For just about 75 million Americans, their long national nightmare is over.
On Saturday morning -- following days of confusion, chaos, misleading information and a great deal of vote-counting -- Joe Biden was elected the 46th President of the United States.
It is now official.
Just a few minutes ago, outlets from CNN to NBC to The Associated Press all determined that Biden has won the 20 electoral college votes handed out by the state of Pennsylvania.
As a result, Biden now has, at minimum, 273 total electoral votes.
A candidate that surpasses or equals 270 electoral votes is named Commander-in-Chief.
As of Saturday morning, the AP had projected Biden won 284 electoral votes to Trump's 214... including the swing states of Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with additional leads in Georgia and Nevada.
Due to the influx of mail-in ballots over the past several weeks, it took numerous days for some of these tallies to be finalized.
To be clear, however, there was never any fraud and there was never anything fishy about this development.
This is the way Presidential elections have worked and the way votes have been tabulated for literal centuries.
Trump is the first incumbent to be defeated since George H.W. Bush 28 years ago.
He’s the fifth incumbent to be defeated in the last 100 years.
In Biden's running mate, California Senator, Kamala Harris, America has elected history-making vice president as well:
She's the first woman, the first Black person and first person of Asian descent to hold this office.
Both Biden and Trump had given speeches in the days since Election Day, with the latter baselessly and dangerously claiming that Biden was only winninng the election due to illegal means.
There has never been any evidence provided to back up this claim.
Biden, for his part, displayed confidence all week long that he was going to win, while also preaching patience.
"We need to be patient and it ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted,” Biden said late Tuesday evening, 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.”
And it's now been confirmed that those American people have spoken.
Loudly and strongly:
On track to win the popular vote by over four million votes, and on track to collect more than 75 million total votes across the United States, Biden has earned the most raw votes in Presidential history.
“The purpose of our politics is not total unrelenting warfare,” Biden said in a late-night speech on Friday, adding:
“We have to put the anger and demonization behind us. It’s time for us to come together as a nation to heal.”
Biden also told viewers that he and Harris were "not waiting to get the work done,” explaining that they had been meeting with experts over the past day or so in order to start executing their agenda as soon as they're in office.
The President-Elect will be sworn in on January 20, 2021.
“Look, we both know tensions are high,” he added yesterday.
“But we need to remember — we have to remain calm. As we count all the votes, we’re proving again what we’ve proved for 244 years in this country: Democracy works. Your vote will be counted.
"I don’t care how hard people try to stop it. I will not let it happen.”
Upon learning that his election had been made official, Biden issued the following statement on Saturday:
America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country.
The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not.
I will keep the faith that you have placed in me.