Biden and Harris named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, and some aren’t happy

Time Magazine’s decision to honor President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as its Person of the Year received swift pushback.

Many people felt the annual honor should have gone to essential workers, including the doctors and nurses who have worked on the frontlines during the coronavirus pandemic.

Time announced Biden and Harris as the recipients of the annual Person of the Year magazine late Thursday night.

“For changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are Time’s 2020 Person of the Year,” the magazine wrote.

Earlier this week, essential workers won the magazine’s reader poll for Person of the Year.

Other candidates on the shortlist for the honor were President Donald Trump and the movement for racial justice. Rounding out Time’s top four were “frontline health care workers and Dr. Anthony Fauci.”

Many people felt the essential workers deserved to win the honor. Fauci and frontline health care workers were instead honored in a separate Guardians of the Year category.

“No offense to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but I think the People of the Year should be all the essential workers. They have done so much this year, they deserve the title!” one reader wrote on Time’s Facebook page.

“What a waste. He did nothing but get elected,” another person added. “Us frontline workers risked our and our families lives.”

Each of the four previous presidents, including Trump, have been honored as the Person of the Year after winning the election. Harris is the first Vice President-elect to be included in the choice, Time said.

Essential workers had been the betting favorites to win the title. They were 4/11 favorites to be named Person of the Year, implyingbookmakers gave them a 73% chance to win, according to US-Bookies.com. Biden’s implied probability was 20% with 4/1 odds.

“Nothing against them... but healthcare/essential workers absolutely deserved this,” a reader commented. “They are the heroes of this God awful year. Very disappointed in this choice.”

Other commenters called the honor “disrespectful” and “wrong.”

Last year, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg won the honor in a decision that Trump publicly lashed out against.

Trump has not yet commented on Biden and Harris being named Time’s Person of the Year.