Saturday morning the Associated Press, CNN, Fox News and ABC called the 2020 presidential race for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, with the outlets projecting Biden winning Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes, carrying him over the 270 electoral vote threshold to become the 46th President of the United States of America.
The outlets announced Biden’s win minutes before President Donald Trump’s campaign was set to hold a press conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania contesting the status of the race.
Kamala Harris is projected to become the first female vice-president in U.S. history.
President Trump is not conceding as Biden assumes the title, “President-Elect.”
Biden will give a speech Saturday night focused on unity at 8 p.m. EST.
Biden, responding to the news, tweeted a video and said, “America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country. The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith that you have placed in me.”
America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country.
The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not.
I will keep the faith that you have placed in me. pic.twitter.com/moA9qhmjn8
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 7, 2020
Around the same time the outlets called the race for Biden, Trump tweeted, “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!”
I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
The electoral college must certify and vote on the results.
Electoral college electors from each state don’t vote until Dec. 14 and certificates recording the electoral vote results for each state must be provided to the president of the Senate no later than Dec. 23.
In an emailed statement to American Military News, the Trump campaign said:
“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over. Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor. In Pennsylvania, for example, our legal observers were not permitted meaningful access to watch the counting process. Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.
Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated. The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots. This is the only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election. It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters. Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to block their access.
So what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”
Trump, along with other Republican-affiliated organizations, have raised a number of legal challenges throughout the country. On Friday, a federal judge in Nevada denied an emergency motion by Nevada Republicans to alleging voter fraud and signature verification issues, KLAS 8 reported.
Over 145 million Americans voted in the 2020 election. As of its most up-to-date vote totals, Fox News reported Biden has received over 74.8 million votes, as compared to about 70.6 million votes for Trump. President Barack Obama had held the previous highest vote total in a U.S. election, having garnered about 69.5 million votes in the 2008 election. While votes continue to come in, Biden and Trump are the first and second highest vote getters in U.S. election history respectively.
