President Joe Biden urged Americans to "accept the choice the country made" Thursday as he spoke about President-elect Donald Trump's victory in an address to the nation on Thursday from the White House.
"I know for some people it is a time for victory, to state the obvious. For others, it's a time of loss. Campaigns are contests, of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other, we accept the choice the country made," Biden said in his remarks from the Rose Garden.
"You can't love your country only when you win," he continued. "You can't love your neighbor only when you agree. Something I think you can do no matter who you voted for is see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans. "
"The American spirit endures," he said.
Biden's remarks were his first public comments since Trump won a resounding victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday's presidential election.
Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 election, dropped out of the race in July after a disastrous debate performance against Trump and endorsed Harris.
The White House said Biden had spoken to Trump on Wednesday and expressed a commitment to having a smooth transition and working to heal the divisions in the country.
"President Trump looks forward to the meeting, which will take place shortly, and very much appreciated the call," Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said.
Biden's address comes a day after the vice president congratulated Trump in her concession speech at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C., and called for a "peaceful transfer of power."
"A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election we accept the results," Harris said. "That principle as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny, and anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it. We owe loyalty not to a president or to a party but to the Constitution of the United States."
After Trump's 2020 defeat, a mob of his supporters rioted at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to disrupt Congress' certifying the results of the election.
At his victory speech early Wednesday morning, Trump relished his comeback victory, the first to win a second nonconsecutive term since Grover Cleveland in 1884.
""This was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time.There's never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond. And now it's going to reach a new level of importance because we're going to help our country heal," he told his supporters.
"We're going to help our country heal. We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly. We're going to fix our borders. We're going to fix everything about our country, and we've made history for a reason tonight. And the reason is going to be just that. We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible," he continued.
