Grace now dueling with grievance in US

Biden's unity appeal runs up against Trump bid to deny him White House

On a day of grace and grievance, Democrat Joe Biden summoned his compatriots to join in common purpose against the coronavirus pandemic and their political divisions while US President Donald Trump stoked the fading embers of his campaign to "turn the election over".

Biden, in an address to the nation on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, put the surging pandemic front and center, pledging to tap the "vast powers" of the federal government and to "change the course of the disease" once he enters the White House. But for that to work, he said, people must step up for their own safety and that of their fellow citizens.

"I know the country has grown weary of the fight," Biden said on Wednesday. "We need to remember we're at war with the virus, not with one another. Not with each other."

Trump, who has scarcely mentioned the pandemic in recent days even as infections reached record heights, remained fixated on his defeat in this month's election.

He sent his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and other members of his legal team to meet Pennsylvania Republican state senators in Gettysburg. Inside a hotel near hallowed battlefields of the American Civil War, they again aired complaints about the election and repeated allegations of Democratic malfeasance that have already disintegrated under examination by courts.

"We have to turn the election over," Trump said from the Oval Office, where he joined the meeting by speakerphone.

"This was an election that we won easily," he said. "We won it by a lot."

In fact, the election gave Biden a clear mandate, and no systemic fraud has been uncovered. Judge after judge has dismissed the Trump campaign's accusations as baseless, and the transition to Biden's presidency is fully underway.

Nevertheless, Trump repeated on the call:" This election has to be turned around."

Trump had been expected to appear in person in Gettysburg, until another member of his legal team tested positive for the coronavirus. Few at the meeting wore masks.