WASHINGTON — The latest on the presidential campaign:
9:40 p.m.
President Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit Saturday in Arizona that seeks the manual inspection of potentially thousands of in-person Election Day ballots in metro Phoenix that they allege were mishandled by poll workers and resulted in some ballot selections to be disregarded.
The legal challenge against Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs centers on instances in which people are believed to have voted for more candidates than permitted.
When tabulators detect such an “overvote,” poll workers should give voters a choice to fix the problem, but the workers instead either pressed or told voters to press a button on the machine to override the error, leaving the devices to disregard the problematic ballot selections, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed hours after the dismissal of another Arizona election lawsuit that contested the use of Sharpie markers in completing Election Day ballots in Maricopa County. Election officials have said voting with a Sharpie would not invalidate a ballot, but many social media users in the controversy known as #Sharpiegate have said their ballots had been invalidated because they were told to use the markers.
Hobbs spokeswoman Sophia Solis said the secretary of state’s office is still reviewing the lawsuit, but added that the latest lawsuit “is seemingly a repackaged ‘Sharpiegate’ lawsuit.”
While the Trump campaign’s lawsuit doesn’t mention Sharpies, it focuses on how ink splotches on a ballot are handled by electronic tabulators and raises the possibility of overvotes.
8:10 p.m.: Biden, Harris invite families on stage for fireworks
Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., brought their entire families on stage with them to close out their victory party on Saturday night.
After delivering speeches outside of the Chase Center in downtown Wilmington, Del., the two were joined by their families to watch as red, white and blue fireworks exploded in the sky. A collection of drones spelling out “USA” and outlining Biden’s logo flashed in the sky, prompting the Democrat to gaze at the sky. Biden’s wife Jill, seven grandkids, his son Hunter and daughter Ashley all gathered around him.
Harris, meanwhile, was joined by her sister Maya, her niece Meena and her husband, Doug Emhoff, as well as her two stepchildren. Harris wrapped her arms around a younger grand-niece as they watched the celebration, with more than 1,000 supporters dancing and waving American flags and Biden campaign signs.
It was a celebratory ending to a day that was otherwise largely spent by the two Democrats waiting and watching as final returns rolled in.
8:05 p.m.: Biden to unveil covid-19 panel Monday
Joe Biden will unveil a group of scientists and experts to help him craft a plan to tackle the coronavirus pandemic on Monday.
Biden announced his plans to launch the covid-19 task force during remarks at his victory party Saturday night. He said those advisers would help him take the proposals he’s released during the campaign for dealing with the pandemic — which include investments in personal protective equipment and loans for small businesses as well as plans to implement more standardized public health guidelines — and turn those proposals into a “blueprint” that he’ll enact when, he says, he is inaugurated president next January.
Biden said the plan would be “built on bedrock science” and “constructed out of compassion, empathy and concern.” Biden made President Donald Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic a central focus of his campaign and pledged that his top priority as president would be managing the virus.
Biden said that “our work begins with getting covid under control,” adding that Americans “cannot repair the economy, restore our economy or relish life’s most precious moments” without doing so.
8 p.m.: Biden makes appeal to Trump supporters
Former Vice President Joe Biden is making an appeal to supporters of President Donald Trump.
Biden said Saturday night in Wilmington, Del., that “this is the time to heal in America” and pledged to be a president to represent even those who didn’t support him.
Noting ”I’ve lost a couple times myself,” Biden said, “now, let’s give each other a chance.”
Trump has not conceded the race to Biden.
Biden said “it’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again,” saying of his political opponents, “they are not our enemies. They are Americans.”
7:55 p.m.: Biden pledges to seek unity
Joe Biden is pledging to be a president “who seeks not to divide but to unify.”
Biden spoke in Wilmington, Del., on Saturday in his first remarks after media outlets including The Associated Press declared him the winner of the presidential election.
Biden jogged onto the stage wearing a black suit, black mask and light blue tie. He pointed and waved at the screaming crowd gathered to hear him speak.
Echoing his campaign stump speech, Biden promised to be a president who “doesn’t see red states or blue states, only sees the United States,” and said he would work “with all my heart” to win the confidence of all Americans.
Biden touted the fact that he’s won more votes than any presidential ticket in history, calling his win “a convincing victory, a victory for the people.” He also said he was “surprised” by seeing the celebrations and an “outpouring of joy” in the wake of his win nationwide.
Biden said that “once again, America’s bent the arc of the moral universe more toward justice.”
7:50 p.m.: Harris pays tribute to Black women's role
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is paying tribute to Black women who “so often prove they are the backbone of our democracy.”
Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, is the first woman to be elected to the vice presidency, according to media reports and The Associated Press.
Harris noted her ascension to the role comes 100 years after the 19th Amendment was ratified and 55 years after the signing of the Voting Rights Act, which expanded who could participate in American democracy.
She praised Joe Biden for having “the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exist in our country” by selecting a woman as his running mate.
“Every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a county of possibilities,” Harris said.
The remarks were some of the most direct she has delivered about her history-making role as Biden’s running mate.
7:45 p.m.: Harris says voters 'ushered in a new day for America'
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., says voters have “ushered in a new day for America.”
Harris spoke Saturday in her first address to the nation since she and Joe Biden were declared the winners of the presidential election by media outlets including The Associated Press.
Harris says voters chose hope, unity, decency, science and truth in choosing she and Biden over President Donald Trump.
Harris, who is on the cusp of being the first woman and first Black woman elected vice president, wore a white pantsuit in tribute to women’s suffrage. She also opened her remarks with a tribute to the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights icon, who said democracy is not a state but an act.
7:30 p.m.: Crowd, mostly in cars, gathers for Biden, Harris
Hundreds of cars filled the parking lot outside the Wilmington convention center in Delaware for a drive-in rally to celebrate Joe Biden’s projected victory in the presidential race.
With temperatures mild Saturday night, more than 1,000 people sat on the roofs of their cars or milled around in small groups nearby, many cheering and waving American flags or Biden campaign signs. The smell of grilling meat hung in the air not unlike a football tailgate, and some of the attendees danced and sang, sweating through facemasks that appeared to be nearly universally worn.
The campaign set up cranes with towering American flags, an American-flag lined stage and projected a 10-story tall Biden-Harris logo over a digital American flag on the side of a hotel beside the convention center. Blue and red lights illuminated state flags perched on the roof of another nearby building.
Organizers first erected the stage on Tuesday night, expecting to hold a Biden Election Night party. As vote counting continued and no winner was declared, the campaign kept the stage intact and the parking lot remained surrounded by high security fences with police controlling all access in and out.
7:15 p.m.: White House to accept 'free, fair' results
“The President will accept the results of a free and fair election.”
That’s the message from a White House official Saturday.
President Donald Trump has insisted he will contest the results of the presidential election, and his campaign has launched a flurry of legal action in a handful of states trying to overturn projected victories by former Vice President Joe Biden.
But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said the Trump administration is following all statutory requirements that govern government transitions.
6:30 p.m.: Biden prepares to address nation after latest vote projections
Former Vice President Joe Biden was preparing Saturday to address the nation, hours after media outlets including The Associated Press declared he would receive enough Electoral College votes to win the presidency.
A livestream of the event has been set up from Wilmington, Del.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8FrAayBXh0]
5:20 p.m.: Lawyers dismiss legal challenge dubbed #Sharpiegate
The attorneys who challenged the use of Sharpie markers to complete Election Day ballots in metro Phoenix have told a court that they’re dismissing their legal challenge.
Roopali Desai, an attorney for Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, said she received notice Saturday from the court that the lawyers who filed the lawsuit, popularly called #Sharpiegate online, are now ending the case.
A copy of the dismissal notice provided to The Associated Press doesn’t specify a reason for dismissing the case. Alexander Kolodin, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, declined a request for comment.
Arizona election officials have said voting with a Sharpie would not invalidate their ballot. But many social media users have said their ballots had been invalidated because they were told to use the markers to fill out their ballots.
The lawsuit alleged that tabulation equipment was unable to record a voter’s ballot on Tuesday because she completed it with a Sharpie. One of the remedies sought by the lawsuit was for voters who used Sharpies to be present to watch workers count ballots, a proposition that prompted the judge to express skepticism.
Election officials say votes wouldn’t be cancelled if ink from a Sharpie bleeds through the back side of ballots, and that there is a process that would keep the ballots from being canceled out if problems arise.
2:15 p.m.: Trump welcomed back to D.C. with jeers
President Donald Trump has returned to the White House and a very different Washington, D.C., after losing his reelection bid.
Trump’s motorcade returned from his golf club in Virginia via roads largely cleared of other cars and people Saturday afternoon.
But as he approached the White House, he was welcomed home with boos and raised middle fingers. Chants of “Loser, loser, loser” and profanities were also heard as his motorcade drove by.
Trump has so far refused to concede to former Vice President Joe Biden and is promising legal challenges. He is the first president to lose reelection since George H.W. Bush in 1992.
2:05 p.m.: Biden speaks to Obama on phone
Joe Biden has spoken to Barack Obama, reaching out to the former president with one of his first calls after The Associated Press and other media outlets declared he had enough electoral votes to win the presidency.
Biden’s campaign confirmed the phone call Saturday with Obama, whom Biden served under as vice president for eight years, but offered few details on what was said.
Meanwhile, Michelle Obama took to Twitter to say that she was “beyond thrilled” that Biden had been elected president and that his running mate, Kamala Harris, is “our first Black and Indian-American woman” as vice president.
In a series of tweets, the former first lady said the pair would “restore some dignity, competence, and heart at the White House.”
But Michelle Obama also warned supporters that voting in elections for candidates who win “isn’t a magic wand.”
“Let’s remember that tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos and division,” she tweeted. “We’ve got a lot of work to do to reach out to these folks in the years ahead and connect with them on what unites us.”
1:55 p.m.: GOP giving Trump time to consider legal options
Republicans on Capitol Hill are giving President Donald Trump and his campaign space to consider all its legal options after his election defeat by former Vice President Joe Biden. That's according to one Republican who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation.
It’s a precarious balance for Trump’s allies as they try to be supportive of the president but face the reality of the vote count. Trump is so far refusing to concede.
As of early Saturday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had not yet made any public statements.
Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist in Kentucky allied with McConnell, said, "I’m not sure his position would have changed from yesterday — count all the votes, adjudicate all the claims.”
Jennings added, “My sense is there won’t be any tolerance for beyond what the law allows. There will be tolerance for what the law allows.”
It was a view being echoed by several other Republicans neither supporting nor rejecting the outcome. Said retiring GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who is close with McConnell: “After counting every valid vote and allowing courts to resolve disputes, it is important to respect and promptly accept the result.”
1:35 p.m.: Crowd gathers outside club where Trump golfed
Several hundred people have gathered outside President Donald Trump’s Virginia golf club after The Associated Press and other media outlets reported his election loss to former Vice President Joe Biden.
The crowd includes dozens of Biden supporters celebrating his win, singing, “Hey hey hey, goodbye” and chanting, “Lock him up!” — a chant frequently heard at Trump rallies, directed at people he doesn't like.
There are also dozens of Trump supporters, many waving large Trump flags and chanting, “We love Trump!” A convoy of trucks festooned with pro-Trump and American flags has been driving up and down the street, with one driver jeering at the gathered press.
There’s horn honking, cowbell ringing, whistle-blowing and plenty of cheering.
Trump was golfing when a flurry of media outlets, including The Associated Press, declared Saturday morning that Biden had won the election.
He is now on his way back to the White House.
1:15 p.m.: NATO secretary general welcomes Biden election
The secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is welcoming the election of Joe Biden, calling him “a strong supporter of NATO and the transatlantic relationship.”
Jens Stoltenberg said Saturday in a statement that he looks forward to working with Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris of California “to further strengthen the bond between North America and Europe.”
He added that “U.S. leadership is as important as ever in an unpredictable world.”
President Donald Trump had been a ferocious critic of NATO during his 2016 campaign and repeatedly threatened to pull the U.S. from the alliance upon assuming office.
Trump pressed members of the alliance to boost their defense spending – a priority of his predecessors as well — in furtherance of collective defense. He also pushed the alliance to turn its focus from Russia to emerging threats from China and terrorism.
1:10 p.m.: Congressional GOP leaders silent on call of race for Biden
Congressional Republican leaders have been notably silent on former Vice President Joe Biden’s reported victory, but several GOP allies of President Donald Trump are disputing the outcome.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri tweeted Saturday: “The media do not get to determine who the president is. The people do.” He added, “When all lawful votes have been counted, recounts finished, and allegations of fraud addressed, we will know who the winner is.”
Other rank-and-file Republican lawmakers took a similar approach, insisting on waiting for some other verification of the results.
“Voters decide who wins the election, not the media,” tweeted Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. “I fully support President Trump as he continues to fight for every legal vote to be counted.”
Trump has so far refused to concede and is promising legal challenges. He is the first president to lose reelection since George H.W. Bush in 1992.
1 p.m.: Ukrainian president congratulates Biden
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who found himself at the center of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, is congratulating former Vice President Joe Biden.
In a Saturday tweet, Zelenskiy said “Ukraine is optimistic about the future of the strategic partnership with the United States.” He added that the two countries “have always collaborated on security, trade, investment, democracy, fight against corruption. Our friendship becomes only stronger!”
A 2019 call from Trump to Zelenskiy, in which he asked the new Ukrainian leader to investigate Biden and the Democratic National Committee, sparked an intelligence community whistleblower complaint that resulted in Trump’s impeachment last year.
Trump was eventually acquitted by the Republican-led Senate.
12:40 p.m.: Romney congratulates Biden after AP calls race
Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, is congratulating former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
The Utah Republican tweeted Saturday that he and his wife know Biden and Harris “as people of good will and admirable character.” He says, “We pray that God may bless them in the days and years ahead.”
Romney, President Donald Trump's most vocal critic within the Republican Party, said Friday that Trump was “damaging the cause of freedom” and inflaming “destructive and dangerous passions” by claiming, without foundation, that the election was rigged and stolen from him.
Trump has so far refused to concede and is promising unspecified legal challenges.
Romney had said earlier in the year that he wasn't voting for Trump. He didn't say for whom he did vote, however.
12:25 p.m.: Pelosi, Schumer call Biden to offer congratulations
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer jointly called former Vice President Joe Biden to congratulate him on a “tremendous” victory.
That’s according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation.
The aide described it as a “happy call.” Biden’s wife, Jill, also joined the conversation Saturday.
The aide says Pelosi and Schumer look forward to working with the new Democratic administration to achieve “great things” for the American people. The two did not get along with President Donald Trump.
Another senior Democratic aide says Schumer was celebrating on the streets of Brooklyn during the call and held up his phone so Biden could hear the crowds cheering for his “historic victory." The aide also spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private call.
EARLIER: Biden edges closer to win as Pennsylvania focus intensifies
WASHINGTON — Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States on Saturday, positioning himself to lead a nation gripped by a historic pandemic and a confluence of economic and social turmoil.
His 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.
Trump refused to concede, threatening further legal action on ballot counting.
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, in a statement, said he was humbled by the victory and it was time for the battered nation to set aside its differences.
"It's time for America to unite. And to heal," he said.
"With the campaign over, it's time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation," Biden said. "There's nothing we can't do if we do it together."
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 was not giving up.
Departing from longstanding democratic tradition and signaling a potentially turbulent transfer of power, he issued a combative statement while he was on his Virginia golf course. It said his campaign would take unspecified legal actions and he would "not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands."
Trump has pointed to delays in processing the vote in some states to allege with no evidence that there was voter fraud and to 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.
Kamala Harris also made history as the first Black woman to become vice president, an achievement that comes as the U.S. faces a reckoning on racial justice. The California senator, who is also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency, will become the highest-ranking woman ever to serve in government, four years after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.
Trump is the first incumbent president to lose reelection since Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Early Saturday he left the White House for his Virginia golf club dressed in golf shoes, a windbreaker and a white hat as the results gradually expanded Biden's lead in Pennsylvania.
Trump repeated his unsupported allegations of election fraud and illegal voting on Twitter. One of his tweets, quickly flagged as potentially misleading by Twitter, claimed: "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!"
In Wilmington, Delaware, near a stage that has stood empty since it was erected to celebrate a potential victory on Election Night, people cheered and pumped their fists as the news that the presidential race had been called for the state's former senator arrived on their cell phones.
On the nearby water, two men in a kayak yelled to a couple paddling by in the opposite direction, "Joe won! They called it!" as people on the shore whooped and hollered. Harris, in workout gear, was shown on video speaking to Biden on the phone, exuberantly telling Biden, "We did it!" Biden was expected to take the stage for a drive-in rally after dark.
Across the country, there were parties and prayer. In New York City, spontaneous block parties broke out. People ran out of their buildings, banging on pots. They danced and high-fived with strangers amid honking horns.
People streamed into Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, waving signs and taking cellphone pictures. In Lansing, Michigan, Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter demonstrators filled the Capitol steps. The lyrics to "Amazing Grace" began to echo through the crowd, and Trump supporters laid their hands on a counter protester, and prayed.
Americans showed deep interest in the presidential race. A record 103 million voted early this year, opting to avoid waiting in long lines at polling locations during a pandemic. With counting continuing in some states, Biden had already received more than 74 million votes, more than any presidential candidate before him.
Trump's refusal to concede has no legal implications. But it could add to the incoming administration's challenge of bringing the country together after a bitter election.
Throughout the campaign, Trump repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, arguing without evidence that the election could be marred by fraud. The nation has a long history of presidential candidates peacefully accepting the outcome of elections, dating back to 1800, when John Adams conceded to his rival Thomas Jefferson.
It was Biden's native Pennsylvania that put him over the top, the state he invoked throughout the campaign to connect with working class voters. He also won Nevada on Sunday pushing his total to 290 Electoral College votes.
More than 236,000 Americans have died during the coronavirus pandemic, nearly 10 million have been infected and millions of jobs have been lost. The final days of the campaign played out against the backdrop of a surge in confirmed cases in nearly every state, including battlegrounds such as Wisconsin that swung to Biden.
The pandemic will soon be Biden's to tame, and he campaigned pledging a big government response, akin to what Franklin D. Roosevelt oversaw with the New Deal during the Depression of the 1930s. But Senate Republicans fought back several Democratic challengers and looked to retain a fragile majority that could serve as a check on such Biden ambition.
The 2020 campaign was a referendum on Trump's handling of the pandemic, which has shuttered schools across the nation, disrupted businesses and raised questions about the feasibility of family gatherings heading into the holidays.
The fast spread of the coronavirus transformed political rallies from standard campaign fare to gatherings that were potential public health emergencies. It also contributed to an unprecedented shift to voting early and by mail and prompted Biden to dramatically scale back his travel and events to comply with restrictions. The president defied calls for caution and ultimately contracted the disease himself.
Trump was saddled throughout the year by negative assessments from the public of his handling of the pandemic. There was another covid-19 outbreak in the White House this week, which sickened his chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Biden also drew a sharp contrast to Trump through a summer of unrest over the police killings of Black Americans including Breonna Taylor in Kentucky and George Floyd in Minneapolis. Their deaths sparked the largest racial protest movement since the civil rights era. Biden responded by acknowledging the racism that pervades American life, while Trump emphasized his support of police and pivoted to a "law and order" message that resonated with his largely white base.
The president's most ardent backers never wavered and may remain loyal to him and his supporters in Congress after Trump has departed the White House.
The third president to be impeached, though acquitted in the Senate, Trump will leave office having left an indelible imprint in a tenure defined by the shattering of White House norms and a day-to-day whirlwind of turnover, partisan divide and the ever-present threat via his Twitter account.
Trump's team filed a smattering of lawsuits in battleground states, some of which were immediately rebuffed by judges. His personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was holding a news conference in Philadelphia threatening more legal action when the race was called.
Biden, born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and raised in Delaware, was one of the youngest candidates ever elected to the Senate. Before he took office, his wife and daughter were killed, and his two sons badly injured in a 1972 car crash.
Commuting every night on a train from Washington back to Wilmington, Biden fashioned an everyman political persona to go along with powerful Senate positions, including chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees. Some aspects of his record drew critical scrutiny from fellow Democrats, including his support for the 1994 crime bill, his vote for the 2003 Iraq War and his management of the Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court hearings.
Biden's 1988 presidential campaign was done in by plagiarism allegations, and his next bid in 2008 ended quietly. But later that year, he was tapped to be Barack Obama's running mate and he became an influential vice president, steering the administration's outreach to both Capitol Hill and Iraq.
While his reputation was burnished by his time in office and his deep friendship with Obama, Biden stood aside for Clinton and opted not to run in 2016 after his adult son Beau died of brain cancer the year before.
Trump's tenure pushed Biden to make one more run as he declared that "the very soul of the nation is at stake."