Democrat Joe Biden won the U.S. presidential election on Saturday after a bitter campaign, sparking street celebrations among his supporters in major cities even as President Donald Trump refused to accept defeat.
Biden's victory in the battleground state of Pennsylvania put him over the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes he needed to clinch the presidency, ending four days of nail-biting suspense in a deeply divided country.
"With the campaign over, it's time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It's time for America to unite. And to heal," Biden said on Twitter.
Congratulations poured in from abroad, including from conservative British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, making it hard for Trump to push his repeated claims, without evidence, that the election was rigged against him.
Trump, who was golfing when the major television networks projected his rival had won, immediately accused Biden of "rushing to falsely pose as the winner."
"This election is far from over," he said in a statement.
Trump has filed a raft of lawsuits to challenge the results but elections officials in states across the country say there has been no evidence of significant fraud, and legal experts say Trump's efforts are unlikely to succeed.
Biden was due to address the nation after 8 p.m. on Saturday (1 a.m. Sunday GMT) from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
As the news of his win broke, loud cheers erupted in the halls of the hotel where aides to the former vice president were staying.
Biden's running mate, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, tweeted a video of her calling Biden to congratulate him: "We did it Joe!" Harris will be the first woman, the first Black American and the first American of Asian descent to serve as vice president, the country's No. 2 office.
Cheers and applause were heard around Washington, with people emerging onto balconies, yelling, honking car horns and banging pots. The wave of noise in the nation's capital built as more people learned of the news. Some sobbed. Music began to play, "We are the Champions" blared.
In the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, some people erupted in screams of joy as word spread. Several residents danced on the fire escape of one building, cheering while others screamed "yes!" as they passed by.
Trump supporters reacted with a mix of disappointment, suspicion and resignation, highlighting the difficult task that Biden faces winning over Americans in more rural areas who believe Trump was the first president to govern with their interests at heart.
"It's sickening and sad," said Kayla Doyle, a 35-year-old Trump supporter and manager of the GridIron Pub on Main Street in the small town of Mifflintown, Pennsylvania. "I think it's rigged."
Angry pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" demonstrators gathered at state capitol buildings in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. Protesters in Phoenix chanted "We want audits!" One speaker told the crowd: "We will win in court!"
There were no signs of the violence or turmoil many had feared, and the pro-Trump protests mostly faded as the results sunk in. Prior to the election, Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost, and he falsely declared victory long before counting was complete.
Former and present political leaders also weighed in, including congratulations from former Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican U.S. Senator Mitt Romney. Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham called on the Justice Department to investigate claims of voting irregularities.
The networks' declaration for Biden came amid concerns within Trump's team about the strategy going forward and pressure on him to pick a professional legal team to outline where they believe voter fraud took place and provide evidence.
Trump's allies made it clear the president does not plan to concede anytime soon.
One Trump loyalist said Trump simply was not ready to admit defeat even though there would not be enough ballots thrown out in a recount to change the outcome. "There's a mathematical certainty that he's going to lose," the loyalist said.
Biden's win ends Trump's chaotic four-year presidency in which he played down a deadly pandemic, imposed harsh immigration policies, launched a trade war with China, tore up international agreements and deeply divided many American families with his inflammatory rhetoric, lies and willingness to abandon democratic norms.
On Saturday, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien urged supporters to be ready to attend protests or rallies that the campaign is "propping up around the country," according to a person familiar with the situation.
"At a moment's instance, we may need your help at protests in your states, to make sure the president is represented and our side of the argument is shown," Stepien said on a call with Trump allies and surrogates.
DIFFICULT TASK AHEAD
For Biden's supporters, it was fitting that Pennsylvania ensured his victory. He was born in the industrial city of Scranton in the state's northeast and, touting his middle-class credentials, secured the Democratic nomination with a promise to win back working-class voters who had supported Trump in 2016.
He launched his campaign in Pittsburgh last year and wrapped it up with a rally there on Tuesday. It was a tight race in industrial states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, but Biden did enough to prevail.
He faced unprecedented challenges. These included Republican-led efforts to limit mail-in voting at a time when a record number of people were due to vote by mail because of the pandemic, which has killed more than 236,000 people in the United States.
When Biden enters the White House on Jan. 20, the oldest person to assume the office at age 78, he likely will face a difficult task governing in a deeply polarized Washington, underscored by a record nationwide voter turnout.
Both sides characterized the 2020 election as one of the most crucial in U.S. history, as important as votes during the 1860s Civil War and the 1930s Great Depression.
For months, officials on both sides raised the spectre of the United States not being able to pull off a fair vote. In the end, however, voting at the polls proceeded with limited disruption.
Biden's victory was driven by strong support from groups including women, African Americans, white voters with college degrees and city-dwellers. He beat Trump by more than four million votes in the nationwide 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 Obama, will inherit a nation in turmoil over the coronavirus pandemic and the related economic slowdown as well as protests against racism and police brutality.
Biden has said his first priority will be developing a plan to contain and recover from the pandemic, promising to improve access to testing and, unlike Trump, to heed the advice of leading public health officials and scientists.
In addition to taming the health crisis, Biden faces a huge challenge remedying the economic hardship caused by the pandemic. Some 10 million Americans thrown out of work during coronavirus lockdowns remain idled, and federal relief programs have expired.
The U.S. economy remains technically in recession, and prospects are bleak for a return to work for millions, especially in service industries such as hospitality and entertainment where job losses hit women and minorities particularly hard.
Biden also has pledged to restore a sense of normalcy to the White House after a presidency in which Trump praised authoritarian foreign leaders, disdained longstanding global alliances, refused to disavow white supremacists and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the U.S. election system.
Despite his victory, Biden will have failed to deliver the sweeping repudiation to Trump that Democrats had hoped for, reflecting the deep support the president still retains.
This could complicate Biden's campaign promises to reverse key parts of Trump's legacy. These include deep Trump tax cuts that especially benefited corporations and the wealthy, hardline immigration policies, efforts to dismantle the 2010 Obamacare healthcare law and Trump's abandonment of such international agreements as the Paris climate accord and Iran nuclear deal.
Should Republicans keep control of the U.S. Senate, they would likely block large parts of his legislative agenda, including expanding healthcare and fighting climate change. That prospect could depend on the outcome of four undecided Senate races, including two in Georgia that will not be resolved until runoffs in January.
For Trump, 74, it was an unsettling end after an astonishing political rise. The real estate developer who established a nationwide brand as a reality TV personality upset Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the presidency in 2016 in his first run for elected office. Four years later, he becomes the first U.S. president to lose a re-election bid since Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Despite his draconian immigration curbs, Trump made surprising inroads with Latino voters. He also won battleground states such as Florida, where his pledge to prioritize the economy even if it increased the threat of the coronavirus appeared to have resonated.
In the end, though, Trump failed to significantly widen his appeal beyond a committed core of rural and working-class white voters who embraced his right-wing populism and "America First" nationalism.
Duane Fitzhugh, a 52-year-old teacher celebrating Biden's victory outside the Trump Hotel in Washington, said it was as if an evil enchantment was being lifted.
"It's like a pall fell over the country four years ago and we’ve been waiting years for it to end," he said.
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Comments
Why is twitter bothering? And why do you embed the bias?
Trump's tweet about winning comes with a warning that it isn't official yet.
1 hour later Biden thanks people for making him president, and funny that... No such warning for his tweet that it's not official yet.
Open your eyes sheep
Trump - "You’re fired”.
Kiwis are so funny. For the past 7 months, we have been listening to the media telling us that Biden was going to win in a "Blowout". Now, 5 days later, the same media is telling us that Biden is the clear winner. They haven't been very good at predicting results. Do you believe what they are saying? I don't! Not a single US state has certified its election results yet. Not one! When elections results are certified and the official electoral votes are tallied, I will believe the results. The media is clueless and biased! You want to believe them, well go ahead. This is going to be another election decided by the supreme court. I know many Kiwis rely on the ODT and TV1 for their information about the election. You do so at your own peril. Nothing about this election is normal. For the next several weeks, there will be numerous recounts and legal challenges. Once they are settled and the vote count certified, then there will be a winner. The media is trying to pressure Trump to concede, Biden, claiming to be the president-elect only adds more pressure. Trump will not concede until all legal options are exhausted. 72 Million Americans want to know if there was fraud. Lets find out!
Trump's tweet gets the warning, because it is a lie.
Biden's announcement does not because it is the truth.
You Trumpsters are going to have to learn the difference, if you are capable.
Political commentators are saying that Jacinda Ardern is going to now come under a lot of pressure from the US Government over NZ ties with China. Kamala Harris says she will not be turning a blind eye to what is going on in those internment camps in China. She says she is also going to confront China over Hong Kong. It could be from frying pan to fire for NZ.
Yeah, it's called media/big tech censorship. Everything you say is wrong Grizzster, but then everything most left whingers say is wrong. No matter how many times you repeat your lies, they are still just lies.
You are understandably upset. It's over. There are no blind 'sheep'. It's a new world in the morning.
Fox news declared sleepy Joe the winner, that's different than the states certifying the election results.
Ant difference is unimportant, the facts now show that Trump has lost and that it can't possibly win. Stop being a sore loser, it's time for you Trumpsters to face reality.
Lock him up! Lock him up! Lock him up!
Yet you guys were the sore losers living in denial for the last four years. Will this win for Biden finally stop the anger, mocking, ridicule, bullying, division and hate speech from the left? I highly doubt it. Will the Democrat backed media attack and fact-check Biden in the same bias manner everytime he mucks up, or just downplay his slander and mistakes, as they often have in the past with, "oh, he was just joking" "oh, but Trump was worse" Will the left now have to find a new target to project their hatred on Grizzly?
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
I also find your use of the word, 'Trumpsters' here offensive my American friend.
What rubbish!, the facts (that the biased media wont show) is that there has been fraud, including but not limited to, dead people voting, voting machines spitting out erroneous ballots. The FBI are currently investigating as is the DOJ, eye witnesses have seen what is going on but the biased media refuses to even cover that but you keep believing everything your beloved media is telling you.
Yes...forget the fact no state has certified their election results. The media's called the election and Bidens the winner. One set of rules applies to the dimocrats and another applies to everybody else. If biden was losing you all would be demanding a recount but because it's Trump, he doesn't get one. Hipocrites! Sleepy Joe probably hasn't even realized there was an election let alone he was at the top of the ticket. Only good thing is if biden does get elected, Obama had competition for the title worst president in the history of us. Like Obama said, Joe can screw anything up...he's good at that!
Why would he concede when all the votes haven't been counted? Why would he concede when the supreme court has ordered votes postmarked after election day be set aside? Why would he concede when software glitches have been erroneously awarding votes to sleepy Joe? The moment he concedes the votes stop being counted and the records are destroyed. If the records are destroyed prior to that Trump wins the state. If it was a true and fair election a recount will verify that. Let's see how things play out. There are a lot of very strange thing occuring in the election. I'm sure even the most ardent anto trumpers want at least the perception of a fair election. if everything is above board as fast as the counting of votes, a recount doesn't matter.
“ prompting all major TV networks to declare him victor”
Considering the media bias against Trump, this declaration is not helpful to a peaceful resolution to a divided country.
The OFFICIAL RESULT has not been declared yet so the media declaration will be very provocative to many.
I would have thought a more helpful course would be to report on the OFFICIAL state of play so faith in the system is maintained but maybe that’s not their objective.
Yay! A Biden victory positions America for a 180-degree turn on climate change.
Don't think so. Senate still won't move.
Given the slim margin of Victory for Biden, continued Republican control of the senate, and the loss of seats in the house, Biden can't do very much. Sleepy Joe might as well stay in the basement for the next 2 years because 1/2 the nation despises him as much as the other 1/2 despises Trump. Nothing is going to change. Republicans have had enough of the dimocrats, I suspect you are going to see the conservatives take to the streets to clash with Bidens Antifa goons. Bad times ahead for the US, elections have results.
"It's time for America to unite. And to heal."
Well Joe it's never too late for the democrats to apologize to Trump and America for the fake Russia collusion fantasy and the unending attempts to undermine his legitimate presidency.
But I guess it is too late, really.....You guys alienated 69 million Trump supporters and they won't forget....EVER!
If not for the virus, Trump would have won in an absolute landslide. Of course the 'grizzling' left will venomously deny that, but when you consider the way that the anti-Trump media had completely and deliberately politicized the virus, eg; 'Trump visits Georgia while cases rise' - 'Trump holds a rally in Florida while virus numbers spike' - 'Trump visits factories in Detroit among record deaths.' It's called subliminal messaging, (bad orange man = Virus = vote Biden) and when you look at how gullible and easily lead the left are, it comes as no surprise that he lost.
Here's a thought, maybe the Republicans will set up a special council to investigate Biden's ties to Ukraine, just for laughs that is... :)
No one expects them to. An uprising, however, will be dealt with by Law and the National Guard.
Be careful not to misrepresent America.
Massive fraud will be revealed. The left in America have been suckered into a sting. Trump will be president again in a few weeks, and his flagrant spending will continue. The worlds media have been duped. Debt levels to the moon! Trumps cheaters are better than the lefts cheaters. What a travesty.
"Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost, and he falsely declared victory long before counting was complete", the same as what biden is doing, falsely declaring victory when there are still votes to be counted (and fraudulent ones to be weeded out), it seems to me that the media too has falsely declared him the winner and I will say what gives them the right to decide an election outcome?, should we just hand them the power to decide elections because that is what seems to be happening. So much for unbiased reporting and just reporting what is happening.
"Biden calls for co-operation". But he and the dems didn't give Trump any....
The irony of all of these comments is that they are printed for all to see. A liberal media platform in a liberal country that prints the critical, derogatory, disparaging comments without censorship. How is that even allowed to happen?
NZ is a liberal country but I don't see much criticism of its leader on media platforms. Does she never make a mistake?
Biden maybe a good person but he is dealing with colonial mindset when it comes with NZ and Australia. If you ever wonder why NZ and Australia are keeping their borders open and engaged in such aggressive and harmful lock downs and travel restrictions within the country, it is because of the colonial legacy and mindset and ideology in ruling. And obvious racism and discrimination against outsiders and foreigners. This is the real reason the border is closed.
I disagree with your comment that the lockdown/s (1 major one that lasted 4 weeks back in March, the last one was minor in Auckland) did harm to this country. Or that the border closure is racist, that decision is common sense and has to do with the pandemic, which is not over. The virus is not political or racist, it does not discriminate and can infect everyone, to varying degrees. Our best defence is to control the spread as best we can. No one can deny that the health system in NZ is in a position to cope with widespread infection and hospitalisation. Therefore common sense says take an alternative approach and protect what we have for as long as we can.
I disagree with your comment that the lockdowns didn't do any harm to the country, the Special Covid income relief payment is coming to an end, the Winter Energy Payment just finished and the freeze that the government had put on rent increases is also ending. What that means is that people who are struggling are about to face even more hardship, but you just continue to preach from your ivory tower eh.
Do you mean Trade with China? We're supposed to be dealing with the economy, after all.
Biden has not been elected yet, the vote they just had on Tuesday does not elect the President, it determines the electoral college electors, and they vote to determine the president, and America isnt at that point yet. California only has 66% of its vote counted, Trump actually increased his support there a Democrat strong hold , fancy that. There have been several election rules broken and until they're resolved Biden cannot be president plain and simply. The O.D.T shouldnt be reporting Biden as having won the election because he hasn't. I think Trump will ultimately get a second term.