WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (NNN-AGENC IES) — Joe Biden said he was on track to amassing more than 300 electoral votes and winning the presidential race with a “clear majority”.
“The numbers tell us … it’s a clear and convincing story: We’re going to win this race,” he said in an address to the nation late Friday.
The Democratic candidate also vowed the vote count would continue as he took the lead in several battleground states and appeared poised to win the White House in the election.
“Your vote will be counted. I don’t care how hard people try to stop it. I will not let it happen,” Biden said, adding that he would try to bridge the country’s partisan divide and attack major issues like the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden said he was already preparing to assume his place in the White House even though he had not been declared the winner in the election.
“I want people to know we’re not waiting to get the work done,” he said.
Biden said he and his running mate Kamala Harris held briefings this week on the economy and the coronavirus as the US continued to report record daily cases.
Nearly 240,000 people have died from the pandemic, the 77-year-old noted, adding that he wanted the affected families to know they were not alone.
He also addressed the millions of Americans who remain out of work and are struggling to pay rent or buy food.
“We don’t have any more time to waste on partisan warfare,” he said.
Biden’s speech was originally planned as a victory celebration, but he changed his approach in the absence of an official call from television networks and other election forecasters.
Still, it amounted to a blunt challenge to Trump, who kept out of view in the White House on Friday as Biden’s lead grew in the four states that will decide the outcome: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Leading Trump by 4.1 million votes nationwide out of a record 147 million cast, Biden said Americans had given him a mandate to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, the struggling economy, climate change and systemic racism.
“They made it clear they want the country to come together, not continue to pull apart,” Biden said.
He said he hoped to address Americans again on Saturday. — NNN-AGENCIES
