Joe Biden has called for Americans to “bring down the temperature” as he addressed the US for the first time in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s sweeping election victory.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, the US president said: “I know for some people it is a time for victory, for others it is a time of loss… the country chooses one or the other.
“I have said many times you can’t love your country only when you win, you can’t love your neighbour only when you agree.”
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The president said he had spoken with Mr Trump and said he has ordered his team to ensure a “peaceful and orderly transition” of power.
He said: “The people vote and choose their own leaders and they do it peacefully. In a democracy, the will of the people prevails.”
His remarks could be seen as a subtle dig at how Mr Trump refused to accept he lost the election in 2020.
The president also spoke about the “integrity of the American electoral system”, saying: “It is honest, it is fair and it is transparent. It can be trusted, win or lose.”
He concluded: “America endures. We’re going to be okay, but we need to stay engaged.”
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Mr Biden’s speech was intended to highlight what he sees as his achievements, Sky News’ US correspondent Mark Stone said. With more time, those achievements may have been more clear, he added.
“I thought it was interesting that he kind of made the point, almost suggesting if we’d had a bit more time, maybe the American people would have felt the achievements that this administration has put forward,” he said.
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It comes after vice president Kamala Harris called Mr Trump to concede the race and congratulate him.
In a speech in Washington DC, she told her supporters she was “proud of the race we ran” but said “we must accept the result”.
Trump’s path to decisive victory
Mr Trump won a decisive victory – comfortably clearing the 270 Electoral College votes needed to secure the presidency and clinching five battleground states: North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
He is also leading in Arizona and Nevada, which are yet to be called, according to Sky’s US partner NBC News, meaning Mr Trump is on course to claim all seven swing states.
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The 78-year-old president-elect has been keeping a low profile after addressing his supporters in Florida yesterday morning to declare victory.
He is the first defeated president in over a century to return to the Oval Office and also the first convicted of a crime to win the presidency.
Mr Trump is facing several criminal and civil cases, but experts say his victory will essentially end the cases brought against him – at least while he is in the White House.
After spending his first day as president-elect receiving congratulatory phone calls from world leaders, Mr Trump will now begin the process of choosing who will be in his second White House administration before inauguration day on 20 January.
