Joe Biden recently slammed Donald Trump‘s refusal to concede the 2020 presidential election, following the Electoral College vote that officially made Biden the President-elect. On Monday, the votes were cast and Biden passed the 270-mark, which is what is needed to win the election, though he also won the popular vote as well. Trump has yet to accept the outcome of the election, opting instead to allege that he believes the election was stolen from him through widespread voter fraud. His campaign has not provided concrete evidence of these allegations.
In his post-Electoral College win speech, Biden took Trump to task for not conceding the election. “Respecting the will of the people is at the heart of our democracy even when we find those results hard to accept,” Biden said, per The Hill. “But that’s the obligation of those who have taken on a sworn duty to uphold the Constitution.” The President-elect added, “In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed … faith in our institutions held and the integrity of our elections remained intact. And now it’s time to turn the page as we’ve done throughout our history, to unite and to heal.”
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Today, the members of the Electoral College cast their votes for president and vice president.
And once again, the rule of law, our Constitution, and the will of the people have prevailed.
Our democracy—pushed, tested, and threatened—proved to be resilient, true, and strong. pic.twitter.com/Ka1Aj3hV3m
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 15, 2020
Biden later went on to shower praise on election workers and state officials, who he says pushed through many obstacles — such as violent threats and political pressure — to uphold the election results as determined by ballots cast. “They could not and would not give credence to what they know is not true,” he said, referring to Trump’s election fraud claims. “They knew this election was overseen, it was honest, it was free and it was fair.”
“They saw it with their own eyes, and they wouldn’t be bullied into saying anything different,” Biden continued. “They were subject to political pressure, verbal abuse and even threats of physical violence. It’s simply unconscionable.”
Biden finally addressed the many legal avenues Trump has explored in order to try and overturn the election results, all of which have been unsuccessful. “The Trump campaign brought dozens of legal challenges to test the result,” Biden said. “They were heard, again and again, and each of the time they were heard, they were found to be without merit.”
