Biden wins US Presidential election with 273 electoral votes
Former Vice President Joe Biden has won the US Presidential election after winning the battleground state of Pennsylvania to clinch the state’s 20 electoral votes.
Pennsylvania’s win gave Biden a total of 273 electoral votes, 3 votes more than the constitutional 270 required to win the presidency.
As at the time of filing this report, President Donald Trump still trails by 214 electoral votes even as his campaign has indicated their candidate does not plan to concede.
Trump had said in a statement on Saturday that the election is “far from over” and that he would be heading to court next week to challenge the outcome.
“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,” he said in a statement. He added that “the simple fact is this election is far from over.”
But the BBC reports that Mr. Biden said it was now time for America to “unite and heal”.
Read also, US Election Results: Why President Trump has rejected election results
“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.
Record turnout in the face of “unprecedented obstacles”, he said, showed democracy “beats deep in the heart of America”.
Despite President Trump’s stance, some republicans have started congratulating the President-elect, Joe Biden.
One of those includes Republican Senator and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who on Saturday night, congratulated president-elect, Joe Biden and the vice president-elect, Kamala Harris.
Romney has always been a critic of President Donald Trump and on Friday disagreed with him over Trump’s claim of election fraud, saying the president’s claim was reckless.
Senator Romney, in a one-paragraph tweet congratulating Biden and Harris, described them as both of them as people of goodwill and admirable character.
Other sitting elected republicans who have also called Biden to congratulate him include: Gov. Larry Hogan, Gov. Phil Scott, Rep. Paul Mitchell
Rep. Fred Upton and Rep. Will Hurd.
More details soon…