WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed Democratic nominee Joe Biden as “President-elect Biden” on Friday morning, saying she was pleased with the outcome of the 2020 election — even as the vote count continues in six states, two of which are headed for a recount.
“Pretty soon the hyphen will be gone from Vice President to President-elect Joe Biden,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters at a press conference with the former veep leading in the Electoral College tally 252-214 and swing states leaning toward a Biden presidency.
“It’s a happy day for our country because Joe Biden is a unifier because he is determined to bring people together, because he respects all points of view and as he has said, ‘I run as a Democrat but I would govern as a president for all people, whether they voted for me or not,'” she went on.
The 80-year-old Baltimore-born lawmaker went on to applaud the “strong mandate” of “President-elect Biden” and described the 2020 presidential election as a done deal on the same morning that President Trump’s campaign announced “the election is not over.”
“I am so officially pleased with the outcome that is eminent and also personally delighted because of the quality and caliber of leadership that Joe Biden will provide,” Pelosi went on.
“This morning is it clear that the Biden-Harris ticket will win the White House.”
The former vice president has taken sudden leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia, defying expectations. However, the states of Wisconsin and Georgia are headed for a recount, potentially delaying the outcome of the election for weeks.
The president’s campaign has also filed a flurry of litigation in a bid to stop the ongoing vote count.
In a forceful statement Friday morning, Trump 2020 campaign general counsel Matt Morgan rejected the notion that Biden had won.
“The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from over,” Morgan wrote.
“Georgia is headed for a recount, where we are confident we will find ballots improperly harvested, and where President Trump will ultimately prevail,” the statement continued without providing any evidence that voter fraud had actually occurred.
The president himself claimed that his political opponents were trying to “steal” the election from him in a speech in the White House Briefing Room on Thursday evening.
Meanwhile, Pelosi is trying to downplay reports that the Democratic caucus wants to replace her as speaker after Republicans ate into their House majority and flipped five seats, killing the notion of a “blue wave.”