WASHINGTON: United States President-elect Joe Biden solidified his election victory by winning the state of Georgia, while President Donald Trump said “time will tell” if another administration takes over soon.
Joe Biden has won 306 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College that decides who wins the White House, against 232 for Donald Trump. Biden solidified his victory over Trump in the US election with a victory in traditionally Republican-leaning Georgia.
Trump — who also had 306 Electoral College votes when he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 — claimed victory in North Carolina, putting his final tally this time around at 232.
Biden has been the presumptive winner of the election since victory in Pennsylvania took him over the 270-vote threshold on Saturday. Georgia, one of five states flipped by Biden after going into Trump’s column last time around, hadn’t been won by a Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992.
Trump took a comfortable early lead in the state as the largely rural vote was counted but it ended up being the closest race in the nation as the cities of Atlanta and Savannah began tabulating results.
Biden is currently up by some 14,000 votes, and a hand recount is expected to be completed next week. Audits of state-wide elections never bring the kind of reversal that Trump would need to change the result.
In traditionally-Republican North Carolina, a drive to get out Black voters by Democrats was not enough to overcome Trump’s hugely loyal base of white, non-college-educated men and rural voters.
Trump, who has refused to acknowledge defeat, was due later Friday to address the public for the first time since becoming the projected loser six days ago.
It was unclear whether he would take questions or finally address his defeat but Trump has repeatedly referred to his 306-vote victory in 2016 as a “landslide” and a “shellacking.”
At a White House event where he predicted a coronavirus vaccine would be available for the whole population by April, Trump edged closer to acknowledging he might leave the White House in January but stopped short.
Trump, a Republican, has claimed without evidence that he was cheated by widespread election fraud and has refused to concede. State election officials report no serious irregularities, and several of his legal challenges have failed in court. While Trump had yet to concede, Biden officials reiterated they were moving ahead with transition efforts.
