as vice president-elect kamala harris
has made history
many times over she will be the first
woman and the first person of color to
hold the position
nami iqbal looks at her rise to the
second highest office in the country
the nation was born with the words all
men are created equal
it's taken more than two centuries for
that promise to begin to be realized
by a woman
kamala harris struggled when she ran to
be the democratic party's pick for
president
but later found a role as the
progressive counterweight
to joe biden's more establishment
candidacy
joe biden and i are proud patriotic
americans who share
the values with the vast majority of the
american people who want
a president of the united states who
speaks truth
she was born in california to immigrant
parents of jamaican
and indian heritage there would be a
meaningful discussion
she was elected to the senate four years
ago off the back of a successful career
as a prosecutor
something that later damaged her support
among some liberals
who thought she'd been too tough on
african american defendants
she graduated from this university where
her elevation to the nation's second
highest office
is viewed as hugely symbolic i have to
admit i'm still in a bit of shock about
it like i'm thrilled
i wanted this to happen i imagine that
she's going to take all the things that
she learned over her lifetime
and put them into policy which will make
her again more than a symbol
it'll make her a politician of substance
pamela
it's not kamala it's not camella
but she still had to teach the country
how to say her name
i'm kamala harris and she was openly
attacked
by the president i thought she was the
meanest the the
most horrible most disrespectful of
anybody in the
u.s senate if kamala harris had been
born more than a hundred years ago
she would not have been able to vote and
as a black woman
she would have had no rights but now
she's set to become
the most powerful and influential woman
in american political history
nomi rick bell bbc news washington
well as we've been seeing there are
jubilant scenes in cities across the us
with people celebrating the new
democratic triumph
though some trump supporters have been
on the streets showing support for his
continuing fight
clive myery joins us from philadelphia
in pennsylvania one of the key
battlegrounds and the state that
eventually gave mr biden the votes
needed for victory clive
yeah this is the philadelphia story
pennsylvania is the state where joe
biden
was born it's where he began and ended
his campaign
for the white house it's also the state
where his values were forged
and a certain kinship for blue collar
working class
america so perhaps it's fitting that
pennsylvania is the state
that gave him the votes and gave him the
presidency
[Music]
this is the soundtrack of the biden
campaign
and now a new american
[Applause]
in the age of kovid 19 his election
rallies would drive in
and socially distanced supporters honked
in his speeches
instead of applauding
[Applause]
outside their cars the president elects
ecstatic supporters
no less noisy
in the shadow of the building where
election votes are being counted
[Applause]
the subjects of their ira forelorn
donald trump voters
across this philadelphia street
america's rancorous political divide
in miniature joe biden says he wants to
bring both sides together
he wants to be a leader for all america
at the moment they can't even share the
same street
without barricades and the police
donald trump lost in part because
suburban women
turned on him listen to penny olds and
her daughter hattie
who set up a facebook group to support
joe biden
we started with four and we ended with
142.
it was incredibly empowering and it was
therapy for us women who felt
dis disregarded i'm a woman in my 20s
and it's just really important for
people my age to be behind someone
who supports us to the full year
but tim trimble who once called essex
home says donald trump's fight
isn't over he has not lost the election
i think because bbc and cnn and abc
calls
it that's irrelevant
[Music]
meanwhile on the same street in another
america
they're dancing for joe and tonight
won't sleep
clive marie bbc news in philadelphia
this u.s election has seen the highest
turnout since 1900.
so far mr biden has won nearly 75
million votes the most
ever for a u.s presidential candidate mr
trump meanwhile is currently at less
than 71 million the second highest tally
in history
our north america editor john sopol
joins us again john with no sign of
donald trump conceding
what happens now yeah well it's not like
uk elections because in uk elections the
removal
people would have arrived outside
downing street the next morning to take
out all their possessions donald trump
is the president until january the 20th
so joe biden in the meantime what he'll
be doing
is he will be assembling a task force to
deal with the coronavirus outbreak
something he said
is central he'll be looking at who the
key cabinet picks will be
he will be proceeding as if there is no
fly in the ointment
there are no challenges ahead he will
want the momentum to be there
that he will take over as president in
january and already world leaders are
flocking
to him donald trump has a different set
of calculations to make
how far does he pursue this legal action
because at the moment
the allegations have flowed freely but
the detail of what the
offences might have been are much more
thin on the ground
and there's some reporting from people
well connected that donald trump may be
looking for a way
at some point to get himself off a hook
that he's on
and maybe having to accept that he will
have to concede graciously
and that joe biden is the next president
there are
celebrations going on in the big cities
like washington this is black lives
pla black lives matter plaza earlier on
today
big celebrations but it's very different
from 2008 and i was here when barack
obama became president
then there was this warm fuzzy feeling
that an african-american
had become america's uh president this
time it's much more visceral
there is a sense of delight that donald
trump has been beaten
much more so than joe biden has been
elected
and i think that speaks to divided
america
that when joe biden does become
president in january
that is the big crisis that he's going
to have to try
to heal john thank you john sopol in
washington