WILMINGTON, Del. – The Electoral College cemented president-elect Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election on Monday, casting 306 votes for Biden and 232 for President Donald Trump. The Electoral College votes will now be sent to Congress to be counted formally on January 6.
Speaking from Wilmington, Biden called out the failures of Trump’s campaign and his allies in state and federal courts while calling on all Americans to move on from the debate over the results and focus back on the raging coronavirus pandemic.
“The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know nothing, not even a pandemic or an abuse of power, can extinguish that flame,” Biden said.
“In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed. We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal.”
Biden was no longer shy about calling out the Republicans, 17 state attorneys general and 126 members of Congress, who supported and backed up Mr. Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud, despite no evidence ever being provided.
“This legal maneuver was an effort by elected officials and one group of states to try to get the Supreme Court to wipe out the votes of more than 20 million Americans in other states and to hand the presidency to a candidate who lost the Electoral College, lost the popular vote and lost each and every one of the states whose votes they were trying to reverse. It’s a position so extreme, we’ve never seen it before,” he said.
The President-elect, who was clearing his throat or coughing several times through this speech, noted more than 81 million votes were cast in favor of himself and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, which is the most in history and seven million more than Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence received.
Biden shifted focus to the issues that will be the sole focus of his administration in the early days: the coronavirus pandemic, including distributing vaccines and slowing its spread along with rebuilding the economy.
“There is urgent work in front of all of us,” he said. “Getting the pandemic under control to getting the nation vaccinated against this virus. Delivering immediate economic help so badly needed by so many Americans who are hurting today — and then building our economy back better than it ever was.”
Article updated at 8:26 pm ET to include President-elect Biden’s speech.
