DEMOCRAT JOE BIDEN has said he is confident of winning the US presidency once all votes are counted.
“When the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners,” Biden said in a televised address from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware as he stressed that “every vote must be counted”, opposing a message from President Donald Trump whose campaign has asked a court to suspend the tabulation of votes in Michigan.
“After a long night of counting, it’s clear that we’re winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes to win the presidency,” he said.
Biden has won the crucial battleground state of Michigan, US networks projected tonight, meaning the former vice president could have flipped another state won by President Donald Trump in 2016.
CNN and NBC News projected the win for Biden in the Midwestern state, which unexpectedly went to Trump by less than half a percentage point in 2016 in one of the stunning state defeats suffered by Hillary Clinton.
AP has yet to call the state for Biden.
Speaking from the Chase Centre in Wilmington, the Democrat candidate said that despite the pandemic more Americans had voted than ever before.
“Indeed, Senator Harris and I are on track to win more votes on any ticket in the history of this country… Over 70 million votes,” he said.
“I’m very proud of our campaign. Only three presidential campaigns in the past have defeated an incumbent President. When it is finished, God willing, we will be the fourth. This is a major achievement,” he said.
This has been a long and difficult campaign but it has been a more difficult time for our country – a hard time. We have had hard campaigns before and faced hard times before.”
Biden urged voters to put their political differences aside once the election is over.
“So once this election is finalised and behind us, it will be time to do what we have always done as Americans. To put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us and lower the temperature, to see each other again and to listen to one another and hear each other again.
To respect and care for one another. To unite. To heal. To come together as a nation. I am not naïve; neither of us are. I know how deep the opposing views are in our country over so many things.”
“To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies. What brings us together as Americans is stronger than anything that tears us apart.
“So let me be clear – we are campaigning as Democrats but I will govern as an American president.
“The Presidency itself is not a partisan institution.
“It is the one office in this nation that represents everyone and it demands a duty of care for all Americans and that is exactly what I will do. I will work as hard for those who did vote for me as those who did not vote for me.
“No one is going to take our democracy away from us, not now and not ever. America has come too far and America has fought too many battles and endured too much to ever let that happen.
“We, the people, will not be silenced or bullied and we will not surrender.
“I am confident that we will emerge victorious. This will not be my victory alone or our victory alone but a victory for the American people, for our democracy and for America. There will be no red states or blue states when we win; just the United States of America.”
Concluding his speech, he said: “God bless you all and may God protect our troops.”
Earlier, Trump’s campaign team announced that it will immediately request a recount of votes in Wisconsin after Biden won the key battleground state by about 20,000 votes.
“There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results,” campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement.
Stepian did not provide any details about the reports he was referring to and there appears to be no evidence for the claims.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say