US President-elect Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump for the White House will be “great for the US-New Zealand relationship”, according to the former US Ambassador to New Zealand.
Biden yesterday defeated President Trump to become the 46th president of the United States.
Mark Gilbert, a close friend of Biden, had worked on his campaign even before the president-elect had confirmed he was running for the position.
“Everybody’s thrilled here in the US,” Gilbert told TVNZ’s Q+A, adding that incumbent President Trump “did a little bit better than I thought he would do”, after receiving more than 70 million votes.
He called the four days between election day and the result being announced “nerve-wracking for a lot of people”.
“The Biden campaign always felt that we would win the states that we are winning, that would put Joe Biden over the 270 electoral vote threshold, so it really turned out the way we thought it was going to turn out,” he said. “But I will tell you, people have had a lot of chances to reflect over the past few days.”
Gilbert added that Biden’s nightly statements “have shown what kind of president that he will be”.
“When he addresses the country, I think you’ll see him talk about unity, he’ll talk about getting the coronavirus under control, him talking about building back the United States and bringing us back into global politics, multinational organisations and so on.
“I think it’s a very positive day for the US and I think it’s great for the US-New Zealand relationship.”
Then-Vice President Biden met with members of Parliament in New Zealand in July 2016, which Gilbert said “went incredibly well”.
“I think he talked about our mutual values, the things that we share together, and I’m sure as nations, we’re going to work on those as soon as now president-elect Biden is inaugurated on January 20.”
Gilbert said he didn’t believe many were surprised after Trump alleged large-scale voter fraud and that the election had been rigged in Biden’s favour.
“President Trump had been telegraphing for the last six months that the election would be rigged, wouldn’t be fair - none of which we have seen.
“I think it was very telling this morning when Rupert Murdoch’s publications - The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The New York Post - all came out and said that Donald Trump needs to accept this loss graciously.”
Thousands have gathered throughout the country, marking the historic win for the Democrat candidate. (Source: Other)
He said the US will see a very different response to the fight against Covid-19 than what is currently in place, adding: “What you have seen is that science has won out.”
“Joe Biden will go with the science, he will go with the experts and if they say certain groups of people, certain places in the country need to be wearing masks, then that’s what Joe Biden will recommend.”
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is the first woman, and the first woman of colour, in the office, which Gilbert called “incredibly significant".
“She comes from a multiracial background and I think she’s going to be a fabulous vice president. She’s coming to the office with a lot of energy, a lot of knowledge and experience … I think she’s just going to be a wonderful vice president and I’m very excited for her to get started.”
Gilbert said he hopes Trump’s loss will spell the end of “Trumpism”.
“I think it was a failed experiment and I think people realise - and I think what helped Joe Biden win - is people saw incompetent government; they saw the failure of how he handled coronavirus.
“If you look at how Prime Minister Ardern, Parliament and the people of New Zealand dealt with coronavirus, that’s how it should have been dealt with.
“You let science dictate how you would handle the virus, which is something that we did not do here.”
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