Trump completes battleground sweep as Biden prepares to host him at the White House
By Farrah Tomazin
Washington: Donald Trump has won the state of Arizona giving him a sweep of all seven battleground states in the election as he prepares to return to Washington to meet with President Joe Biden this week to accelerate his transition to power.
Four days after Vice President Kamala Harris’ crushing defeat, the White House announced that Biden would host the president-elect in the Oval Office on Wednesday morning (Thursday AEST), continuing a tradition that Trump himself did not offer after failing to accept the results of the 2020 election.
Joe Biden will host Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday.Credit: AP
The border state of Arizona was the only remaining state yet to be decided but on Sunday afternoon AEDT it was called for Trump.
It comes after the critical battleground of Nevada was won by Trump on Saturday AEDT, marking the first time the state has elected a Republican in a presidential election since George W Bush in 2004.
The Republican nominee also won the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina.
Democrats are entering a second Trump presidency with no clear leader or plan on how to win back the multi-ethnic, working-class voters the party lost in Tuesday’s (Wednesday AEDT) poll.
But as the soul-searching continues, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Harris would have been in a better position to win had Biden withdrawn from the race sooner than he did.
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi at Kamala Harris’ concession speech last week.Credit: AP
Pelosi, one of the most influential people in the party, said an earlier Biden withdrawal would have also given the party time to run an open primary, which could have created momentum around a new candidate who would have performed better with the Democratic base.
Others who were initially viewed as contenders included California Governor Gavin Newsom, Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. However, once Biden endorsed Harris, all Democrats fell into line to avoid an intra-party war with only months before the election.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi told The New York Times.
“As I say, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened.”
Supporters react as Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech on Wednesday.Credit: AP
Biden stood down on July 21 after weeks of internal dissent after his disastrous debate performance against Trump in June, which put the focus on his age and mental capacity to do another four years in the White House.
Since her concession speech at Howard University on Wednesday, Harris has kept a low profile at her Washington residence at the Naval Observatory in north-west DC.
However, her vice presidential running mate, Tim Walz, has spoken out for the first time since the election, telling supporters in Minnesota, where he remains the state’s governor, that he would fight any attempt by the incoming administration to “bring a hateful agenda in this state”.
Walz offered an olive branch, saying that “while there might not be a place in our state for the most extreme elements of that agenda, there should be a place in our politics for everyone to be heard”.
“I think we ought to swallow – and this is me in this, as I’m speaking about myself – swallow a little bit of pride and look a little harder to find common ground with our neighbours who didn’t vote like we did in this election,” the 60-year-old said.
“Maybe when we get a little break from this campaign that we’re in, we’ll be able to look at each other and see not enemies but neighbours.”
Trump has also kept a low profile since his victory as he builds his team ahead of Inauguration Day on January 20.
On Thursday, he made his first major staffing appointment, tapping loyal campaign co-chair Susie Wiles to be the gatekeeper to his office when he returns to Washington.
On Saturday, the president-elect issued a statement announcing a Trump-Vance inauguration committee, co-chaired by “long-time friends and supporters” of the president-elect: real estate investor Steve Witkoff and former Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler.
“Together, we will celebrate this moment, steeped in history and tradition, and then get to work to achieve the most incredible future for our people, restoring strength, success, and common sense to the Oval Office,” Trump said.
Trump secured an emphatic victory against Harris last week, winning the 270 Electoral College votes he needed to take the presidency, partly by picking up a small but significant share of younger voters, black voters and Hispanic voters.
Many of those voters were angered by the cost-of-living pressures and by the scale of illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border.
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