RFI — Democrat Joe Biden has been elected the 46th President of the United States after clinching the decisive state of Pennsylvania on Saturday – but incumbent Donald Trump is showing no signs of conceding.
The call from Associated Press came after Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania widened by over 30,000 votes. This handed him the state’s 20 electoral college votes, enough to propel him over the 270 needed to take the White House.
Not long afterwards, Biden also claimed Nevada’s six electoral college votes.
US media including CNN and FOX announced Biden’s win after projections showed he would take both battleground states.
Counting is ongoing in Georgia and Arizona, where Biden is holding narrow leads. Authorities in Georgia said they would launch a recount as the race remains “too close to call”.
A former vice-president under Barack Obama, Biden is the first candidate to notch more than 70 million votes nationwide in a presidential contest.
“With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation,” he said in a statement shortly after his win was projected. He also changed his Twitter profile to “president-elect”.
Refusal to concede
However Trump has not accepted the results, and instead warned the election was “far from over”. He released the following statement.
“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,” Trump said.
Throughout the marathon count, Trump has claimed – without evidence – that Democrats are trying to “steal” the election.
His campaign filed an injunction to bar votes from being counted in Philadelphia unless a Republican observer is present. He also filed a lawsuit to halt the vote count in Michigan, which a judge rejected. And he is seeking a recount in Wisconsin.
America saw its highest voter turnout in a century, with more than 100 million votes cast even before Election Day. But results were slowed, in part, by the unprecedented number of mail-in ballots this year due to the coronavirus.
Congressional race results are also trickling in, with Democrats set to retain their majority in the House, albeit with a slimmer margin. Republicans appear poised to hold on to their majority in the Senate but January run-offs could further shift the balance.