Flipping Michigan, Biden says believes ‘we will be the winners’ of US election
Former vice president vows to serve all Americans as he knocks on door of White House after taking key battleground Great Lake State; Trump falsely claims wins in 4 states
WASHINGTON — Former vice president Joe Biden said Wednesday he was confident of winning the presidency once all votes are counted, making a televised plea for unity as he appeared poised to unseat US President Donald Trump after four years.
“When the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners,” Biden said in his hometown of Wilmington, as he stressed that “every vote must be counted,” contradicting Trump, who earlier alleged fraud without evidence and said that vote counting must be stopped.
“We the people will not be silenced,” Biden said, as his running mate Kamala Harris stood by his side.
Trump, meanwhile, tweeted that he was claiming wins in three states where no definitive result has been projected, and in Michigan, where Biden is projected to win.
Biden indicated he would seek to avoid the divisions that defined the Trump presidency should he win, noting that he would be president for all and reach across the aisle since “the presidency itself is not a partisan institution.”
“We have to stop treating our opponents as enemies,” he also said.
Countering Trump without naming him, Biden declared: “Here, the people rule. Power can’t be taken or asserted. It flows from the people and it is their will that will determine who will be the president of the United States.”
It was “clear that we’re winning enough states” to take the presidency, Biden said. “I’m not here to declare that we won but I am here to report that when the count is finished we believe we will be the winners.”
“We’ve won the majority of the American people and every indication is that the majority will grow,” he went on, adding that his campaign won more total votes than any in history.”
Promising unity if elected, Biden said: “We are campaigning as Democrats but I will govern as an American president. The presidency itself is not a partisan institution. It is the one office in this nation that represents everyone.” He vowed to “work as hard for those who didn’t vote for me as I will for those who did.”
“There will be no blue states or red states when we win, just the United States of America.”
Biden spoke shortly after winning the key battleground state of Wisconsin. Moments after he stepped off stage, networks began projecting he would win Michigan as well, flipping another state captured by Trump in 2016 and placing him in a commanding position to take the White House.
But a few key races remained. If Biden manages to pull out wins in Arizona and Nevada, where he currently leads, he will hit the magic number of 270 electoral votes.
CNN and NBC News projected the win for Biden in the Midwestern state, which unexpectedly went to Trump by less than half a percentage point in 2016 in one of the stunning state defeats suffered by Hillary Clinton.
With Michigan’s 16 electoral votes, Biden now has a total of at least 253, and 264 with the inclusion of Arizona — six shy of the magic number of 270 needed to win the US presidency, according to US network projections.
Trump in an extraordinary move later Wednesday tweeted that he was “claiming” wins in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan, even though Michigan had been called for Biden and none of the other states have been called at all.
He also again alleged, “there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported.” Twitter appended a note to the tweet saying it is disputed and misleading.
We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact,…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
The high-stakes election was held against the backdrop of a historic pandemic that has killed more than 232,000 Americans and wiped away millions of jobs. Both candidates spent months pressing dramatically different visions for the nation’s future, including on racial justice, and voters responded in huge numbers, with more than 100 million people casting votes ahead of Election Day.
Trump earlier also issued premature claims of victory and said he would take the election to the Supreme Court to stop the counting. It was unclear exactly what legal action he could try to pursue.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell discounted the president’s quick claim of victory, saying it would take a while for states to conduct their vote counts. The Kentucky Republican said Wednesday that “claiming you’ve won the election is different from finishing the counting.”
The president stayed out of the public eye but took to Twitter to suggest, without basis, that the election was being tainted by late-counted ballots. Twitter flagged a number of Trump’s tweets, noting some of the information shared was “disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”
Vote tabulations routinely continue beyond Election Day, and states largely set the rules for when the count has to end. In presidential elections, a key point is the date in December when presidential electors meet. That’s set by federal law.
Several states allow mailed-in votes to be accepted after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday. That includes Pennsylvania, where ballots postmarked by November 3 can be accepted if they arrive up to three days after the election.
