AP, CNN, Fox News declare Biden winner in race for White House
Joe Biden has won the White House after taking a critical win in Pennsylvania, according to The Associated Press.
The Vice President's projected win in Pennsylvania pushes the Democrat's campaign over the 270 Electoral Vote threshold, according to the independent totals tracked by each news agency.
CBS News, Fox News and CNN have also projected Biden to be the winner, as ballots are still being counted in multiple other states.
Results are expected to trickle in from other states that are still counting ballots two days after Election Day, including Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina and Alaska.
Americans showed deep interest in the presidential race. A record 103 million voted early this year, opting to avoid waiting in long lines at polling locations during a pandemic.
As of Thursday, Biden has received 71 million votes in his favor, the most of any presidential candidate ever.
Biden, born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and raised in Delaware, was one of the youngest candidates ever elected to the Senate. Before he took office, his wife and daughter were killed, and his two sons badly injured in a 1972 car crash.
Commuting every night on a train from Washington back to Wilmington, Biden fashioned an everyman political persona to go along with powerful Senate positions, including chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees. Some aspects of his record drew critical scrutiny from fellow Democrats, including his support for the 1994 crime bill, his vote for the 2003 Iraq War and his management of the Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court hearings.
Biden’s 1988 presidential campaign was done in by plagiarism allegations, and his next bid in 2008 ended quietly. But later that year, he was tapped to be Barack Obama’s running mate and he became an influential vice president, steering the administration’s outreach to both Capitol Hill and Iraq.
While his reputation was burnished by his time in office and his deep friendship with Obama, Biden stood aside for Clinton and opted not to run in 2016 after his adult son Beau died of brain cancer the year before.
Trump’s tenure pushed Biden to make one more run as he declared that “the very soul of the nation is at stake.”
President Trump has indicated on Twitter he will not accept the results of the election, alleging widespread voter fraud. However, The Associated Press claims there is no hard evidence for the fraud.
Believing they have plenty of evidence, the Trump campaign formally filed lawsuits on Wednesday in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. The new filings, joining existing Republican legal challenges in Pennsylvania and Nevada, demand better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, and raise absentee ballot concerns, the campaign said.
The campaign is also claiming there have been thousands of ballots received and counted in those states from already deceased residents and those who have moved away.
President Donald Trump released the following statement Saturday morning in response:
“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 court 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.”
President Donald Trump
