Former Vice President Joe Biden links arms with Sen. Kamala Harris and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Detroit, March 9, 2020 | Andrew Roth
Updated, 11:50 a.m., 11/7/20
Democratic nominee Joe Biden is now president-elect of the United States.
Biden took the lead in votes in the critical state of Pennsylvania on Friday and it was projected for him on Saturday morning. At 11:28 a.m., the Associate Press called the election for Biden over Trump — a result that has been increasingly clear to elections experts since Wednesday morning. Fox News, NBC and CNN also have called the race for the former vice president.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) will serve as Biden’s vice president. She is the first woman, first Black American and first Indian American to hold the office.
Biden’s victory hinged on rebuilding the “Blue Wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which all narrowly went for Trump in 2016. The AP called Wisconsin and Michigan for Biden on Wednesday, along with multiple outlets.
Trump on Saturday morning, he falsely wrote on Twitter that he won the election, which was flagged because the race hadn’t been called. After news outlets declared Biden the winner, Trump issued a statement arguing the “election was far from over.”
On Thursday night, Trump gave a speech from the White House in which he did not acknowledge being down in both the Electoral College and popular vote. Instead, he falsely claimed that Democrats “trying to steal an election” and “trying to rig an election” while providing no evidence. Several media outlets cut away from his speech, given its inaccuracies and concerns about the GOP president undermining the electoral process.
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale went through Trump’s claims and called it “the most dishonest speech of his presidency.”
The Trump campaign filed lawsuits in multiple states, including one that a judge dismissed in Michigan that attempted to stop the vote count. The count has been completed in Michigan, which the AP has called for Biden.
The call came during a joint Michigan House and Senate Oversight Committee called on a Saturday — which is highly unusual — by GOP leaders.
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