Everyone already knew Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the US Presidential election late last year. But there was always one formality that remained: counting out the electoral college votes and confirming the outcome. After the chaos and carnage that ensued when pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol building, Vice President Mike Pence has finally been able do just that – announce that Biden won.
Just after 3:40 AM in Washington D.C. (or around dinner time in most of Australia), it was formally announced that Biden and Harris surpassed the threshold of 270 electoral college votes, in turn cementing their victory.
“The announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the senate shall be deemed as sufficient delectation of the persons elected President and Vice-President of the United States,” Pence announced.
“Let’s get back to work,” he said hours earlier.
BREAKING: Vice President Pence announces the 306-232 Electoral College vote count after hours of debate, officially affirming Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the winners of the election https://t.co/wTKxzqAo9U pic.twitter.com/tFW58tANA4
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 7, 2021
Almost immediately after, Trump sulked but did at least admit that he’ll leave the White House.
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” the President said in a statement, despite his claims about the outcome of the election being completely fabricated and untrue.
Counting and confirming the electoral college votes took a whopping 14 hours.
While the whole process should’ve been a formality, that didn’t stop some Republicans from trying to cancel the electoral college votes from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, to varying degrees of failure.
One of the biggest deadlocks was the Republican objection to the Pennsylvania votes, which ended up being the subject of a drawn-out debate in Congress.
Ultimately, common sense prevailed and the votes were counted. Within minutes, the result was then clear.
That’s in spite of the fact that the whole building had been stormed by rabid masses of weapon-toting, MAGA-hat-wearing protesters whose main mission was to cause enough chaos to somehow keep Donald Trump as president.
Thankfully, yet another chapter of this presidency from hell can now be brought to an end.
Biden is scheduled to be inaugurated on January 20.
