America has chosen Democrat Joe Biden as its 46th president, Cable News Network (CNN) and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on Saturday.
In a written statement after networks called the race, Biden, who is expected to address the American people later Saturday, said he was “honored and humbled” by the trust the American people have placed in him.
“In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America,” Biden said. “With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation.”
“We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together.” Biden said.
After four years of Trump’s incessant lies, bullying and vilification of his political opponents, Biden said he was running to restore the character of the nation and bring dignity back to the White House.
Biden, who turns 78 at the end of this month, will become the oldest president when he is inaugurated in January in the midst of the worst public health emergency in 100 years, the deepest economic slump since the 1930s and a national reckoning on racism and police brutality that is still unresolved.
Supporters poured into the streets across the country in a moment of catharsis to celebrate the President-elect’s victory, that also means that California Sen. Kamala Harris, his running mate, will make history as the first woman, the first Black person and the first person of Southeast Asian descent to become vice president.
Biden’s election will end Trump’s tumultuous hold on Washington and condemn the Republican, who has had a lifelong obsession with winning, to the ranks of chief executives who lost after a single term.
Ultimately, Biden carved out his route to 270 Electoral College votes by holding most of the states that Clinton won and adding Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to his column. Ballots are still being counted in the key states of Nevada and Arizona.
Trump continued to cast aspersions on the electoral process — wrongly suggesting that there was something nefarious about the fact that the vote count in key states continued well after Tuesday night, as is customary in US elections.
Meanwhile, his team mounted a series of lawsuits in several states, including Pennsylvania, looking to stop vote counting in some areas while challenging how closely observers can monitor officials counting the votes in others. The Trump campaign also said it would demand a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden led Trump by some 20,000 votes, even though historically a margin of that magnitude is unlikely to be reversed.