By Percy Langston
President-elect Joe Biden delivered his acceptance speech on Saturday night in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, at a socially distanced drive-in event.
103 million Americans voted early or by mail, causing delays in the count due to verification and signature checking needed for mail-in ballots.
The swing state of Pennsylvania, which went to Donald Trump in 2016, finally put Biden over the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Biden defended every state won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 and also reclaimed the Midwestern “blue wall” states of Michigan and Wisconsin, in addition to flipping Arizona.
Texas and Georgia, both once considered safe Republican states, became battlegrounds. While Trump won Texas by a six-point margin, the Associated Press called Georgia for Biden after election officials confirmed that Biden led Trump by over 12,000 votes.
In cities around the nation, thousands of people flooded into the streets, including in Washington, D.C., where they celebrated Biden’s win outside the White House. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign held a press conference outside Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia, a location that many speculate resulted from an error booking the Four Seasons Hotel.
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani repeated baseless claims of voter fraud and made it clear the Trump campaign had no plans to concede.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Giuliani. “Networks don’t get to decide elections. Courts do.”
As of Nov. 7, former Vice President Biden received a record-breaking 74.5 million votes. He will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Jan. 20, 2021.
“We stand at an inflection point,” Biden said. “We have an opportunity to defeat despair, to build a nation of prosperity and purpose. We can do it. I know we can.”
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