Kamala Harris promises 'peaceful transfer of power,' talks 'loyalty to Constitution, conscience and God'
Harris says she concedes the election but not the fight
Vice President Kamala Harris has conceded the election, promising Americans that there will be a “peaceful transfer of power” and stressed loyalty “to our God,” while also promising to keep fighting.
By early Wednesday morning, Republican former President Donald Trump was projected the winner of the presidential election, being the first person to win nonconsecutive presidential races since Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.
In a speech Wednesday afternoon at Howard University before her supporters, Harris stated that “we must accept the results of this election” and vowed to help with a “peaceful transfer of power.”
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“A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results,” she stated. “That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny.”
“And anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it. At the same time, in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States.”
Harris also stated that Americans also owe “loyalty to our conscience and to our God,” adding that “my allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.”
Harris said that this included fighting for “the dignity of all people,” democracy and “the rule of law,” noting that she “will never give up” and that “the fight for our country is always worth it.”
During the Democratic Party primary season, President Joe Biden had initially won enough delegates to secure the presidential nomination and run a reelection campaign.
However, many progressive activists and Democrat officials called on the 81-year-old Biden to drop out of the race due to questions regarding his mental fitness, especially following a widely panned debate performance against Trump in June.
In July, Biden announced that he was quitting the race and would instead “focus all my energies on my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”
Biden endorsed Harris for the nomination, with many party officials and politicians eventually deciding to support the vice president, installing her the new Democratic presidential hopeful.
The decision to replace Biden with Harris was criticized by groups like Black Lives Matter, who argued that giving her the nomination without a “public voting process” made the Democrats “a party of hypocrites.”
In advance of the Howard University speech, Harris said she had called Trump on the phone to concede the race and congratulate him on his victory.
At his victory speech, Trump said his presidential campaign was “the greatest political movement of all time” and that “there’s never been anything like this in this country.”
“We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly,” he added. “We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country.”
“Every single day I will be fighting for you, and with every breath in my body I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve.”
