Monday marked a rather monumental day in the life of the American public.

In the span of just a few hours, the FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccine started to be administered to frontline healthcare workers...

... and the Electoral College certified Joe Biden as the next President of the United States.

Those two developments combined to give Biden plenty of material for a primetime speech, as he addressed the nation yesterday evening as the official President-Elect.

“In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed,” Biden said.

“We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact.

"And now it is time to turn the page, as we’ve done throughout our history. To unite. To heal.”

The speech took pllace 37 days after every reputable news network called the election for Biden because he had surpassed the threshold of 270 electoral votes on the Saturday after Election Day.

In the month-plus since, however, Donald Trump hasn't just refused to concede.

He has concocted an endless array of phony excuses for his loss, undermining and subverting democracy at every step.

Hurling baseless accusations around Twitter - and also around the country's judicial system - he hits new lows daily.

Thankfully, even Supreme Court justices that Trump himself selected laughed him out of court last week.

Against this backdrop, Biden’s delivered his forceful defense of the election on Monday, along with his most complete denunciation of Trump’s fraudulent allegations.

Biden noted that he received seven million more popular votes, and the same number of electoral votes, 306, as Trump did in 2016 when he claimed “a landslide" victory over Hillary Clinton.

The next President also attacked Republican officials who went along with Trump's failed attempts to flat-out overturn the results of a free and fair election.

He was pretty darn blistering while doing so.

“President Trump was denied no course of action he wanted to take,” Biden said.

“He took his case to Republican governors and Republican secretaries of state . . . to Republican state legislatures, to Republican-appointed judges at every level.

"Even President Trump’s own cybersecurity chief overseeing our elections said it was the most secure election in American history.”

Biden praised judges and election workers, both Democrats and Republicans, who withstood Trump’s criticism and defended the integrity of the election.

“They knew this election was overseen, overseen by them -- it was honest, it was free, and it was fair,” the Time Person of the Year said, adding:

“They saw it with their own eyes, and they wouldn’t be bullied into saying anything different. It was truly remarkable..."

“It is my sincere hope we never again see anyone subjected to the kind of threats and abuse we saw in this election."

"It’s simply unconscionable. We owe these public servants a debt of gratitude … our democracy survived because of them.”

In many ways, this served as Biden's acceptance speech.

Yes, he and Kamala Harris both spoke to the country that elected them back on November 7. You know, when it was clear he won.

But that was before this official certification, which even prompted most Republican senators to admit Biden had won.

Sadly, Biden also had no choice but to address Covid-19.

A vaccine is out there, but it take many months for a majority of the country to be immunized.

“There is urgent work in front of all of us,” Biden said.

“Getting this pandemic under control to getting the nation vaccinated against this virus."

"Delivering immediate economic help so badly needed by so many Americans who are hurting today - and then building our economy back better than it ever was.”

In conclusion?

“If anyone didn’t know it before, we know it now,” Biden said.

“What beats deep in the hearts of the American people is this: democracy."

"The right to be heard. To have your vote counted. To choose the leaders of this nation. To govern ourselves..."

"I will work just as hard for those of you who didn’t vote for me as I will for those who did.”

Best of luck, Mr. President-Elect.