House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, on Friday called Joe Biden the “president-elect” of the United States after he leapt ahead on key election results.
“This morning it is clear that the Biden-Harris ticket will win the White House,” Pelosi told reporters after Biden surpassed President Donald Trump in the potentially decisive state of Pennsylvania.
“President-elect Biden has a strong leadership mandate,” he said.
It is “a happy day for our country. Joe Biden is a unifier, because he is determined to bring people together. “
Pennsylvania would be enough to put Biden beyond the magic number of 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College, which determines the presidency.
Biden also took a very fine lead in Georgia’s counted votes, which Trump did not see at stake until the end of the campaign.
The Democrat stopped short of declaring victory, but said he hoped he and his vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris would win.
Trump has angrily made unsubstantiated claims of fraud and tried to stop the vote count after prematurely declaring victory after the polls closed on Tuesday.
Biden’s performance came despite projections that Democrats will lose several seats in the House of Representatives, a major disappointment for the party that was hoping to expand its majority.
Pelosi played down the losses, but said the next House election in 2022 “will be a steeper climb” without Trump on the ballot.
The president’s party almost always loses seats in Congress in the first midterm election.
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