With election returns from his native Pennsylvania putting Joe Biden over the 270 required electoral votes and projected wins in the remaining states of Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada, CNN was the first network to call the election. Political commentators on CNN and MSNBC broke down in tears on air. Social media exploded with joyful and tearful posts marking the end of Donald J. Trump’s norm-shattering presidency.
It was an election with a slowly changing dimension that would hand what could ultimately be a Pyrrhic victory. Democrat Biden ultimately defeated Trump. Yet the victories across the board went to the Republicans, winning every race defending their seats in the House of Representatives and adding a few more, keeping control of the Senate and of every state legislature in the country. But the heavy toll on America solidified a great schism that negates any claim of accomplishment for either side.
At 11:25am Eastern US time Saturday the call by the networks in succession concluded an election night that yielded heartbreak to those who thought their cause was just and expected an unequivocal vindication. Tuesday early evening played out much like the 2016 defeat of Hillary Clinton before stalling at a standoff that appeared to benefit Trump.
Shortly after midnight, early Wednesday morning, Biden spoke to the country urging patience until all the votes were counted and expressing confidence. At 2:30 am, Trump spoke for 14 minutes in which he claimed victory, demanded the vote counting to stop despite millions of votes still uncounted, and made unfounded accusations of vote-counting fraud—a hard case to make when his party won most of its incumbent races everywhere and electoral commissions of the states still in question are run by his party.
With a number of key states locked in a dead-heat race, the country, and the world, were in for a long and excruciating haul.
The slow-motion victory that ensued may yet lead to quick-trigger violence as Trump continued to use every possible electoral challenge, legal maneuver, accusations of illegitimacy, and crowd incitement in his effort to keep the White House, making the country — with heavily armed groups and those afraid of them armed to defend themselves — a volatile powderkeg amid flying red embers.
For all the belief that Trump had only spoken to his supporters and not attempted to expand his base, and that his abrasive style would turn off those who had voted for him before, he did considerably increase his number of supporters, turning more voters for him than Obama did in his record-breaking popular vote total 12 years ago. To his chagrin and misfortune, Biden got an excess of four million votes more than Trump in the same election.
There is no central organ to determine the winner of a presidential election at this stage of the process. At the conclusion of the voting in America, it is left up to the news networks, who keep projection rooms with statisticians and experts pouring over data and trends and incorporate results from each precinct, county and state reports to project the winner.
But the actual winner is determined at the Electoral College, a unique institution that has an exact meeting and voting date on December 14, but 50 different meeting places which then certify the votes and tally up the total, which determines the election of the new president.
The American presidential elections are run in 50 different ways that in-turn are broken down into hundreds of smaller ways by municipalities each running its own elections system delegated by the states to run their election. Each make determinations at the precinct level, the smallest electoral unit, and then feed the results upstream until they reach the state’s Secretary of State who then assigns the electoral delegates from a predetermined pool. A distributive electoral blockchain of sorts that would require enormous coordination to commit nationwide fraud.
But Trump is vowing to fight widespread fraud he has been charging since before the election for which he has so far failed to produce any evidence. Trump has made it clear that he expects the final decision to be rendered by the United States Supreme Court. He has appointed three of the Justices and has made it clear that he expects their loyalty, to the dismay of much of the country.
The election is not over unless Trump concedes or is handed a final and decisive defeat by the Supreme Court. It has been America’s fortune and the virtues of those who have run for the country’s highest office that the loser of the elections has completed the process in a gracious manner by calling the winner in a congratulatory call that also serves to unite the country, to stand down his party’s machine and his army of supporters.
The clock is now running on the expectation of a concession call and perhaps a concession speech from Trump. There is no requirement for this, and there is no expectation that Trump will indeed follow tradition so late in his stunt as president.
“I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris. In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America,” Biden said in his first statement as president-elect.
“The voters have spoken, and they have chosen to be our next president and vice president. It’s a history-making ticket, a repudiation of Trump, and a new page for America. Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen. Onward, together,” tweeted Hillary Clinton whose presidential hopes were defeated by Trump’s unexpected victory four years ago. On election night then, she called Trump and conceded the election.
“I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” Tweeted Trump in all caps nine minutes after the call. Twitter censored the tweet.
“America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country. The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith that you have placed in me,” came Biden’s first tweet under the handle @president-elect.
Massive crowds are gathering in Madison Square Garden celebrating as much Biden’s victory as Trump’s defeat.
FOX News continued to promote, without credible evidence, Trump's claims of widespread election fraud and continued to whip up its audience about the upcoming Trump challenges. There are reports that the Murdoch-owned network had instructed its anchors to break with tradition and style by not referring to Biden as president-elect until the legal challenges are resolved.
Since late morning Friday, however, there was air protection for Biden and Harris. The Secret Service was increasing its presence around them, and the FAA was closing air space over their houses.
The process will have to play itself out. Either at the Electoral College or at the Courts a winner will ultimately be officially declared and this election will be for the ages.
But if the Biden victory holds, 244 years into its history, America will have its first female as close to the presidency as a heartbeat. It will be a woman of color, a woman whose ancestral roots run deep in India: Kamala Harris, vice-president of the United States.
