Democrat Joe Biden touted increasing leads in the battleground states still counting ballots as he took the stage Friday night for a national address, saying Americans have spoken and want a "mandate" on the global coronavirus pandemic and the economy.
"The numbers tell us it's clear, tell us a clear and convincing story: We are going to win this race," Biden said in an address that appeared to have been toned down from a planned election victory celebration.
"We're going to win this race with a clear majority, with the nation behind us," he continued. "We've gotten 74 million votes, I'm going to repeat that, 74 million votes. That's more than any other presidential ticket in the United States of America. And our total is still growing. We're beating Donald Trump by over 4 million votes and the margin is growing as well."
Pennsylvania, and its 20 electoral votes, would be enough to vault the 77-year-old Biden past the magic number of 270 votes in the Electoral College, which determines the White House race.
"We've rebuilt the blue wall that crumbled four years ago, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, the heartland of this nation," Biden said. "I know watching the vote tallies on TV move very slow, and it's as slow as it goes, it can be numbing. But never forget, the tallies are not just numbers. They represent votes and voters. Men and women who exercise their fundamental right to have their voice heard.
"And a record number of Americans of all races, faiths, and religions chose change over more of the same. They've given us a mandate for action on COVID, climate change, systemic racism, the economy. They want the country to come together, not continue to pull apart. The people spoke."
Biden also added a "healing" message to "represent the whole nation."
"The purpose of politics is not unrelenting warfare," he said. "It's to solve problems, to guarantee justice, to give everybody a fair shot. And to improve the lives of our people.
"We may be opponents, but we're not enemies. We're Americans. And no matter who you voted for, I'm certain of one thing the vast majority of the 150 million Americans who voted, they want to get the vitriol out of our politics.
"We're certainly not going to agree on a lot of issues. But at least we can agree to be civil with one another. We have to put the anger and demonization behind us."
With 97% of the vote counted in Pennsylvania, Biden had opened up a 28,000-vote lead over the Republican incumbent, according to state election results.
Biden currently has at least 253 electoral votes and is leading in three other states – Arizona, Georgia and Nevada – where ballots from Tuesday's bitterly contested election continue to be counted.
For his part, President Trump has raised issues of voter fraud and has launched multiple legal challenges, even as his path to a second term has appeared to grow narrower. He has pledged to take his concerns all the way to the Supreme Court.
In a 17-minute appearance at the White House on Thursday, Trump made claims of voter fraud and claimed that he – not Biden – had actually won the race.
"They are trying to steal the election," Trump said.
The 74-year-old president appeared to strike a milder tone in a statement Friday but continued to threaten court challenges to the results.
"This is no longer about any single election," Trump said.
"This is about the integrity of our entire election process," he said, vowing to exhaust all legal avenues to ensure "all legal ballots must be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted."
AFP contributed to this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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