United States President-elect Joe Biden on Sunday pledged to be a president who will act as a unifier and not a divider. He made the remark in his first address to the country after several news outlets projected his win on Saturday.

“I pledge to be a president who does not see red or blue states, but United States,” Biden told a crowd of cheering supporters. He added that it was time to stop treating political opponents as enemies and to lower the rhetoric. “This is the time to heal America,” he added.

Biden thanked the citizens for voting overwhelmingly from him. “The people of this nation have spoken, they’ve delivered us a clear victory,” he said. “We’ve won with the most number of votes, 74 million, ever cast on a presidential ticket in history. I am humbled by your trust and confidence.”

Democrat Kamala Harris, who made history by becoming the first woman and person of Jamaican and South Asian origin to occupy the vice-president’s post, also said that Biden will be a “healer and uniter”.

“What a testament it is to Joe’s character, that he had the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exist in our country and select a woman as his vice president,” Harris added, according to CNN.

She also remembered her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, and the contribution of women of various ethnicities. “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” she declared.

Harris added that the real work to remove systemic racism, to fight the coronavirus pandemic and rebuild the economy will begin now.

Biden was Barack Obama’s vice president from 2008 to 2016, and has sought the Democratic nomination twice before – in 1988 and 2008. The 77-year-old is a six-time senator from Delaware. He is the oldest US president in history at 77, but if Trump had won, he would have been the oldest too, at 74 years.