AP projects Joe Biden to unseat Donald Trump, become 46th US president
Nov 7, 2020, 9:32 AM | Updated: 9:38 am
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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The Associated Press projects that Democrat Joe Biden has unseated Republican Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States.
The wire service on Saturday called Pennsylvania in Biden’s favor, pushing the former vice president’s projected total above 270 electoral votes.
That total includes Arizona’s 11 electoral votes, although many have questioned whether the Grand Canyon State was called for Biden too early. Fox News and The Associated Press called Arizona for Biden on election night, but other media outlets are holding off while outstanding ballots continue to be counted.
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The call for Pennsylvania means that Biden has clinched the Presidency, even without remaining battleground states Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.
A Biden victory makes Trump just the fourth one-term president in America’s history.
It makes running mate Kamala Harris the first female vice president of the United States.
Both campaigns insisted they had a pathway to victory, though Biden’s options for winning the required 270 Electoral College votes were more plentiful. Trump was banking on a surge of enthusiasm from his most loyal supporters in addition to potential legal maneuvers.
Biden flipped multiple states Trump won in 2016, most notably Michigan and Wisconsin.
If the Arizona projection holds up, Biden would be the first Democrat to win the state since 1996.
Biden will have to deal with an anxious nation reeling from a once-in-a-century heath crisis that has closed schools and businesses and that is worsening as the weather turns cold.
The campaign was largely been a referendum on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus. Trump had long insisted the nation is “rounding the turn” on the virus. But Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, broke with the president and joined a chorus of Trump administration scientists sounding the alarm about the current spike in infections.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
