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Democrat Joe Biden has won the presidency when voters narrowly rejected the tumultuous leadership of Republican President Donald Trump and accepted Biden’s promise to fight the coronavirus pandemic and fix the economy in a divided nation.
Winning the Pennsylvania Electoral College’s 20-vote battleground status gave the former vice president more than the 270 he needed to succeed, prompting every major television network to declare him the victor after four days of scathing suspense after Tuesday’s elections.
“I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and Vice President-elect (Kamala) Harris. In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted,” Biden said on Twitter.
“With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It’s time for America to come together. And heal.”
Trump, who has made repeated claims of voter fraud without providing evidence, immediately accused Biden of “rushing to pose as the winner.”
“This election is far from over,” he said in a statement.
State election officials across the country say there has been no evidence of significant fraud.
When the news broke, loud cheers broke out in the corridors of the hotel where Biden’s aides were staying and across the country.
“It’s worth every minute” of the wait, said a Biden aide, as campaign staff exchanged elbows and hugs in the lobby.
Cheers and applause could be heard from neighborhoods in Washington, DC In one community, people came out onto balconies shouting, shaking and banging on pots. The wave of noise increased as more people heard the news. Some were crying. The music began to play, “We are the champions” sounded.
In Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, people cheered, honked their horns and erupted in cheers as news of Biden’s victory spread. Some residents danced on a building’s fire escape, cheering while others yelled “yes!” as they passed.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement congratulating Biden and saying he hoped to address “the world’s greatest challenges” with a new administration. Like the leaders of many other US allies, Trudeau had an often troubled relationship with Trump.
Yet in a reminder of the country’s divided state, some 200 Trump supporters gathered near the state capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, to demand a recount.
The networks’ statement that Biden had won came amid internal concerns within Trump’s team about strategy going forward and pressure on him to choose a more professional legal team to outline where they believe it took place. electoral fraud and show evidence to point it out.
A Trump loyalist said Trump was simply not ready to admit defeat even though not enough ballots would be thrown out in a recount to change the outcome. “There is a mathematical certainty that he is going to lose,” said the loyalist.
DIFFICULT TASKS IN THE FUTURE
When Biden enters the White House on January 20, the oldest person to take office at 78, he will likely face a difficult task of governing in deeply polarized Washington, underscored by record turnout across the country in a fight to the end.
The former vice president had a 273-214 lead in the state-by-state Electoral College vote determining the winner, having won Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes to put him above the 270 he needed to secure the presidency, according to Edison Research.
To ensure victory, Biden faced unprecedented challenges. These included Republican-led efforts to limit voting by mail at a time when a record number of people were required to vote by mail due to the pandemic, which has killed more than 235,000 people in the United States.
Both sides characterized the 2020 election as one of the most crucial in American history, as important as the votes during the Civil War of 1860 and the Great Depression of 1930.
For months, officials on both sides raised the specter that the United States could not get a fair vote. In the end, however, voting at the polls proceeded with limited interruption. Thousands of election supervisors from both parties worked for four days to make sure the votes were counted.
Biden’s victory was fueled by strong support from groups including women, African Americans, white voters with college degrees, and city dwellers. He was more than four million votes ahead of Trump in the national popular vote count.
Biden, who has spent half a century in public life as a U.S. senator and then vice president under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, will inherit a nation in crisis from the coronavirus pandemic and related economic slowdown, as well as disruptive protests against racism and police brutality. .
Biden has said his first priority will be to develop a plan to contain and recover from the pandemic, promising to improve access to testing and, unlike Trump, to follow the advice of leading scientists and public health officials.
He has also vowed to restore a sense of normalcy in the White House after a presidency in which Trump praised authoritarian foreign leaders, scorned long-standing global alliances, refused to repudiate white supremacists, and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the US electoral system.
Despite his victory, Biden will have failed to deliver the radical repudiation of Trump that Democrats hoped for, reflecting the deep support the president enjoys despite his tumultuous four years in office.
This could complicate Biden’s campaign promises to reverse key parts of Trump’s legacy. These include deep Trump tax cuts that especially benefited hardline and wealthy corporations and immigration policies, efforts to dismantle the 2010 Obamacare healthcare law, and Trump’s abandonment of international agreements such as the agreement. Paris climate and the Iran nuclear deal.
If Republicans maintain control of the United States Senate, they are likely to block much of its legislative agenda, including expanding health care and fighting climate change. That prospect could hinge on the outcome of four undecided Senate races, including two at Georgia.
Biden, who will become the 46th president of the United States, presented unsuccessful bids for the presidency in 1988 and 2008. Harris, his running mate, will become the first woman, the first African American and the first American of Asian descent. in occupying the position of vice president. the country’s number 2 office.
‘TRYING TO STEAL AN ELECTION’
For Trump, 74, it was an unsettling ending after a staggering political rise. The real estate developer who established a national brand as a reality TV personality upset Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the presidency in 2016 in her first run for elected office. Four years later, he becomes the first US president to lose a re-election bid since Republican George HW Bush in 1992.
Despite his draconian restrictions on immigration, Trump made surprising gains among Latino voters. He also won battle states like Florida, where his promise to prioritize the economy even as the coronavirus threat increased seemed to have resonated.
In the end, however, Trump failed to significantly broaden his appeal beyond a committed core of rural and working-class white voters who embraced his right-wing populism and “America First” nationalism.
Before the election, Trump had refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost to Biden, and he stuck to that approach. He falsely declared victory long before the count was completed.
Ahead of the projection of Biden’s victory and with Trump’s chances of reelection fading as more votes were counted, the president launched an extraordinary assault on the country’s democratic process from the White House on Thursday, falsely claiming he was being robbed. the elections.
Without offering proof, Trump attacked poll workers and alleged fraud in states where the results of a dwindling set of uncounted votes brought Biden closer to victory.
“This is a case where they are trying to steal an election,” Trump said Thursday.
Asking for patience while the votes were counted, Biden responded on Twitter: “No one is going to take away our democracy. Not now, not ever.”
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