Washington: US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have been selected as the Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’, for allowing restoration and renewal in a single ticket.
The magazine made the declaration on its Twitter page late Thursday night.
Biden and Harris ran in one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history, which saw a record number of voters turn out in the midst of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic that proceeds to rage over the country, The Hill media source stated in a report.
The ex-Vice President won 51.3 percent of the popular vote, gathering 81.2 million over incumbent President Donald Trump’s 74.2 million votes, as indicated by counts from the Cook Political Report.
Biden and Harris beat three different finalists: frontline healthcare workers and America’s top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci; the racial justice movement; and President Trump, the BBC announced.
In a statement, Time’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal said: “For changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are TIME’s 2020 Person of the Year.”
Biden is the tenth President-elect to accomplish the title, however, his selection marks the first time a President-elect and Vice President-elect have shared the cover together, The Hill news said.
Past Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Gerald Ford, and Herbert Hoover are the only US Presidents never named “Person of the Year”.
Each yeah, Time picks an individual, a group, an idea, or an object that “for better or for worse” has had the most influence on the events over the year.
Biden and Harris are planned to take office after their inauguration on January 20, 2021.
Trump, who has continuously claimed that the 2020 political election was taken from him and that he is the rightful victor, is not expected to attend the inauguration.
Biden, 78, who worked two terms as VP to Barack Obama, will be the oldest individual to assume the office of U.S. president when he is sworn on Jan. 20. Harris will be the first woman, the first Black and the first individual of Asian origin to be inaugurated VP.
Alongside its Person of the Year honor, Time magazine selected the Korean pop band BTS as its Entertainer of the Year, and basketball athlete LeBron James was granted Athlete of the Year.
