A smiling US President Joe Biden has promised to ensure a “peaceful transfer of power” on January 20, when former president and current President-elect Donald Trump is due to be sworn in as the country's 47th head of state.

“I will do my duty as president,” Biden told a crowd of senior officials and staff during a brief seven-minute address Thursday in the Rose Garden of the White House. “There will be a peaceful transfer of power on January 20th.”

Biden congratulated Trump and said, “We accept the country's decision,” as he sought to send an optimistic message despite the gloom in his Democratic Party.

Biden said he also promised a smooth transition in a phone call with Trump on Wednesday in which he invited the Republican leader to a meeting at the White House.

Biden said he also spoke by phone with Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday to congratulate her on her run for the presidency despite the loss. “She ran an inspiring campaign,” Biden said of Harris on Thursday. “She has a backbone like a ramrod,” he added.

As Democrats rally after Trump's decisive victory on Tuesday, some in the party have expressed disappointment that the 81-year-old Biden only decided to end his bid for election this summer, despite longstanding voter concerns about his age re-election and widespread dissatisfaction with high inflation, the US role in the slaughter of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza and migration across the border with Mexico.

“The greatest burden of this defeat falls on President Biden,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2020 and endorsed Harris’ unsuccessful candidacy. “If he had resigned in January instead of July, we might be in a very different place,” Yang told the AP.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an ally of Biden and Harris, said in a statement that the election showed that the Democratic Party leadership was out of touch with the concerns of the American working class.

“Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn real lessons from this disastrous campaign?” asked the Vermont independent. “Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing?”

Biden spent much of his speech reassuring his “hurt” supporters that they shouldn’t feel too down.

“You can't just love your country when you're winning,” he said, repeating a theme he had touched on in previous speeches. “Setbacks are inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable…The American experiment continues. We’ll be fine.”

Election irony

Biden's speech was full of irony about his accomplishments and his promise to hand power to his successor Trump, who refused to accept the results when he lost re-election in 2020 and did not attend Biden's inauguration in 2021, after many Democrats said he tried to organize an illegal insurrection to stay in power.

Throughout the campaign, Biden repeatedly portrayed Trump's possible return to the White House as a threat to democracy, and the two men repeatedly insulted each other.

Trump called Biden the “worst president in the history of this country,” and Biden appeared to call Trump supporters “trash” just days before Tuesday's election, before attempting to walk back the comment and saying it was a reference to a comedian who…spoke badly about Puerto Ricans at a Trump rally.

With the election now over, Biden on Thursday urged people on both sides to “lower the temperature.”

In another irony, Biden urged his supporters to take comfort in the policy achievements of his four years in office, including his signed massive infrastructure spending bill, much of which will “take time” to take effect.

“We are leaving behind the strongest economy in the world,” Biden said, ignoring the fact that exit polls show many voters cast their ballots against Democratic candidates because they believed the current White House was mismanaging the economy what caused them problems was high inflation and stagnant wages.

Biden ended his remarks on another tongue-in-cheek note, praising election officials for demonstrating the integrity of the country's electoral system, which Trump and many Republicans have loudly criticized as vulnerable to fraud.

“It’s honest, it’s fair and it’s transparent,” he said.

Harris' admission

Biden's address to the nation came a day after Harris formally conceded the race on Wednesday afternoon, in a speech to tearful supporters gathered at her alma mater, Howard University, where she stressed that she will win the presidential election in this one I didn't win this year, but the fight was far from the top.

“The result of the election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for,” she said, saying her supporters should fundamentally accept the results.

“Don’t despair. This is not the time to throw up your hands. This is the time to roll up your sleeves,” Harris said. “This is a time of organizing, mobilizing and engaging for freedom and justice and for the future we all know we can build together.”