Former Vice President Joe Biden is expressing confidence that he will win the 2020 presidential election as votes continue to be counted in key battleground states.
Biden spoke from Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday afternoon alongside Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as he moved closer to potentially reaching 270 electoral votes. The Democratic presidential nominee said his campaign believes he will emerge victorious when states finish counting their votes, though he did not declare victory.
"After a long night of counting, it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency," Biden said. "I'm not here to declare that we've won, but I am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Key battleground states like Pennsylvania have not yet been called, but Biden is currently leading with 253 electoral votes, while Trump has 214, per The New York Times. On Wednesday afternoon, Biden was projected to win the two crucial battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan, both of which Trump won in 2016, making the president's path to a win more difficult, though not impossible. Biden is ahead at the moment in enough states to take him past 270 electoral votes should his leads hold, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver notes.
The Trump campaign is filing a lawsuit to "halt" the counting of votes in Michigan, while in Pennsylvania, the campaign has also said it's suing to "temporarily halt counting." Trump is ahead in Pennsylvania at this time and his campaign has prematurely declared victory in the state before any news network has called the race, but Biden said Wednesday that he feels "very good" about winning Pennsylvania.
Biden added in his remarks that once the 2020 election has ended, it will be time to "put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us," to "lower the temperature," and to "come together as a nation." Brendan Morrow
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Google: A monopoly past its prime?Feature Google’s antitrust case ends with a slap on the wrist as courts struggle to keep up with the tech industry’s rapid changes
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacyFeature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to TrumpSpeed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raidsSpeed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raidSpeed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearingSpeed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mountSpeed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own listspeed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battleSpeed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants
