BIDEN MAKES IT COUNT
He is elected 46th president; Harris will be first female VP After four- day ballot drama, Pennsylvania clinches win
“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again.” PRESIDENT- ELECT JOE BIDEN
Wilmington, Del. — Joe Biden was elected the 46th president of the United States on Saturday when Pennsylvania and Nevada delivered the electoral votes he needed to claim the White House, ending a caustic campaign that sorely tested the nation amid a pandemic and deep partisan divisions.
In a brief statement, Biden said he and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris of California were “honored and humbled” by their victory, and renewed a call for unity.
“With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation,” Biden said.
The Democratic victory ushers the nation to a historic milestone as Harris becomes the first woman, first Black person and first Asian American to become vice president- elect.
The result amounted to a crushing verdict on the presidency of Donald J. Trump, who became the first incumbent to lose his reelection bid in nearly 30 years.
Trump pledged to continue his fight to overturn the election, though few prominent Republicans rallied to his side; some, including Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, congratulated Biden.
“Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated,” Trump said in a statement emailed by his campaign after The Associated Press and television networks on Saturday called the race for Biden.
So far, however, Trump’s efforts in court have made little progress, with judges in several states dismissing challenges for lack of evidence.
“Every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.” VICE PRESIDENT- ELECT KAMALA HARRIS
The president was undeterred. Heading to his Virginia golf course Saturday morning he tweeted, “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” He tweeted a similar message in the afternoon, about an hour and a half after returning to the White House.
In his first speech after securing the White House, Biden made an appeal to supporters of Trump.
Biden said Saturday night in Wilmington, Del., that “this is the time to heal in America” and pledged to be a president to represent even those who didn’t support him.
Noting “I’ve lost a couple times myself,” Biden said, “now, let’s give each other a chance.”
Trump has not conceded the race to Biden, pursuing legal challenges over ballot counts in several states.
Biden said “it’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again,” saying of his political opponents, “they are not our enemies. They are Americans.”
Biden pledged to be a president “who seeks not to divide but to unify.”
Biden jogged onto the stage wearing a black suit, black mask and light blue tie. He pointed and waved at the screaming crowd gathered to hear him speak.
Echoing his campaign stump speech, Biden promised to be a president who “doesn’t see red states or blue states, only sees the United States,” and said he would work “with all my heart” to win the confidence of all Americans.
Biden touted the fact that he’s won more votes than any presidential ticket in history, calling his win “a convincing victory, a victory for the people.” He also said he was “surprised” by seeing the celebrations and an “outpouring of joy” in the wake of his win nationwide.
Biden said that “once again, America’s bent the arc of the moral universe more toward justice.”
Harris paid tribute to Black women who “so often prove they are the backbone of our democracy.”
Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, is the first woman to be elected to the vice presidency.
Harris noted her ascension to the role comes 100 years after the 19th Amendment was ratified and 55 years after the signing of the Voting Rights Act, which expanded who could participate in American democracy.
She praised Biden for having “the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exist in our country” by selecting a woman as his running mate.
“Every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,” Harris said.
As news of Biden’s victory spread earlier Saturday, a mass outpouring of celebration began in the country’s big cities and other Democratic harbors.
People danced in the streets of Washington, D. C., where a cheering swarm gathered outside the White House, and in the San Francisco Bay Area. Revelers banged pots and pans in Puerto Rico. Firecrackers rang out across Southern California.
Honking and shouts echoed down New York City’s skyscraper canyons, where crowds cheered Postal Service trucks — a symbol of the mail ballots that helped torpedo Trump’s chance of a second term.
Film director Spike Lee, wearing a face mask and a Yankees hat, jumped up and down and popped a bottle of Champagne in the middle of the street.
In Wilmington, the streets along the waterfront were awash with people, cars, bikes and dogs in a scene that resembled a hometown celebration for a championship sports team. Kids carried Biden signs with cartoons of the presidentelect’s aviator sunglasses; adults hugged each other and waved at strangers as they blared their horns.
One car with two young women blasted Queen’s “We
Are the Champions.”
Not all shared in the jubilation. Counterdemonstrations quickly sprang up throughout the nation.
In Lansing, Mich., several dozen supporters of the president stood on the steps of the state Capitol — maskless, shoulder- to- shoulder — chanting “Four more years!” and “Count legal votes!”
“These Democrats are totally trying to steal this election,” said a woman, Rochelle, who would give only her first name.
“Trump won,” she said before quickly walking away.
In Philadelphia, the president’s attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani held a news conference in a parking lot in an industrial neighborhood, where he once again alleged rampant vote fraud but provided no evidence. In the background, car horns could be heard honking in celebration of Biden’s victory.
Good wishes poured in from around the world, as leaders sent Biden and Harris their tidings, not waiting for Trump to concede.
“Congratulations! The American citizens have made their decision,” said German
Chancellor Angela Merkel. “I am looking forward to working with President Biden in the future. Our transatlantic friendship is irreplaceable if we want to master the great challenges of our time.”
It is rare for sitting presidents to lose. Incumbents seeking a second term have won 17 of 24 times since 1860, a better than 70% success rate. The last president to lose his reelection bid was George H. W. Bush in 1992.
But Trump faced powerful countervailing forces: a onceina- century pandemic, the resulting economic collapse and a wrenching debate over the country’s painful history of racial discrimination.
Alone among modern presidents, Trump’s approval rating never surpassed 50% in a reliable opinion survey — his provocative behavior, racist comments and trampling of presidential norms ensured that. But he also never tried to broaden his support, focusing on his base among conservative, mostly white, rural and exurban voters — many of them thrilled by his outrageous antics — while largely ignoring, or antagonizing, others.
His cavalier handling of the coronavirus — which has killed more than 235,000 Americans and sent millions more to the hospital — proved his undoing in the way the Vietnam War ended the career of President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Iranian hostage crisis damaged President Jimmy Carter, and a limp economy hurt Bush. All either lost or gave up their reelection hopes in great part because they appeared to be overmatched by events.
Even so, Biden’s victory was hard- won and came only after a dayslong and divisive counting of the votes, brought on by the exigencies of the pandemic, which led many voters to cast ballots by mail. Also contributing were the machinations of Trump and his supporters, who blocked measures in several key states that would have allowed those mail ballots to be processed more quickly.
The final drama centered on four states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona — where vote counting continued three days after the election as the Trump campaign filed multiple legal claims in a largely unsuccessful effort to slow or block the tabulations.
The turning point came Friday morning, when Biden’s tally first surpassed Trump’s in Pennsylvania, where a trove of 20 Electoral College votes was at stake.
Trump had led there since Election Day, when he was up by more than 700,000 votes. But the gap steadily narrowed as mail ballots from the state’s heavily Democratic metropolitan areas were slowly counted.
The AP and television networks issued their projections Saturday morning that Biden had won after his lead in Pennsylvania expanded beyond half a percentage point, the state’s threshold for a mandatory recount.
Nevada and its six electoral votes tipped into Biden’s column soon after.
In Georgia, where Biden pulled ahead to a lead of more than 7,500 votes, state election officials said the race would likely go to a recount. Under Georgia law, a losing candidate can request a recount if the margin between two candidates is 0.5% or less of the total vote.
Trump’s campaign has also indicated it will ask for a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden leads by more than 20,500 votes. The result in North Carolina also remains uncertain, but Trump holds the lead there.
Recounts could prolong the partisan jockeying but are unlikely to affect Biden’s status as victor. Such proceedings rarely turn enough votes to change an outcome, and Pennsylvania gives Biden enough Electoral College votes to win even without the other states.