Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., better known as Joe Biden, turned 78 this Friday, becoming president-elect of the United States, while his rival, outgoing president Donald Trump, continues to deny the results of the November 3 elections and refuses to facilitate the transition of presidential power.
Unless Trump's irrational attempt prevails, whose legal team subscribes without evidence to a complicated conspiracy theory to challenge what they consider a "fraud", Biden will take office on January 20 as the oldest president in the country's history. In this list of veterans he will even displace Ronald Reagan, who left power in 1989, at 77 years and 349 days.
The newspaper The Wall Street Journal This week he congratulated the president-elect on his birthday, demanding transparency and a cognitive health test.
During the election campaign, Trump, 74, insisted on the advanced age of his Democratic contender and mocked his mental capacity, almost always referring to him as "Sleepy Joe."
Biden faces several fundamental political challenges in a politically divided country: recovering democratic credibility eroded by Trumpist populism, overcoming the worst public health crisis in a century, reducing unemployment indicators exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and alleviating racial injustice .
The circumstances arising from the polls on November 3 will not facilitate this process. Democrats retain the majority in the House of Representatives, but their advantage has been reduced. In the Senate they have a narrow margin to gain control, which depends on winning the two seats at stake in Georgia on January 5. In that case, they would be tied with the Republicans, but Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of that stay, could break the tie.
If they fail to gain control, Biden could face difficulties in naming members of his administration. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who are still interested in holding executive positions, are at risk of being excluded from the government in that balance between the demand of the progressive wing of the party and the reality of the division in the Senate.
Warren wants the Treasury Department and Sanders wants the labor department. The Vermont senator was considered a suitable choice for that cabinet position, “to put the spotlight on the many crises that families are suffering,” he said.
When Biden takes office and becomes the country's 46th president It will be only the second time in American history that a Catholic occupies the White House.
At her side will be a vice president who, in addition to being the first woman of color to hold the position, comes from a family that has embraced the Baptist, Hindu and Jewish faiths.
Pope Francis and the Catholic bishops of the United States were quick to congratulate the president-elect, noting that he is only the second Catholic president of the country, after John F. Kennedy, the first to achieve this.
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