| THE BIG STORY
The reality facing President-Elect Joe Biden
On Saturday, Democratic candidate Joe Biden was declared the winner of a bitterly-fought presidential election, catapulting him into an office he has coveted for nearly five decades. Now, the work begins.
Biden inherits a fragile America facing crises on multiple fronts, from the coronavirus to increasingly severe consequences of climate change.
👉 Just electing Joe Biden won’t stop the coronavirus pandemic. Biden will need to persuade the 70 million-plus people who voted for Trump to accept his more aggressive strategy to combat the pandemic. But medical experts say with Biden in charge, the country at least has a chance of containing the outbreak.
👉 Trump screwed the US on climate change. Can Biden save it? Biden faces an uphill battle to undo Trump’s environmental policies and roll out an ambitious $2 trillion climate plan.
👉 The Democrats will hold on to the House, but that doesn’t mean Biden will have it easy.
Stepping back a bit Biden won a historic number of votes and defeated a sitting president, the latter of which is not a common occurrence in American democracy. On Saturday night, 96 hours after polls closed, the president-elect delivered a speech making the case for America to come together again.
“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric. To lower the temperature. To see each other again. To listen to each other again. To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We are not enemies. We are Americans,” he said.
Ruby Cramer and Henry Gomez reported on Biden’s long and winding road to that victory speech.
On the streets, in simultaneous celebrations across many cities, people honked and cheered after Biden was declared the winner. In Washington, DC, they marched to the White House. In Atlanta, they ran into the streets and sang. They waved flags in Austin. In Minneapolis, people danced in front of the police's Third Precinct building, which was burned after the police killing of George Floyd.
People celebrate in Times Square. Ted Shaffrey / AP On the other side
President Donald Trump was golfing when Biden was declared the winner. He saw people celebrating his loss on his way back to the White House. He hasn’t conceded yet — in fact, his camp has doubled down on fake news about the election. Reports indicate he will continue with what are so far flimsy legal battles to contest the results.
And now, there are questions about when Biden’s transition can begin. Enter: The GSA’s Emily Murphy, who will determine when Biden’s team can get access to funds and start getting into the nitty-gritty.
Trump has survived bankruptcies and was rewarded with a reality TV show and the US presidency. But Trump’s gilded streak is now over. Kadia Goba and Rosie Gray wrote about why the lasting effects of his presidency will be etched into the American psyche for years.
Trump supporters outside the entrance of his golf club, holding banners and flags. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / Getty Images SNAPSHOTS Kamala Harris is the first woman vice president-elect but said she “won’t be the last.” When Harris spoke for the first time as vice president–elect in a victory speech, she placed herself in history. Here’s how women reacted to her speech.
Alex Trebek, the longtime host of the iconic game show Jeopardy! has died. The game show said in a statement that Trebek passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by family and friends. He was 80. Celebrities are paying their respects.
Immigrants stuck on the Mexican side of the border are celebrating Biden’s win. Thousands of immigrants sent back to Mexico by the Trump administration hope Biden will make good on his promise to end the policy that has forced them to wait in dangerous border cities.
“The chaos may end”: How Department of Homeland Security employees are reacting to Biden’s win. Trump’s loss brought relief to employees who had been worried that the Trump administration had done long-term damage to the agency’s reputation.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR MAGA? The MAGA movement is splintering between those preparing for a future without Trump and those refusing to imagine one
Donald Trump stunned many by winning in 2016. In 2020, he may have lost the election, but he increased the number of people who turned out to vote for him. So what happens to all this energy Trump created now that he lost the presidency?
Rosie Gray spent time trying to understand the future of the MAGA movement and the conservative media that followed Trump with devotion.
Gray writes, “An important divide has arrived on the right in the immediate aftermath of the election over how far to go in following Donald Trump, and how far people are willing to go to destroy others who don’t follow along. At the heart of the divide is a gap between those triangulating for a future without Trump and those who are refusing to imagine one.”
HON HON HON A shirtless reveler hilariously interrupted a French journalist’s broadcast As many US cities erupted in celebration, Maxime Switek, a journalist from French news station BFMTV, was just trying to do his job. He was reporting live from the boisterous celebration scene, steps away from the White House.
Switek had quite the run-in with a shirtless man who was celebrating. The man tells the journalist, “I've been to France, it's beautiful!” then adopting a clearly flawless faux-French accent, which made the reporter crack up laughing.
The scene was all a bit surreal and hilarious and of course it went viral.
Give yourself permission to start the day slowly, Elamin P.S. If you like this newsletter, help keep our reporting free for all. Support BuzzFeed News by becoming a member here. (Monthly memberships are available worldwide). đź“ť This letter was edited and brought to you by Elamin Abdelmahmoud and BuzzFeed News. You can always reach us here.
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