Vows to unite America after ‘convincing’ victory

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WASHINGTON — Democrat Joe Biden has won the White House, US media said Saturday, defeating Donald Trump and ending a presidency that convulsed American politics, shocked the world, and left the United States more divided than at any time in decades.

CBS, NBC and CNN news networks announced the result just before 11:30 a.m. (1630 GMT) as an insurmountable lead in Pennsylvania took Biden, 77, over the top in the state-by-state count that decides the presidency.

"America, I'm honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country," Biden said in a statement.

"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."

Trump quickly responded to the announcement by accusing Biden of falsely declaring himself the next president.

"We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: They don't want the truth to be exposed," Trump said in a statement.

"The simple fact is this election is far from over."

Trump goes golfing

What does a president do when teetering on the verge of electoral defeat, with the entire world watching?

If you're Donald Trump, you go golfing.

The president left the White House Saturday morning as the last crucial vote counts were about to come in from Pennsylvania and a few other battleground states.

Already trailing Democrat Joe Biden in the all-important, state-by-state Electoral College vote tally — the handwriting on the wall was becoming impossible to ignore.

So Trump, who is known for regularly hitting the links, headed across the Potomac River to the Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, Virginia.

Trump was there when the major US television networks -- first CNN then NBC, CBS, ABC and finally Fox -- declared that new results from Pennsylvania had pushed Biden over the top -- and into the White House, come January.

He was also there when his office released a defiant statement saying Biden was "rushing to falsely pose as the winner."

But Trump seemed determined to project a sense of serene unflappability when he finished his round in the afternoon.

Seeing a wedding couple posing for photos outside the clubhouse, the president offered to join them, videos posted on social media show.

Wearing dark gray slacks, a gray jacket and a white "Make America Great Again" baseball hat, he engaged in what seemed to be lighthearted banter.

As he stepped away, several people shouted after him: "We love you! We love you!" 12-member Task Force for COVID response Biden said he would appoint a 12-member coronavirus task force on Monday, his first step toward fulfilling one of his biggest campaign promises — to mount an effective response to the pandemic that has infected millions and damaged the US economy.

“I will spare no effort, none, or any commitment, to turn around this pandemic,” Biden said Saturday, as he delivered his victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware.

The panel will convert his coronavirus-fighting plan into an “action blueprint” that “will be built on a bedrock of science,” he added.

The task force will be co-chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor of public health at Yale University, according to a person familiar with his plans.

It will also include Ezekiel Emanuel, a former Obama administration health adviser.

The co-chairs of the task force are scheduled to brief Biden on Monday after the members are announced.

74 million votes

For Biden, who got more than 74 million votes, a record, the triumph after a tense contest conducted during a global coronavirus pandemic was the crowning achievement of his half century in US politics, including eight years as deputy to the first black US president Barack Obama.

The result condemned 74-year-old Trump — who made frantic attempts to claim fraud and stop the vote count — to becoming the first one-term president since George H. W. Bush at the start of the 1990s.

Earlier Saturday, he left the White House for the first time since Election Day to play golf, tweeting: "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!"

And in an extraordinary White House address to the nation on Thursday — with Biden's lead in the partial results already consolidating rapidly — he claimed "they are trying to steal the election."

Despite Trump's protests, the returns from vote counting offices around the country kept coming all week, with no credible reports of irregularities.

And when US television networks declared that Biden had taken an insurmountable lead in Pennsylvania, that put the Democrat over the magic number of 270 electoral college votes.

Trump had no way back.

Centrist in divided era

The biggest ever turnout of voters — some 160 million people, according to preliminary estimates — poured out across the United States, ultimately favoring Biden's promise of calm to Trump's rollercoaster.

An old school centrist, Biden has fended off the energetic leftist wing of his party, while choosing Kamala Harris, the first black woman on a major party presidential ticket, as his running mate.

Although a career politician — a widely derided group today — he is seen by many as a sympathetic character, humanized by having endured the loss of his wife and baby daughter in a car accident in 1972, then another son to cancer four decades later.

Yet despite his fervent promises to restore America's "soul," Biden will inherit a shaken, angry country.

Americans are bitterly split after an election campaign in which Trump deliberately stoked divisions over many of the country's most sensitive issues, including race, immigration, and gun ownership.

And despite critics painting Trump as an aberration, he still won the votes of around 70 million people — many of whom may not have liked Trump himself, yet consider Democrats as being out of touch with their traditional values.

That gulf in understanding between two Americas will likely continue to rage in Congress, threatening Biden's ability to govern at a time of economic upheaval and an accelerating coronavirus crisis.

Time to heal

Biden promised Saturday to unite Americans and seek to heal divisions after what he called a "convincing" victory over Donald Trump.

"This is the time to heal in America," an ebullient Biden told supporters at an outdoor rally in his home city of Wilmington, Delaware.

"I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide but unify," Biden said, drawing a sharp contrast to nearly four polarizing years of Trump.

Acknowledging the disappointment of Trump supporters, Biden said of them: "They are not our enemies. They are Americans." "Let this era of demonization in America begin to end here," Biden said.

"I sought this office to restore the soul of America, to rebuild the backbone of this nation, the middle class, and to make America respected around the world again," Biden said.

Barack Obama's vice president paid particular tribute to the AfricanAmerican community, pointing to its role in selecting him as the Democratic nominee to challenge Trump.

Biden was visibly upbeat as he addressed the socially distanced crowd, racing to the podium after an introduction by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to the sounds of Bruce Springsteen's "We Take Care of Our Own."

"Folks, the people of this nation have spoken. They've delivered us a clear victory, a convincing victory," Biden said.

Americans erupt with joy to Biden win

From coast to coast, Americans jubilant over Biden's presidential win on Saturday rushed into the streets, dancing, hooting, honking horns, and singing on a day many had longed for after four turbulent years under President Donald Trump.

In spontaneous outbursts after news broke of the Democrat's win following nearly four nail-biting days of vote counting, they gathered outside the White House singing "goodbye" to Trump, celebrated outside Trump Tower in the president's native and very Democratic New York, and danced in the streets across the country in Los Angeles.

"I'm here to celebrate," said Jack Nugent, a 24-year-old software engineer as he walked to Black Lives Matter Plaza, a newly christened area near the presidential mansion that was the epicenter of protests this summer about racial injustice, on an unusually hot and sunny November day.

"I'm really happy with the outcome. It's been so many years waiting for this day to happen." Many people turned out with their loved ones, friends — and even pets.

Yannh Djedjro, a 32-year-old who works in software and came to BLM Plaza with his fiancee and baby daughter, said: "I think it's amazing. People are ecstatic, everyone is happy, the people have spoken."

Like Washington itself, the crowd was ethnically diverse and included people of all ages.

Many signs turned Trump's catchphrase on the hit show "The Apprentice" against him: "Hey Trump… You're Fired!"