WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Joe Biden is projected to win the presidency of the United States following a long, bitter campaign dominated by the coronavirus and its effects on Americans and the national economy.
The Associated Press reports Biden clinched the White House over President Donald Trump late Saturday morning with a victory in Pennsylvania, the state where he was born. He later added Nevada to his column for a total of 290 electoral votes with three states uncalled.
He will be the 46th president of the United States.
Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris, is making history as the first Black woman elected vice president of the United States. The 56-year-old California senator is also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency.
She took to Twitter after the projections were announced, posting a video of herself calling Biden: "We did it, we did it, Joe," she says to him. "You're going to be the next president of the United States."
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Vice President-elect Harris says she and President-elect Biden have a lot of work to do.
"This election is about so much more than Joe Biden or me," she tweeted. "It's about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it. We have a lot of work ahead of us.''
President Trump has refused to concede and is vowing to pursue every legal avenue available to him as his campaign questions the counting of the millions of mail-in ballots from battleground states that broke late for Biden.
"The simple fact is this election is far from over," Trump said in a statement released by his campaign Saturday. "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."
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“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 statement continued.
In a tweet around 5 p.m. Saturday, Trump continued to insist that he won the election.
After several networks called the race for Biden, the 77-year-old president-elect issued a statement saying it's time for America to "unite'' and to "heal.''
"I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris," Biden said. "In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America."
"With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation," he continued. "It’s time for America to unite. And to heal. We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together."
Biden is expected to address the nation from Delaware at 8 p.m. ET Saturday. WCBS 880 will carry the remarks live.
Just after The Associated Press and other news organizations declared that Biden beat Trump, fireworks erupted in Atlanta. In Maine, a band playing at a farmers' market broke into the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Traffic came to a standstill in some parts of Brooklyn, as drivers stopped to get out to celebrate in the street.
Neighbors ran out of their homes in Manhattan and assembled into an unplanned street party, high-fiving strangers. In Louisville, Kentucky, people gathered on their lawns to toast with champagne. A woman driving by laid on her car horn, pumping her fist out the window. In Harlem, they danced in the streets, banged cowbells and honked their car horns.
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The widespread celebrations came after vote counting in the presidential race dragged on for days as a number of key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada, were too close to call by the end of Election Day.
Just before 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, Trump falsely proclaimed that he had won the election as millions of votes remained uncounted. “We will win this and as far as I’m concerned we already have won it," he declared.
That was in stark contrast to the comments made just two hours earlier by the former vice president, who cautioned that a result might not come for a few days and called for patience — a message he continued to repeat as the count persisted.
“We’re going to have to be patient,” Biden said. “It ain’t over until every vote is counted.”
As the numbers appeared to lean more in his favor, his campaign grew more confident in a Biden-Harris victory. He delivered a statement Thursday saying, "We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Sen. Harris and I will be declared the winners, so I ask everyone to stay calm... the process is working. We’ll know very soon.”
In what stopped just short of a victory speech Friday night, Biden again urged patience and calm as his campaign appeared to close in on the White House as his lead widened in Pennsylvania and Georgia. "We don’t have a final declaration of victory yet, but the numbers tell a clear and convincing story," Biden said. "We’re going to win this race."
President Trump's campaign has pursued legal efforts to halt the vote counting in some states and is seeking a recount in Wisconsin. Judges in Michigan and Georgia dismissed lawsuits there on Thursday.
Trump on Thursday in his first public appearance since election night, pushed unfounded claims that Democrats are trying to “steal” the election from him. He has promised that there will "be a lot of litigation."
In a statement released earlier Friday his campaign said, "We believe the American people deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting and election certification, and that this is no longer about any single election. This is about the integrity of our entire election process. From the beginning we have said that all legal ballots must be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted, yet we have met resistance to this basic principle by Democrats at every turn. We will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee that the American people have confidence in our government. I will never give up fighting for you and our nation."
According to the Election Project website, just over 65 million Americans cast their ballots by mail in this election. An additional 40 million cast ballots in early voting.
In Pennsylvania, an estimated 2.5 million mail-in votes were cast. Officials across the state have been counting them ever since Election Day. Unlike other states with mail in voting, Pennsylvania law prohibited the early counting of mail in votes. One reason why it has taken so long there.
Biden broke Barack Obama's record for most votes ever cast for a U.S. presidential candidate. According to CBS News, Biden had a record 74,446,452 votes (50.5% of the total), and counting. Obama in 2008 earned 69,498,516 votes. Trump has also exceeded Obama's record with 70,294,341 votes (47.7 %), as of Saturday morning.
The Associated Press contributed to this report