US election 2020: Joe Biden’s victory is confirmed after Electoral College votes
US President-elect Joe Biden has delivered a stirring speech after the Electoral College vote confirmed his win over Donald Trump.
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US President-elect Joe Biden called on Americans to “turn the page” after a tumultuous election, declaring that “democracy prevailed” after the Electoral College confirmed his win over Donald Trump.
Mr Biden slightly fumbled his words and coughed as he spoke a stage from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
Saying he had more than seven million votes than Mr Trump, he said his ticket with Kamala Harris earned “306 electoral votes (which) is the same number of electoral votes that (Trump) and (Pence) received when they won in 2016.”
He said the record 155 million voters who turned out in November proved the strength of the US democracy and slammed the Trump campaign’s continuing challenges.
“This election now ranks as the clearest demonstration of the true will of the American people. One of the most amazing demonstrations of civic duty we’ve ever seen,” he said.
Slamming those who had threatened election officials as “simply unconscionable” he called for “healing and unity”.
“It should be celebrated, not attacked,” he said, adding that the turnout had defied predictions
“Even in the face of a public health crisis unlike anything we’ve experienced in our lifetimes. The people voted and they voted in record numbers.”
In his speech, Biden said: “Now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal”.
“In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed … the integrity of our elections remains intact,” Biden said, in a clear reference to Trump’s refusal to accept defeat and his repeated efforts to subvert the democratic process by overturning the election’s results.
It came as the Trump campaign has lodged at least 50 legal challenges to the vote with most having already been dismissed.
“In America, when questions are raised about the legitimacy of any election, those questions are resolved through the legal process — and that’s precisely what happened here,” Biden said.
“The Trump campaign brought dozens and dozens and dozens of legal challenges to test the result, they were heard again and again and each time they were heard, they were found to be without merit.”
Mr Biden described the campaign’s Texas lawsuit, which the Supreme Court dismissed last week, as unconstitutional.
“It’s a position so extreme, we’ve never seen it before,” he said of the state’s efforts to overturn the result.
“A position that refused to respect the will of the people, refused to respect the rule of law, and refused to honour our Constitution.”
With California’s 55 electors voting for Biden, the nation’s largest state pushed the Democrat over the threshold of 270 electoral votes to cement his victory, in a process given added significance given Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his own defeat.
The state’s electors burst into applause when the presiding officer announced the tally of 55 votes for Biden as the 46th President of the United States.
Electors for all 50 states and the District of Columbia met separately Monday to cast their ballots for president, formally certifying the election result for Biden.
Electoral College voting is a constitutionally-mandated ritual that’s typically no more than a curious afterthought following a presidential election, but the vote has taken on new-found significance this year as Trump and his GOP allies make unprecedented efforts to subvert the popular will of the voters and overturn Biden’s November victory.
As the vote for Mr Biden was made official, Mr Trump revealed over social media that embattled Attorney-General Bill Barr was quitting before Christmas.
“Just had a very nice meeting with Attorney-General Bill Barr at the White House. Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!,” Mr Trump said on Twitter.
He then posted the resignation letter Mr Barr sent him.
Mr Trump has increasingly criticised Mr Barr for not backing his claims of widespread electoral fraud and saying that the Justice Department found no evidence the election was stolen.
Previously one of Mr Trump’s most staunch allies Mr Barr steered the White House defence during the Russia investigation.
He was complimentary of Mr Trump in his letter.
“I will spend the next week wrapping up a few remaining matters important to the Administration,” he said.
“Your record is all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless, implacable resistance.
“Your 2016 victory speech in which you reached out to your opponents and called for working together for the benefit of the American people was immediately met by a partisan onslaught against you in which no tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bounds.
“The nadir of this campaign was the effort to cripple, if not oust, your Administration with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with Russia.”
It comes after the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday also Mr Trump’s lawsuit attempting to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the battleground state, ending Trump’s legal challenges in state court about an hour before the Electoral College was to meet to cast the state’s 10 votes for Biden.
The ruling came after the court held arguments Saturday, the same day a federal judge dismissed another Trump lawsuit seeking to overturn his loss in the state. Trump appealed that ruling.
Trump sought to have more than 221,000 ballots disqualified in Dane and Milwaukee counties, the state’s two most heavily Democratic counties. He wanted to disqualify absentee ballots cast early and in-person, saying there wasn’t a proper written request made for the ballots; absentee ballots cast by people who claimed “indefinitely confined” status; absentee ballots collected by poll workers at Madison parks; and absentee ballots where clerks filled in missing information on ballot envelopes.
SPECULATION SWIRLS OVER IVANKA’S NEXT MOVE
Speculation about Ivanka Trump’s post-White House career is ramping up after the US President’s daughter reportedly purchased an expensive plot of land in Florida.
The sale has prompted widespread conjecture that Ms Trump, a senior adviser to her father, could be using the state as a base for a future Senate run.
Ms Trump has emerged as a shining light out of her father’s administration and is wildly popular with his base.
“Ivanka definitely has political ambitions, no question about it,” a source reportedly told CNN. “She wants to run for something, but that still needs to be figured out.”
Florida might offer one potential pathway in a Senate race in 2022 when current Republican incumbent Marco Rubio’s seat is up for re-election. Mr Rubio was originally a harsh critic of Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican nomination race but has become a loyal supporter of the US President once he had the won election.
“I think she’d be the immediate frontrunner if she ran for US Senate against Rubio, given her father’s popularity in the Sunshine State,” Adam C Smith, former Tampa Bay Times political editor, told CNN.
Giving weight to the rumours are reports that Ms Trump and her husband Jared Kushner – who has also been a prominent and influential member of the White House team for the last four years – are spending millions of dollars on a property in Florida that will serve as their future home base.
The couple just splurged on a US$30 million ($A40 million) lot of land on Miami’s uber-swanky and high-security Indian Creek Island — known as the “Billionaire’s Bunker” — the New York Post reported.
The private, guarded and gated Indian Creek Island is also one of the most secure places in Florida, as it boasts a 13-man police force for just 29 residences.
It is believed the couple purchased Lot 4, which was owned by Julio Iglesias, to build a bayfront estate.
TRUMP SLAMS SUPREME COURT
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has slammed the US Supreme Court for its decision not to hear a Texas lawsuit looking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The decision came despite the US President having appointed a third of the current Justices.
“This is a great and disgraceful miscarriage of justice. The people of the United States were cheated, and our Country disgraced. Never even given our day in Court!,” Mr Trump said via Twitter on Saturday (local time).
“WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!” he later wrote.
Mr Trump noted that Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas had expressed a willingness to hear the case, reports the New York Post.
In a brief comment by Justice Alito joined by Justice Thomas, the Justice noted that the suit was part of the court’s “original jurisdiction” and that he felt obliged to offer at least a hearing. But in the same breath said that was as far as he’d be willing to go.
“I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue,” Justice Alito wrote.
In a tweet just moments later, Mr Trump renewed his attacks on the Republican governors of Georgia and Arizona after losing both states narrowly to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election last month.
“Who is a worse governor, @BrianKempGA of Georgia or @dougducey of Arizona??? These are two RINO Republicans who fought against me and the Republican Party harder than any Democrat,” Mr Trump said.
“They allowed states that I won easily to be stolen. Never forget, vote them out of office!”
BIDEN SKIRTS QUESTIONS ON SON’S DEALINGS
Meanwhile, US President-elect Joe Biden has spoken of his support for his son Hunter after it was revealed his ‘tax affair’s are under investigation but pointedly ignored other questions on the topic.
In announcing several appointees to his transition team on Friday (Saturday AEDT) Mr Biden ended his weekly press briefing without any questions from the media regarding the investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes by the Delaware Justice Department.
Mr Biden answered questions on the pandemic and the diversity within his team from reporters, who some claimed were specifically chosen.
However, after wrapping up the official part of the event, reporters then moved to question Mr Biden on the allegations after his transition team released a statement earlier this week.
Reporters shouted several questions at Mr Biden as he left the stage. He avoided answering one question on whether Hunter has committed a crime.
But when asked if he has spoken to his since news of the investigation broke, the Democrat leader replied: “I’m proud of my son”.
It was revealed earlier this week, Hunter Biden was the subject of an active investigation from the US Attorney’s Office in Delaware.
“I learned yesterday for the first time that the US Attorney’s Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs,” Hunter Biden said in a statement released by his father’s transition team.
“I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisers.”
The investigation was based in part on the existence of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to Hunter Biden’s business dealings in “China and other foreign nations,” Fox News reported.
During the election campaign Mr Trump repeated claimed Hunter had leveraged his father’s stature to enrich himself via overseas business dealings.
Further allegations were made in a New York Post report about a laptop computer Hunter Biden has left abandoned at a Delawar repair shop.
The repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac has since defended himself against claims he is a Russian agent and a hacker. The Post reports.
Mr Biden announced several administration picks, including Obama-era officials such as former national security adviser Susan Rice as White House Domestic Policy Council director and ex-chief of staff Denis McDonough as veterans affairs secretary.
The appointments, laid out by Mr Biden’s presidential transition team, highlight the diversity which Biden pledged to bring to his cabinet.
“This is the right team for this moment in history, and I know that each of these leaders will hit the ground running on day one to take on the interconnected crises families are facing today,” Mr Biden said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court dismissed a bid by Texas to overturn the results of the presidential election, which Mr Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, in a fresh setback for the president.
The longshot suit lodged late Tuesday against four states key in the November 3 vote — Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — challenged Mr Biden’s victory in each of the four.
But the Supreme Court justices said Texas — which voted for Mr Trump — “has not demonstrated a judicially cognisable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.”
The suit had been seen as audacious and barely legally sound, given that no one state has any legal right to interfere in another’s voting processes. Even so, it was backed by 106 Republican politicians and 17 state attorneys general.
Texas alleged that the results in the other four states were “unconstitutional” because of their heavy use of “fraud-prone” mail-in votes during the coronavirus pandemic.
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