Ololade Adeyanju with Agency Report/
Democrat Joe Biden quickly changed his status on Twitter to President-Elect today after defeating President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States.
Trump, however, continued to claim victory on his own Twitter handle.
He stated on his Twitter page followed by 88.6million people: “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!”
Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots. Biden crossed 270 Electoral College votes with a win in Pennsylvania.
Biden, 77, staked his candidacy less on any distinctive political ideology than on galvanizing a broad coalition of voters around the notion that Trump posed an existential threat to American democracy. The strategy proved effective, resulting in pivotal victories in Michigan and Wisconsin as well as Pennsylvania, onetime Democratic bastions that had flipped to Trump in 2016.
Biden was on track to win the national popular vote by more than 4 million, a margin that could grow as ballots continue to be counted.
Trump seized on delays in processing the vote in some states to falsely allege voter fraud and argue that his rival was trying to seize power — an extraordinary charge by a sitting president trying to sow doubt about a bedrock democratic process.
As the vote count played out, Biden tried to ease tensions and project an image of presidential leadership, hitting notes of unity that was seemingly aimed at cooling the temperature of a heated, divided nation.
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