2020 Elections

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last Tuesday, our country conducted the most sacred process in our democratic system of government, a national election.

It was an election unlike any other in modern history. Much of the voting was done before election day itself, as the global pandemic forced States to adjust their balloting and voting procedures. The counting of the vote took a little longer than most Americans might have expected or hoped. Indeed, some of the final tabulations are not yet complete. It is still to be determined which party will hold the majority in this Chamber.

But we do know a few things. First and most importantly, former Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden will become the 46th President of the United States. Our dear colleague, the distinguished Senator from California, Kamala Harris, will be the next Vice President of the United States. And on January 20, the country will finally--finally-- turn the page on one of the most divisive and chaotic chapters in our history.

President-Elect Joe Biden has told the country that it is time to come together and heal, to unify once again to fight not our political opponents but our common enemies: disease and poverty and injustice. There is no person better suited to the task than the former Vice President. He will be a great President for all Americans.

Vice President-Elect Harris, meanwhile, has just made history four times over. She will be the first African-American woman, the first Asian-American woman, the first biracial woman, and the first woman, period, to ever serve as Vice President of the United States.

I congratulate the former Vice President, his wife Jill, our colleague Senator Harris, and her husband Doug on their hard-fought victory.

More Americans voted for President-Elect Biden and Vice President- Elect Harris than any ticket in our Nation's history. They have given them an enormous burden and a decisive mandate to take the reins of the executive branch and marshal this government into action--for they will assume the high offices of the Presidency and the Vice Presidency at a time of unprecedented challenge.

Our great Nation faces the greatest economic crisis in 75 years and the greatest public health crisis in a century. Extraordinary inequalities of wealth and income strike at the heart of the idea of America as a land of equal opportunity. Racial disparities in our society strike at the heart of the idea of America as a place of equal justice. Climate change threatens the very future of our planet.

The American people have placed their faith in President-Elect Biden to confront those challenges head-on: to relieve their suffering, to repair our democracy, to recover our economy, and rebuild the country and a planet for this generation and for the next. I have no doubt their faith will be rewarded, but I also have no doubt that the task ahead is daunting.

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