Updated: November 7, 2020 10:43:11 pm
Former Vice President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
Joe Biden, a former two-term vice president and a veteran of the Senate, will be the 46th president of the United States, the Associated Press (AP) news agency projected on Saturday. Indian-American Kamala Harris will be the next vice president, the first woman and the first person of color to hold the position.
Yet Biden’s Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has refused to budge, saying that “the election is far from over” and that it will not “rest until the American people have the honest vote count they deserve and what democracy demands. “
INBOX: Statement from President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/LJxbbdQBJu
– Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) November 7, 2020
The AP has declared Biden’s victory over President Trump after summoning Pennsylvania and his 20 electoral votes for Biden, bringing the total vote to 284. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Biden had also been leading in Georgia and Nevada, securing more than 270 electoral votes.
In addition, the AP projection includes the state of Arizona giving Biden an additional 11 electoral votes. President Trump has 214 electoral votes as of Saturday night. Many states are still counting the votes and will only officially declare the results in the coming days. The majority of these votes are by mail and the majority of them are projected to be in favor of Biden.
“America, it is an honor that you have chosen me to lead our great country. The work ahead of us will be tough, but I promise you this: I will be a president for all Americans, whether they vote for me or not, ”Biden said in a statement.
America, it is an honor that I have been chosen to lead our great country.
The work ahead will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a president for all Americans, whether they vote for me or not.
I will keep the faith you have placed in me. pic.twitter.com/moA9qhmjn8
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 7, 2020
The president-elect’s campaign team will have to face a series of legal challenges from Trump, many of which have already been dismissed by US courts. A vote count can also be conducted in some states and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger confirms there will be one. He requested a recount in Wisconsin and filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, which legal experts and many Republicans say are unfounded. Furthermore, CNN reports that the Trump administration is unlikely to grant the election and hopes to convince the courts, without any substantial claim, that there was voter fraud.
Anticipating the legal and political challenges ahead, Biden’s campaign issued a statement: “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. “
The 2020 election was the 77-year-old Biden’s third attempt to win the presidency. He previously entered the Democratic nomination in 1987 and 2008, with the latter resulting in President Barack Obama appointing him as his running mate for two terms. Biden has also been a six-term senator from Delaware who first elected him in 1972.
Trump vs Biden comments
Speaking from the White House meeting room Thursday, Trump made unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud to falsely argue that Biden’s side was trying to seize power. “We are hearing stories that are horror stories … We think there is going to be a lot of litigation because we have so much evidence and so much evidence,” Trump said, falsely claiming that his campaign had been denied access to observe any counts. in Detroit.
On Friday, Trump exclaimed on Twitter that he had “easily” won the presidency “with legal votes cast.” “The observers were not allowed, in any way, shape or form, to do their job and therefore the votes accepted during this period should be considered illegal votes. The Supreme Court of the United States should decide! ” he said.
Supporters of US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden celebrate near the site of his planned election victory celebration after the media cast Biden as the winner of the 2020 US presidential election in Delaware (REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque)
Biden, for his part, tried to ease tensions, asking for each ballot to be counted before the results are announced. “Power can be taken or affirmed,” he said. “It flows from the people. And it is his will that determines who will be the president of the United States, and only his will. “
Why AP called Arizona for Biden
The Associated Press called the Arizona race for Biden at 250 a.m. EST Wednesday after an analysis of votes cast across the state concluded that Trump was unable to catch up on the ballots that remained to be counted.
Arizona has a long political history of Republican voters. It is the home state of Barry Goldwater, a five-term Conservative senator who was the Republican nominee for president in 1964. John McCain, the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, represented the state in Congress from 1983 until his death in 2018.
But demographic changes, including a rapidly growing Latino population and a boom in new residents, some fleeing the soaring cost of living in neighboring California, have made the state more democrat-friendly.
Many of the gains have been driven by the changing politics of Maricopa County, which is home to Phoenix and its suburbs. Maricopa County accounts for 60 percent of the state votes and Biden leads there by 34 percentage points in votes that have already been tabulated. – Associated Press
The legal battle of the Trump campaign
In a case that was dismissed Thursday, a Michigan judge noted that the counting of state ballots ended when she rejected the demand for campaigns to take a closer look at local election officials as they process absentee ballots.
In Georgia, a state judge dismissed a case due to concerns about 53 missing ballots in Chatham County after election officials in the Savannah-area county testified that all of those ballots had been received on time. Campaign officials previously said they were considering similar challenges in a dozen other counties. across the state.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign won an appeal ruling to bring party and campaign watchers closer to poll workers who process mail-in ballots in Philadelphia. But the order did not affect the ballot counting being carried out in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, as election officials are grappling with an onslaught of mail-in ballots fueled by fear of voting in person during a pandemic.
The Trump campaign filed a new federal lawsuit after hours Thursday in Nevada alleging that ineligible votes were cast in the Las Vegas area, the largest Democratic stronghold in a predominantly Republican state.
– With input from the Associated Press
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