Biden Wins Presidency, Ending Four Tumultuous Years Under Trump
拜登战胜特朗普，当选美国第46任总统

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was elected the 46th president of the United States on Saturday, promising to restore political normalcy and a spirit of national unity to confront raging health and economic crises, and making Donald J. Trump a one-term president after four years of tumult in the White House.

小约瑟夫·罗比内特·拜登(Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.)周六当选美国第46任总统，他承诺恢复正常的政治，以国家团结的精神来应对严重的公共卫生和经济危机。在白宫经历了混乱的四年后，拜登的当选让唐纳德·J·特朗普(Donald J. Trump)成为只在位一任的总统。

Mr. Biden’s victory amounted to a repudiation of Mr. Trump by millions of voters exhausted with his divisive conduct and chaotic administration, and was delivered by an unlikely alliance of women, people of color, old and young voters and a sliver of disaffected Republicans. Mr. Trump is the first incumbent to lose re-election in more than a quarter-century.

The result also provided a history-making moment for Mr. Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, who will become the first woman to serve as vice president.

大选结果对拜登的竞选伙伴、加利福尼亚州参议员卡玛拉·哈里斯(Kamala Harris)来说，也是一个历史性的时刻，她将成为首位担任副总统的女性。

With his triumph, Mr. Biden, who turns 78 later this month, fulfilled his decades-long ambition in his third bid for the White House, becoming the oldest person elected president. A pillar of Washington who was first elected amid the Watergate scandal, and who prefers political consensus over combat, Mr. Biden will lead a nation and a Democratic Party that have become far more ideological since his arrival in the capital in 1973.

拜登将在本月晚些时候年满78岁。他在第三次竞选总统时获胜，实现了他数十年来的抱负，成为年龄最大的当选总统。拜登属于华盛顿的中坚，在水门事件期间首次当选参议员，他更喜欢在政治上达成共识，而不是斗争。他将领导的美国和民主党，自从他1973年初次来到华盛顿以来，已变得更加意识形态化。

He offered a mainstream Democratic agenda, yet it was less his policy platform than his biography to which many voters gravitated. Seeking the nation’s highest office a half-century after his first campaign, Mr. Biden — a candidate in the late autumn of his career — presented his life of setback and recovery to voters as a parable for a wounded country.

他提出了一个主流的民主党议程，但吸引了许多选民的不是他的政策纲领，而是他的经历。在首次参加竞选的半个世纪后谋求美国的最高职位，拜登已处于自己职业生涯的晚期，作为一名候选人，他把自己遭受挫折、重新振奋的人生故事作为这个受了伤的国家的寓言，呈现给选民。

The race, which concluded after four tense days of vote-counting in a handful of battlegrounds, was a singular referendum on Mr. Trump in a way no president’s re-election has been in modern times. He coveted the attention, and voters who either adored him or loathed him were eager to render judgment on his tenure. Americans rarely turn incumbent presidents out of office, but from the beginning to the end of the race, Mr. Biden made the president’s character central to his campaign.

这次大选在几个争夺激烈的州进行了四天的紧张计票后结束，是以现代历史上竞选连任的总统未曾见过的方式对特朗普的一次非凡公投。他贪求人们的关注，喜欢他或厌恶他的选民都迫不及待地要对他的任期做出评判。美国人很少让现任总统下台，但从大选开始到结束，拜登都把总统的品质作为自己竞选活动的核心。

This unrelenting focus propelled Mr. Biden to victory in historically Democratic strongholds in the industrial Midwest, with Mr. Biden forging a coalition of suburbanites and big-city residents to claim at least three states his party lost in 2016.

这个持续不断的焦点在向来是民主党大本营的几个中西部工业州把拜登推向了胜利，拜登加强了一个由郊区居民和大城市居民组成的联盟，至少夺回了他所在的民主党在2016年大选中丢掉的三个州。

Yet even as they turned Mr. Trump out of office, voters sent a more uncertain message about the left-of-center platform Mr. Biden ostensibly ran on as Democrats lost seats in the House and made only modest gains in the Senate. The divided judgment — a rare example of ticket splitting in partisan times — demonstrated that, for many voters, their disdain for the president was as personal as it was political.

然而，尽管选民们把特朗普赶下了台，但他们也向拜登宣称推行的中间偏左纲领传递了一个不那么确定的信息。民主党在众议院失去了几个席位，在参议院只增加了极少的席位。这种分裂的评判，在盲目拥护一个党派的时代是相当罕见的例子，它表明，许多选民对总统的鄙视既有政治角度，也有个人原因。

Even in defeat, though, Mr. Trump demonstrated his enduring appeal to many white voters and his intense popularity in rural areas, underscoring the deep national divisions that Mr. Biden has vowed to heal.

不过，即使败选，特朗普仍展示了他对许多白人选民的持久吸引力，以及他在农村地区的高人气，让拜登誓言要弥合的国内严重分歧显露无疑。

The outcome of the race came into focus slowly as states and municipalities grappled with the legal and logistical challenges of voting in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. With an enormous backlog of early and mail-in votes, some states reported their totals in a halting fashion that in the early hours of Wednesday painted a misleadingly rosy picture for Mr. Trump.

在新冠病毒大流行的背景下，各个州和市的政府都努力设法解决投票在法律上和组织工作上的挑战，大选结果是在这个过程中慢慢显现出来的。由于积压了大量的提前投票和邮寄投票，一些州断断续续地分批公布了他们的计票，这让周三凌晨的结果为特朗普描绘了一幅具有误导性的美好画面。

But as the big cities of the Midwest and West began to report their totals, the advantage in the race shifted the electoral map in Mr. Biden’s favor. By Wednesday afternoon, the former vice president had rebuilt much of the so-called blue wall in the Midwest, reclaiming the historically Democratic battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Michigan that Mr. Trump carried four years ago. And on Saturday, with troves of ballots coming in from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, he took back Pennsylvania as well.

但随着中西部和西部的大城市开始公布他们的计票结果，票数的优势让选举版图向有利于拜登的方向倾斜。到周三下午时，这位前副总统已在中西部地区重建了所谓“蓝墙”的大部分，夺回了历来是民主党主要战场的威斯康星州和密歇根州，特朗普曾在四年前夺走了这两个州。周六，随着费城和匹兹堡的大量选票计出结果，拜登也夺回了宾夕法尼亚州。

While Mr. Biden stopped short of claiming victory as the week unfolded, he appeared several times in his home state, Delaware, to express confidence that he could win, while urging patience as the nation awaited the results. Even as he sought to claim something of an electoral mandate, noting that he had earned more in the popular vote than any other candidate in history, Mr. Biden struck a tone of reconciliation.

随着这周的展开，虽然拜登没有宣称自己获胜，但他多次在他居住的特拉华州露面，表达自己对获胜的信心，同时敦促国人耐心等待大选结果。尽管拜登寻求宣布自己获得了某种选民授权，指出他赢得的普选票数比历史上任何其他候选人都多，但他使用的语言颇为缓和。

It would soon be time, he said, “to unite, to heal, to come together as a nation.”

他说，很快将是“团结起来，愈合伤口，作为一个国家团结起来”的时候。

In the days after the election, Mr. Biden and his party faced a barrage of attacks from Mr. Trump. The president falsely claimed in a middle-of-the-night appearance at the White House on Wednesday that he had won the race and that Democrats were conjuring fraudulent votes to undermine him, a theme he renewed on Thursday evening in grievance-filled remarks conjuring up, with no evidence, a conspiracy to steal votes from him.

在大选日后的几天里，拜登和他所在的民主党面临了来自特朗普的一连串攻击。周三，总统半夜三更在白宫露面，错误宣称他赢得了大选，还说民主党人为了削弱他，正在变戏法似地制造虚假选票。周四晚间，他在充满抱怨的言论中重提这个说法，没有给出任何证据，编造了一个他的选票被盗的阴谋。

The president’s campaign aides adopted a tone of brash defiance as swing states fell to Mr. Biden, saying they would demand a recount in Wisconsin and take legal action to stop vote counting in Michigan and Pennsylvania. On Friday morning, Mr. Trump’s campaign issued a statement vowing to press forward with legal challenges and declaring, despite the erosion of his leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia, “This election is not over.”

随着摇摆州的选票落到了拜登一边，总统的竞选助手们采取了一种傲慢的蔑视口吻，称他们将要求威斯康星州重新计票，并将采取法律行动停止密歇根州和宾夕法尼亚州的计票工作。周五上午，特朗普的竞选团队发表了一份声明，誓言将继续闹到法庭上去，并宣称“大选尚未结束”，尽管特朗普在宾夕法尼亚州和佐治亚州的领先已受到侵蚀。

Though Mr. Trump’s ire had the potential to foment political divisions and even civil unrest, there was no indication that he could succeed with his seemingly improvisational legal strategy.

尽管特朗普的愤怒有可能引发政治分歧甚至内乱，但没有迹象表明，他似乎是匆忙拿出来的法律策略会成功。

In the end, it was Pennsylvania that provided Mr. Biden the necessary 270th Electoral College vote to claim victory, with Mr. Biden leading by over four million votes nationwide.

最终是宾夕法尼亚州为拜登提供了必需赢得的270张选举人票，让他得以宣布胜选，拜登在全国范围内以400多万张选票领先。

Through it all, the coronavirus and its ravages on the country hung over the election and shaped the choice for voters. Facing an electorate already fatigued by his aberrant conduct, the president effectively sealed his defeat by minimizing a pandemic that has created simultaneous health and economic crises.

新冠病毒及其给美国造成的破坏一直影响着整个大选过程，也影响着选民的选择。面对已经被他违反常规的行为搞得疲惫不堪的选民们，总统通过贬低同时对健康和经济造成危机的大流行病，实际上让自己的败选成为定局。

Beginning with the outbreak of the virus in the country at the start of the year, through his own diagnosis last month and up to the last hours of the election, he disregarded his medical advisers and public opinion even as over 230,000 people in the United States perished.

从美国今年年初新冠病毒疫情暴发开始，到上个月他本人确诊感染，直到大选日前的最后几个小时，他一直漠视自己医学顾问的意见和民意，尽管美国已有超过23万人死于病毒。

Mr. Biden, by contrast, sought to channel the dismay of those appalled by Mr. Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic. He offered himself as a safe harbor for a broad array of Americans, promising to guide the nation out of what he called the “dark winter” of the outbreak, rather than delivering a visionary message with bright ideological themes.

相比之下，对于那些因为特朗普管理大流行不力而震惊的人们，拜登寻求引导他们的惶恐不安。他把自己说成是为各种各样的美国人提供安全港的人，承诺将带着美国走出他称之为疫情的“黑暗冬天”，而不是发表带有鲜明意识形态主题的愿景信息。

Even aside from the pandemic, the 2020 campaign unfolded against a backdrop of national tumult unequaled in recent history, including the House’s vote to impeach the president less than a year ago, a national wave of protests over racial injustice last spring, spasms of civil unrest throughout the summer, the death of a Supreme Court justice in September and the hospitalization of Mr. Trump in October.

即使抛开新冠病毒大流行不谈，2020年的大选也是在美国近期历史上空前混乱的背景下展开的。在不到一年的时间里发生的事情包括，众议院投票弹劾总统，春天的一波又一波反种族歧视抗议，整个夏天内乱不断，最高法院一名大法官9月份的逝世，以及特朗普10月份的住院治疗。

Along the way, Mr. Trump played to his conservative base, seeking to divide the nation over race and cultural flash points. He encouraged those fears, and the underlying social divisions that fostered them. And for months he sought to sow doubt over the legitimacy of the political process.

特朗普一路迎合自己的保守派阵营，寻找分裂国家的种族和文化热点问题。他助长人们在这些问题上的恐惧，以及滋生这些恐惧的潜在社会分化。几个月来，他试图播下怀疑民主政治过程合法性的种子。

Mr. Biden, in response, offered a message of healing that appealed to Americans from far left to center right. He made common cause by promising relief from the unceasing invective and dishonesty of Mr. Trump’s presidency.

拜登的回应是发出愈合创伤的信息，这个信息吸引了从极左到中间偏右的美国人。拜登通过承诺让人们摆脱特朗普总统任期里的无休止咒骂和不诚实，让人们有了共同目标。

The former vice president also sought to demonstrate his differences with the president with his selection of Ms. Harris, 56, whose presence on the ticket as the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants stood in stark contrast to Mr. Trump’s relentless scapegoating of migrants and members of racial-minority groups.

这位前副总统也通过挑选现年56岁的哈里斯为竞选伙伴，来寻求展示与他与现任总统的不同。哈里斯是印度和牙买加移民的女儿，挑她为竞选伙伴与特朗普没完没了地将移民和少数民族群体当成替罪羊的做法形成了鲜明对比。

As he prepares to take the oath, he will return to Washington confronting a daunting set of crises. Mr. Biden will be pressed to swiftly secure and distribute a safe vaccine for the coronavirus, revive an economy that may be in even more dire shape in January than it is now, and address racial justice and policing issues that this year prompted some of the largest protests in American history.

在拜登为宣誓就职做准备的时候，他将重返面临着一系列令人畏惧的危机的华盛顿。拜登面临的紧迫问题包括，迅速研发出针对新冠病毒的安全疫苗并将其投入使用，重振明年1月份可能比现在更糟的经济，以及解决维护治安上的种族正义问题，这些问题导致了今年发生的一些美国历史上规模最大的抗议活动。

This election represented the culmination of nearly four years of activism organized around opposing Mr. Trump, a movement that began with the Women’s March the day after his inauguration. Indeed, Mr. Biden’s election appeared less the unique achievement of a political standard-bearer than the apex of a political wave touched off by the 2016 election — one that Mr. Biden rode more than he directed it.

这次大选结果代表了围绕反对特朗普组织起来的近四年活动的高潮，这些活动始于特朗普就职后第二天的女性大游行。实际上，拜登的当选与其说是一名政治领袖的独特成就，不如说是2016年大选结果所引发的一场政治浪潮的顶点，拜登更多地是驾驭而非指挥了这场浪潮。

But Mr. Trump’s job approval rating never hit 50 percent and, when the coronavirus spread nationwide and Mr. Biden effectively claimed the Democratic nomination in March, the president’s hopes of running with a booming economy and against a far-left opponent evaporated at once.

人们对特朗普的工作表现认可从未达到过50%。当新冠状病毒在全国蔓延，拜登于今年3月实际上赢得了民主党提名后，总统靠繁荣的经济参加大选，以及与一个极左对手竞选的希望立刻破灭了。

Still, many Democrats were nervous and some Republicans were defiantly optimistic going into the election, both still gripped by Mr. Trump’s shocker four years ago. And well into the night Tuesday, it seemed as if the president might be able to do it again. But four days later, after a year of trial in America and four turbulent years of the Trump administration, victory was in hand for Mr. Biden.