Joe Biden humbles Donald Trump, becomes President-elect of the United States
Joe Biden has been named President-elect of the United States after bagging the required 270 electoral college votes needed to definitively win the contest.
Saturday’s win in Pennsylvania gave Biden 20 votes, pushing him to 284 votes with official poll callers AP and Fox News, and 273 with rival forecasters CNN and The New York Times.
Biden first pulled ahead of President Trump in Pennsylvania on Friday, and steadily increased his lead throughout the day and overnight. Trump – who has warned he will not concede to Biden, shared a supporter’s claim the state’s largest city of Philadelphia had ‘rotten’ electoral processes after it helped hand Biden a win.
Speaking on Friday night, Biden said he and Kamala Harris – who becomes the highest-ranking woman ever to win office in the US – were on course to ‘win this race’. He added: ‘What’s becoming clear each hour is that a record number of Americans, of all races, faith, religions, chose change over more of the same.’
Meanwhile, counting is continuing in Georgia, where Biden increased his lead over Trump to 7,000 ballots in a state that traditionally votes for Trump’s Republican party. Officials say the margin of 0.1% is so small a recount will be needed before a winner can be declared.