NEW YORK, Dec 11 (APP): Time Magazine named US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris its 2020 “Person of the Year” in an announcement Thursday night.
The honour was announced by Bruce Springsteen, a popular American singer, songwriter, and musician, during an hour-long TV special on NBC TV network.
Biden was elected the 46th president of the United States in November, defeating incumbent Donald Trump after an especially contentious election season. He served as vice president under Barack Obama, Trump’s predecessor.
“This moment was one of those do-or-die moments,” Biden told the magazine of the outcome of the election. “Had Trump won, I think we would have changed the nature of who we are as a country for a long time.
A key part of Biden’s platform was reuniting a divided nation. Four years from now, Biden told Time he hopes people say, “That America was better off and average Americans are better off the day we left than the day we arrived. That’s my objective.”
Ms. Harris is the first woman, first Black person and first person of Asian descent to be elected vice president.
“It is one of my responsibilities,” Ms. Harris told the magazine of her place in history. “My mother had many sayings. She would say, ‘’Kamala, you may be the first to do many things; make sure you’re not the last.’ Which is why [in my victory speech], I said, ‘I will be the first, but I will not be the last.’ And that’s about legacy. That’s about leaving the door more open than it was when you walked in.”
Thursday marks the first time Time has named a vice president Person of the Year, Time magazine Editor-in-Chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal said during the broadcast.
“The selection of Person of the Year is rarely easy, and this year was far more difficult than most… In Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we have two individuals whose election mirrored and moved the major stories of this year and whose fates will shape the nation’s role in the world and the future of the American experiment,” Felsenthal said in a statement.
