Joe Biden and Donald Trump delivered contrasting early-morning remarks on Wednesday ... in the wake of a VERY close Presidential election.

As of this writing, Biden has 238 electoral votes and Trump has 213, while America awaits mail-in ballots to be counted in a number of extremely tight races.

Around 12:30 a.m., Biden spoke to the nation from Wilmington, Delaware, projecting confidence about the paths ahead to victory, given razor-thin margins in Arizona and Georgia, along with his absentee ballot strength in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

"Keep the faith guys, we’re going to win this," the Democratic nominee told fans.

As experts had been predicting for weeks, Biden added that it will simply take time to count every vote -- and that is simply a sign of the system working.

“We knew this was going to go long - but who knew we were going to go into tomorrow morning, maybe even longer?” he said.

"We need to be patient and it ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted,” Biden continued, going on to emphasize:

“It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who’s won the election. That’s the decision of the American people.”

President Trump, however, struck quite a contrasting tone.

In his own speech, given from the White House around 2:30 a.m., the Commander-in-Chief essentially declared victory.

"This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country," Trump said. "We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election."

It's worth noting, of course, that this is dangerous nonsense.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, millions of people across Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania mailed in their ballots.

And, due to the maneuvers of Republican legislators in those states, these ballots were not permitted to be counted prior to Election Day.

As a result, it may take a day (or two... or three...) for all votes to be counted in these regions. But they are perfectly legitimate and legal votes.

"This is a major fraud in our nation, so we'll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court," Trump added this morning.

Vice President Mike Pence, however, on stage with Trump, seemed to quickly clarify, softening the president's stance as follows:

"While the votes continue to remain counted were going to remain vigilant ... we're going to protect the integrity of the vote."

Republican Chris Christie, meanwhile, appeared on ABC after Trump's remarks and said to viewers:

"I talk tonight not as a former governor, but as a former U.S. attorney. There's just no basis to make that argument tonight. There just isn't."

At another point early on Wednesday, Trump Tweeted:

"We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!" 

Twitter quickly flagged this message for "disinformation," but not before it lit social media on fire.

To wit:

The states that will decide this election are: Arizona (which the Associated Press has called for Biden), Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

We should know more about the first four states as Wednesday unfolds, while it may take the rest of the week to count every vote in the final two listed.

Buckle up, America.

And try to remain sober.