Joe and Jill Biden Welcome 2021 'More Optimistic' and Urging COVID-19 Vaccinations
President-elect Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden struck an optimistic note in their last interview before 2021. The Bidens appeared on ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on Thursday.
The interview was shown on jumbotrons in New York City's Times Square in what host Ryan Seacrest said was a first for the show. The Bidens were speaking from their home.
"I'm more optimistic about America's chances than I've ever been," the president-elect said. "I am absolutely positive, confident, that we're going to come back and come back stronger than we were before."
The Bidens thanked essential and frontline workers for their bravery, with the president-elect stressing: "We owe them, we owe them, we owe them."
Jill Biden was asked about her recent vaccination against COVID-19 and she stressed the need for people to be inoculated.
"You have to take it," she said. "And it doesn't hurt, I promise. As long as everybody takes it..."
Here is the last interview for President-Elect @JoeBiden and future First Lady @DrBiden in 2020! 🇺🇸 #RockinEve pic.twitter.com/wcSnlbL8pM
— New Year’s Rockin’ Eve (@NYRE) January 1, 2021
"She hates needles," Joe Biden jumped in jokingly, but went on to say that now vaccines were available "we just got to get a better way to get more out there quicker."
"We once again have to step up and lead the world and lead the nation. There's never been a single thing America's been unable to overcome, no matter how drastic it's been, when we've done it together," Joe Biden said.
"Never, never, never, never. America can do anything and I am absolutely, positively confident—confident we're gonna come back even stronger than we were before."
Joe Biden's official Twitter account also shared a video for the new year highlighting some of the difficulties the country faced in 2020, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
"In 2021, we will build a brighter future," part of the video's on-screen text read. It concluded by wishing viewers a happy new year and with the Biden/Harris campaign logo.
Congress will meet to finalize the results of the 2020 presidential election on January 6. Though some Republicans, most prominently Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, have said they will object to ratification, there is little prospect this will hand a last minute victory to President Donald Trump.
Joe Biden is due to take the oath of office at noon on January 20, at which time he will become the 46th U.S. president and Jill Biden will assume the role of first lady. Senator Kamala Harris will also be sworn in as vice president on the same day.
