U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were jointly named Time magazine's 2020 "Person of the Year" chosen from a list of finalists that included President Donald Trump. The US president was named as Person of the Year in 2016 by Time.
Time wrote about Biden, he’s not the first Person of the Year to be tasked with the future of America. But Biden is likely the first in a generation to inherit such a crescendo of catastrophes: a worsening pandemic that’s brought a staggering loss of life; widespread unemployment and an economic crisis; a global climate crisis; a reckoning over the continued pervasiveness of systemic racism; and growing misinformation blurring fact and fiction.
The President-elect and his running mate broke several gender and racial biases, and speaking about it, the Time said, the Democratic former vice president and his running mate, a California senator whose election broke gender and racial barriers, together "offered restoration and renewal in a single ticket."
"And America bought what they were selling: after the highest (voter) turnout in a century, they racked up 81 million votes and counting, the most in presidential history, topping Trump by some 7 million votes and flipping five battleground states," Time also said.
The Person of the Year is usually an individual, but multiple people have been named in the past. The title is one, according to the magazine, signifying "who affected the news or our lives the most, for better, or worse."
Time began its tradition in 1927. Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg last year became the youngest individual winner of the accolade.
Biden, 78, who served two terms as vice president to Barack Obama, will become the oldest person to assume the office of U.S. president when he is sworn in on Jan. 20. Harris will become the first woman, the first Black and the first person of Asian descent to be inaugurated vice president.
Speaking about Harris during an interview with the magazine, Biden said, "She is straight as an arrow. She is really, really bright. She is tough. But yet she has a heart that understands what it’s like to be on the other side of prejudice. She also was an immigrant’s daughter who was raised, in a strange way, like I was. We were taught that we could be anything. Don’t give up, just move, keep pushing. And I just found her to be someone who is, in fact, something happened to me, I knew they could take over. That’s Kamala."
And about America, he said, "That America was better off and average Americans are better off the day we left than the day we arrived. That’s my objective.
Along with its Person of the Year honor, Time magazine named the Korean pop group BTS as its Entertainer of the Year, and basketball star LeBron James was crowned Athlete of the Year.
The winners and finalists for various categories were due to be feted during a prime-time special television broadcast on NBC on Thursday night.
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