Joe Biden, the tough guy from Scranton who overcame a stutter, came close to winning the White House on Friday after beating President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, and the “tipping point” state where he fell behind by 700,000 votes in a stage. He also led in all but one of the remaining states that had not yet been summoned.
However, the 20 votes from the Pennsylvania Electoral College will suffice.
Biden has been at 264 votes, according to the Associated Press tracker (other news outlets have it at 253 with Arizona still up for grabs according to them), up from 214 for President Trump. That account has been unchanged for more than a day.
But as time passed and the tracks changed, he quickly emerged as the clear winner.
The former vice president was expanding his lead over the president in Pennsylvania, he was far ahead in Georgia (16 votes in the electoral college), a Republican stronghold that had last voted Democrats in 1992, and in Nevada (6). President Trump was ahead in North Carolina (15), but that alone was not enough to put him on a credible path to victory.
There was no word from Biden or his campaign on the outcome as of Friday’s press time. But a sense of anticipation was building in. His Secret Service security was reportedly being tightened and a “no-fly zone” order from the US Federal Aviation Administration went into effect for his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
But the Trump campaign reacted, unsurprisingly, rejecting the growing signs of the inevitability of Biden’s victory. “This election is not over. The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final, ”said Matt Morgan, general counsel for the Trump campaign, in a statement. He indicated that the campaign would seek a vote recount in Georgia and repeated the campaign’s complaints and allegations of electoral irregularities in Pennsylvania.
Morgan also claimed that the president was “on his way” to winning Arizona (11), where Trump has in fact narrowed the gap between himself and Biden. The Associated Press and Fox News have projected that Biden will win the state, but the Trump campaign has challenged that decision.
“Biden relies on these states for his false claim on the White House, but once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected,” he added. The Trump campaign has already said it would seek a recount in Wisconsin (10) and filed lawsuits in Michigan (16) and Pennsylvania seeking more access to the counting centers.
The president was not giving in, at least not yet. Andrew Bates, spokesman for Biden’s campaign, said in a statement in response to those reports: “As we said on July 19, the American people will decide this election. And the US government is perfectly capable of escorting intruders out of the White House. “
“Keep the faith folks,” Biden tweeted shortly after the president’s angry speech at the White House on Thursday night. He has repeatedly urged patience.
Biden, who will be the oldest person to take office when the time comes, at 78, has patiently waited 32 years for this moment, having first run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1987. He He then withdrew even before the primaries on accusations of plagiarism. He tried again in 2008, but withdrew after failing to perform in the first of the nominating contests, the Iowa caucus, bid farewell to Barack Obama, and later joined the ticket as his running mate.
The 2020 race didn’t start very well for Biden, either. He did poorly in the first two nominating contests, Iowa and New Hampshire; did better in third in Nevada; and he went to fourth in South Carolina with his campaign fate in balance. He crushed it, with the overwhelming support of the state’s black Democrats. And he went on to sweep the Super Tuesday contests, winning 11 of the 14 states, ousting Senator Bernie Sanders, the hitherto favorite.
He never looked back.
And now, Biden is about to win. Or, as he wrote on one of the walls of his childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday: “From this house to the White House with the grace of God.”
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