WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden urged Americans to “bring down the temperature” on Thursday following Republican Donald Trump’s election victory and sought to console fellow Democrats who were alarmed by the former president’s stunning comeback. “Setbacks are unavoidable. Giving up is unforgiveable,” Biden said at the White House Rose Garden as he addressed staff who were disappointed in Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat. “A defeat does not mean we are defeated.”

Biden said Tuesday’s election had proven the integrity of the US electoral system and said he would preside over an orderly transfer of power – an implicit rebuke of Trump, who sought to overturn his 2020 defeat to Biden and raised baseless claims of fraud this year as well. “We lost this battle. The America of your dreams is calling for you to get back up,” he said. Some Democrats have blamed Biden, 81, for Harris’ defeat, saying he should not have sought reelection.

Biden only dropped his reelection bid in July after a disastrous TV debate with Trump raised alarm bells about his mental fitness. Trump’s campaign said Biden had invited him to meet at the White House at an unspecified time. In the weeks ahead, Trump will select personnel to serve under his leadership.

Harris sought on Wednesday to console supporters in a defiant concession speech. Like Biden, she promised to aid Trump’s transition before his inauguration on Jan 20 but urged Democrats to continue to fight for what they believe in. An emotional Harris told tearful supporters in the speech in Washington to “not despair”, urging them to “keep fighting” after her loss. Her pledge to ensure a peaceful handover stood in stark contrast with Trump’s unprecedented refusal four years ago to admit defeat against Biden, culminating in the violent attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.

“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” Harris said in her short, powerful speech at Howard University, her alma mater. “I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time,” she said, her voice hoarse as she made her first public remarks since Trump’s surprisingly heavy victory. “But for the benefit of us all, I hope that’s not the case.”

Harris — who had blasted Trump as a threat to democracy during her failed bid to become America’s first woman president — earlier called him to offer her congratulations, an aide said. Harris had also hoped for a surge in support from women, but CNN exit polls gave her only an eight-point advantage among the demographic, nearly half what Biden mustered four years ago.

Some Democrats worried their loss in Tuesday’s presidential election showed that their values – left-leaning, socially liberal – were now firmly a minority among Americans in a divisive campaign. Others were frustrated with the party’s leadership, who they said had lost touch with much of the electorate who wanted help with the rising cost of living.

Trump’s victory, surprisingly decisive after opinion polls that had shown a neck-and-neck contest, underscored how disenchanted Americans had become with the economy - in particular inflation - along with border security and the direction of the country and its culture. Hispanics, traditionally Democratic voters, and lower-income households hit hardest by inflation helped fuel Trump’s victory.

Harris’ campaign pressed the message that Trump was unfit to serve again as president, as a convicted felon and one whose false claims of voting fraud inspired a mob to storm the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, in a failed bid to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden.

The former president will face far fewer limits on his power in his second White House term, as the head of a Republican Party that he has remade in his image over the last eight years. Republicans wrested the US Senate from Democrats in Tuesday’s vote, ensuring Trump’s party will control at least one chamber of Congress next year. Republicans also held an edge in the battle for the House of Representatives, though 38 of the 435 races still had no winner.

Trump prevailed in five of the seven battleground states to give him at least 295 Electoral College votes, more than the 270 needed to win the presidency. He was leading in the remaining two, Arizona and Nevada, where votes were still being tallied. Trump was also on track to become the first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote since George W Bush two decades ago. He lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 but secured enough electoral votes to win the White House.

Among people who may figure in Trump’s leadership, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a prominent Trump donor, has been promised a role in his administration, as has former presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr. Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson and investor Scott Bessent were seen as possible cabinet officers in his administration, while former Trump officials Robert O’Brien and Mike Pompeo could return to office. Kennedy, a leading figure in the anti-vaccine movement for whom Trump has pledged a “big role” in healthcare, told NBC News on Wednesday that “I’m not going to take away anybody’s vaccines.” – Agencies