Hillary Clinton Weighs in on Joe Biden Defeating Donald Trump

Former Vice President Joe Biden officially became the president-elect on Saturday after he reached the requisite number of electoral votes to win the presidency, as outlets such as the Associated Press and CBS News projected. He beat the incumbent president Donald Trump in doing so. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who ran against Trump in 2016, released a statement following Biden’s win, sharing her excitement for both the president-elect and his running mate, vice president-elect Kamala Harris.

On social media, Clinton wrote that the “voters have spoken” with the news that Biden is the projected winner of the American electorate. She wrote, alongside an image of Biden and Harris, that voters have chosen the two to lead the country for the next four years. The former New York senator noted that this is a history-making ticket, as Biden will become the oldest individual to become president once he is inaugurated. Additionally, Harris will be the first female vice president and the first person of color to hold the office. Clinton ended her message by thanking every American who helped make this happen, adding, “Onward, together.”

On Saturday morning, multiple news outlets projected that Biden would become the 46th President of the United States shortly after more Pennsylvania returns came through. After they received those returns, news outlets called the state of Pennsylvania, which has seen an incredibly close race between the president and the former vice president, for Biden, pushing him over the 270 electoral vote threshold that he needed to win the presidency. While Biden is the projected winner, Trump has already voiced intentions to challenge the decisions in numerous battleground states, as he has already called for a recount in Wisconsin, a state that went blue and ended up going for the president-elect. Shortly after being announced as the president-elect, Biden sent a message to Americans in which he noted that he will be a leader for everyone as the nation heals.

“I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris,” Biden wrote. “In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America. With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It’s time for America to united. And to heal. We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together.”