President of the United States," wrote Obama on Nov. 7. "I could not be prouder to congratulate our next President, Joe Biden, and our next First Lady, Jill Biden. I also couldn't be prouder to congratulate Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff for Kamala's groundbreaking election as our next Vice President," he began.
"In this election, under circumstances never experience, Americans turned out in numbers never seen. And once every vote is counted, President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will have won a historic and decisive victory," he continued. "We're fortunate that Joe's got what it takes to be President and already carries himself that way," said Obama. "Because when he walks into the White House in January, he'll face a series of extraordinary challenges no incoming president ever has — a raging pandemic, an unequal economy and justice system, a democracy at risk, and a climate in peril."
Obama continued to praise Biden's leadership, writing, "I know he'll do the job with the best interests of every American at heart, whether or not he had their vote. So I encourage every American to give him a chance and lend him your support. The election results at every level show that the country remains deeply and bitterly divided.”
His message was not only congratulatory, but a call for the country to unify. "It will be up to not just Joe and Kamala, but each of us, to do our part — to reach out beyond our comfort zone, to listen to others, to lower the temperature and find some common ground from which to move forward, all of us remembering that we are one nation, under God," he said.
In the last leg of his statement, he thanked everyone involved in working for change. “I want to thank everyone who worked, organized, and volunteered for the Biden campaign, every American who got involved in their own way, and everybody who voted for the first time. Your efforts made a difference. Enjoy this moment," he continued. "Stay engaged. I know it can be exhausting. But for this democracy to endure, it requires active citizenship and sustained focus on the issues — not just in an election season, but all the days in between.”
“Our democracy needs all of us more than ever," concluded Obama. "And Michelle and I look forward to supporting our next President and First Lady however we can.”
It's likely that President Donald Trump will continue to contest the results, so the transition may not be as smooth as one would hope. But it's clear Obama's excited to see Biden sworn in as the 46th president on Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2021.
