“I have often repeated, during my campaign, that when we fight, we win. But sometimes the fight can be long and that does not mean that we will not end up winning,” insisted the vice -President, in the final speech of this candidacy which began in the unique and incredible conditions that we know, after the sudden abandonment of Joe Biden, on July 21.
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The fight continues
As is tradition, Kamala Harris has officially “conceded” her defeat, but “what I am not conceding,” she insisted, “is my fight for the values that fueled this campaign.” And to list the causes that are dear to him: the right of women to be masters of their bodies, violence linked to firearms, democracy and the rule of law, justice, fundamental freedoms and rights of which each and every everyone, without distinction, must be able to enjoy.
Calling on her supporters to remain mobilized, the Democrat recalled that their “loyalty does not go to a President, or to a party, but to the Constitution of the United States”. A Constitution that Donald Trump had dangerously mishandled, after the 2020 election, by contesting its results without reason and encouraging his supporters to storm the Capitol, the seat of legislative power in Washington.
A highly symbolic choice
It is in this same city that Kamala Harris chose a highly symbolic place to deliver her concession speech: Howard University. It was in this institution, which is one of the “historically black universities”, that the Vice-President had graduated in political science and economics in the 1980s, before studying law at the University of California in San Francisco. A grateful and perhaps nostalgic look at this “black college” which helped to make it what it is, but also, probably, a final arrow ironically addressed to Donald Trump who, with his usual contempt, had questions the African-American identity of her rival.
A few hours earlier, not without having tried in vain more than once, Kamala Harris had called her Republican opponent to congratulate him in person on his victory. She used this conversation to emphasize the importance of a peaceful transition of power and call on Donald Trump to be the president of all Americans. In the process, Joe Biden announced that he had invited the man who was his predecessor and will be his successor to visit the White House. He also announced that he would speak to the nation this Thursday.
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An extremely rare scenario
This is only the second time in American history that a president has found himself in Joe Biden’s situation. Only, before him, Benjamin Harrison, who occupied the presidency from 1889 to 1893, succeeded the same man who succeeded him in turn, Grover Cleveland in this case. It must be remembered, however, that Donald Trump has never acknowledged his defeat in 2020 (and it is a safe bet that he will be less inclined than ever to do so after his triumphant victory on Tuesday) and that, consequently, he did not deign to welcome Joe Biden to the White House on January 20, 2021, before his swearing in, preferring to leave Washington like a thief to return to his residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
