National

President Trump made it clear Saturday he won't concede to Joe Biden or accept his projected win, saying the election is "far from over."

What's next: In a statement, Trump said the campaign will begin "prosecuting our case in court" on Monday. The Trump campaign has already launched a series of baseless legal claims against 2020 voting, including lawsuits in Georgia and Michigan that were quickly dismissed. His allegations of voter fraud have been made without evidence. 

"We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over."

"Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor.

"In Pennsylvania, for example, our legal observers were not permitted meaningful access to watch the counting process.  Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.

"Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated. The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots.

"This is the only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election. It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters. 

"Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to block their access.

"So what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands."

Later on Saturday, Trump took to Twitter to continue to make baseless claims of voter fraud. "I WON THE ELECTION," he tweeted. Twitter flagged the tweet, warning, "This claim about election fraud is disputed." 

Trump refuses to concede

"Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case ... to ensure election laws are fully upheld."

President Trump. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Image

Politics

2020 presidential election

2020 election

Joe Biden

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Senator Kamala Harris of California will become the first woman, Black American and Indian American to serve as vice president.

The big picture: No woman has served as U.S. president, but Harris' ascent will put a woman first in the line of succession for the first time in history,  in a year marking the 100th anniversary of women obtaining the constitutional right to vote.  

Details: Harris, 56, is the daughter of immigrants; her father is from Brown's Town, Jamaica, and her mother is from Chennai, India.

She is an alumna of Howard University, an HBCU, and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first historically Black sorority. 

Her victory was being celebrated by women and people of color across the country and the world, on the Howard campus, and at Black Lives Matter Plaza across from the White House.

Harris would not be the first vice president of color. That designation goes to Charles Curtis, President Hoover's vice president nearly a century ago, a member of the Kaw Nation, whose father was white and mother was Native American.

What they're saying: In a statement congratulating the Bidens, Obama saved a line for Harris and her husband, saying he "couldn’t be prouder to congratulate Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff for Kamala’s groundbreaking election as our next Vice President."

Harris's husband, future second gentleman Doug Emhoff tweeted a photo of the couple moments after they learned the race had been called, with his arms around his wife and the simple words, "So proud of you." The photo captured an intimate moment, parallel to the photo Barack Obama posted after his reelection, embracing his wife, Michelle.

Biden senior adviser Symone Sanders:  "It's a monumental thing. It's a historic day."

Actress Mindy Kaling wrote on Twitter: "Crying and holding my daughter, 'look baby, she looks like us.'"

Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC: "This is fundamentally about the ways in which the Democratic Party needs to shift — ushering in a living example for the country to be able to imagine what it looks like to have diverse leadership at the highest levels of government...it feels like we’ve spent the entire run-up to the election suppressing, in some ways, the historic nature of this race and her candidacy because it’s overshadowed by the fact that we’re trying to save democracy."

Arisha Hatch, executive director of Color of Change PAC: "She’s deemed herself a progressive prosecutor back in her day and I’m looking forward to her being able to meet this moment with a real idea of how to reimagine policy for black communities." 

Nse Ufot, New Georgia Project: "There’s a belief among Democratic Party that holding the center is important, and the idea of this mythical unicorn of a white, male, moderate Democrat that they need to placate in order to win elections has been thoroughly debunked."

Neil Makhija, Executive Director of IMPACT:  "Her election will supercharge the political engagement of the Indian American community."




Harris breaks through multiple barriers as VP-elect

Harris' ascent will put a woman first in the line of succession for the first time in history.

Kamala Harris breaks barriers as vice president-elect

Credit: Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

2020 elections

Kamala Harris

The Associated Press projects Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States, ousting President Trump after a single term marked by impeachment, constant battles, a disastrous response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic and an unexpectedly close election.

Kamala Harris will join him as the first woman and first female person of color to be elected vice president — a historic breakthrough largely overshadowed by the turmoil surrounding the election. The news drew cheering crowds to the White House, while Biden made plans to address the nation at 8 pm Eastern.

Biden's projected win in Pennsylvania gives him more than the needed 270 electoral votes, per AP, on top of the news service's previous projected wins in Wisconsin and Michigan. A raft of television networks also made the call, with CNN leading the way.

The AP makes its projections based on exit polls, actual returns and an extrapolation of historic trends affecting outstanding votes. Results become official as each state finishes counting the vote and certifies its returns.

Data: AP; Note: AP has called Arizona for Biden, but ballots are still being counted and not all organizations have called it yet. Chart: Naema Ahmed, Andrew Witherspoon, Danielle Alberti/Axios

"I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris. In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America."

Driving the news: Early results showed Trump leading, but the balance tipped back in the former vice president's favor following continued counts in a half-dozen critical battleground states. Biden claimed the bulk of a high volume of early and mail-in ballots many Americans used to vote safely during the pandemic.

In his own statement, Trump declared "this election is far from over." Starting Monday, he said, "our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated."

"I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”

The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, and is backing a lawsuit in Nevada. It also says it will ask for a recount in Wisconsin.

The big picture: In remarks even before his victory was declared, Biden sought to unite a country that's been divided the past four years - fueling historic turnout for both candidates this week.

"We may be opponents but we're not enemies; we're Americans," Biden said Friday night. "No matter who you voted for, I'm certain of one thing: the vast majority of 150 million Americans who voted, they want to get the vitriol out of our politics."

An ongoing challenge for him is Trump is unlikely to cede the public spotlight, even out of office.

Biden has vowed to reverse course from Trump's policies on nearly every domestic issue from health care to climate change to economic policy, structural racism and police reform — and most foreign policy approaches.

He pledged to take a hard line of his own on China — though he says he'd work with allies rather than going it alone — but also has promised a tougher line on Russia than Trump took.

Biden has moved to the left on several issues — including crime, climate, immigration, health care, and education — to keep pace with the shifting center of gravity in the Democratic Party. Progressive Democrats vowed to push for more, but the election results may undercut them.

Biden's inner circle is mostly white and male, with more centrist leanings than the newest generation of Democratic Party leaders. That will increase pressure on him to recruit a younger and more diverse Cabinet — but Republican strength in the Senate could block any statement picks.

Biden's biggest immediate shift from Trump will likely be seen in his approach to handling the coronavirus pandemic.

He has said he'll encourage elected officials throughout the country to require people to wear masks, and says he'll require them on federal property — a marked contrast to Trump, who has held numerous events and rallies full of crowds without masks.

Biden has also promised a national testing plan and will push Congress to pass a funding bill for an ambitious public health and economic response by the end of January.

On Monday, he plans to name a COVID task force - even before announcing any staff or cabinet appointments - in a sign of the primacy he will give the pandemic, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.

The backstory: Biden, 77, was known as a center-left Democrat during his lengthy career in the Senate and won his party's nomination this year by presenting himself as a centrist counterweight to more progressive Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

He served in the Senate for 36 years, serving as chair of the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees, and often tells stories about his ability to work with Republican colleagues as well as Democrats.

He ran two unsuccessful presidential campaigns before becoming Barack Obama's vice president — a move that elevated his profile and made him an instant frontrunner in 2020 after he passed on a run in 2016.

Biden nearly fell short in the primaries, and was in danger of being knocked out of the race after crushing defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire. But after a solid win in South Carolina, the party unified behind him quickly, and he was on his way to his showdown with Trump.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to note that Harris will be the first woman of color to be vice president, not the first person of color. Charles Curtis, Herbert Hoover's vice president, was a member of the Kaw Nation.

Joe Biden elected president, AP projects

Kamala Harris will join him as the first woman and first person of color to be elected vice president.

Biden in Los Angeles in March. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

This is Axios Special Election 2020 coverage. Joe Biden wins the presidential election, AP projects, after winning Pennsylvania Saturday morning. We talk to Axios reporters Hans Nichols and Jonathan Swan to find out what’s next for both Biden and Donald Trump.

Biden wins and what to expect next

Jonathan Swan and Hans Nichols join Axios Special Election 2020 coverage podcast coverage.

Axios Today

Axios Re:Cap

Podcasts

Hill Leaders

Axios Hill Leaders

Joe Biden plans Monday to name a 12-member task force to combat and contain the spread of the coronavirus, sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: By announcing a COVID task force even before unveiling his senior White House staff or a single cabinet appointment, Biden is signaling that addressing the coronavirus will be the immediate priority for his transition, and then his potential administration. 

While Biden still hasn't declared victory in Tuesday's election, his team is already planning to govern, and he and his advisers want to reassure the country they can address a health crisis that's getting worse, not better.

Details: The task force will be led by three co-chairs: former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Marcella Nunez-Smith from Yale University.

Some members of the group have been advising Biden throughout the campaign, both the public policy challenges, as well as adopting health protocols for the campaign itself to prevent the spread of the virus in Biden's inner circle. 

On Friday night, Biden  claimed voters have "given us a mandate for action on COVID, the economy, climate change, systemic racism."

The backdrop: As of  8am, the United States had suffered 236,099 deaths from COVID-19, according to the Axios Coronavirus Dashboard.

Scoop: Biden to announce COVID-19 task force Monday

Joe Biden prepared to announce COVID task force Monday

Joe Biden on Oct. 28 in Wilmington, Del. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

COVID-19

Health Care

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has tested positive for the coronavirus, Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs first reported Friday night.

The state of play: Meadows traveled with the president in the run-up to Election Day and was most recently seen in public Wednesday morning, per AP. The diagnosis comes roughly a month after President Trump, members of the Trump family and others close to the president tested positive for COVID-19.

Meadows recently defended Vice President Mike Pence's decision to continue traveling and campaigning despite exposure to staff who had tested positive for COVID-19. Meadows said at the time that Pence was exempt from CDC guidelines because he is "essential personnel."

It is unclear when Meadows tested positive, or if he had any symptoms, per Bloomberg.

Meadows told a circle of advisers after Tuesday’s election, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The big picture: The U.S. recorded at least 125,552 new COVID-19 cases on Friday — setting a single-day record,  according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.

The coronavirus has killed at least 236,099 people in the U.S. as of Saturday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Of the 376 counties with the highest number of new coronavirus cases per capita, 93% voted for Trump, AP notes.

The White House has not responded to Axios' requests for comment.

Reports: Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows tests positive for COVID-19

The diagnosis comes roughly a month after Trump and others close to him tested positive for COVID-19.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows walks along the South Lawn before President Trump departs from the White House on Oct. 30. Photo: Sarah Silbiger / Getty Images

Mark Meadows (North Carolina politician)

Coronavirus

The U.S. health system faces critical questions about cost, access and equity. Technological advances and new discoveries about diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s are transforming patient care and reshaping public health.

Health

If President Trump is on his way out the door, he'll have almost limitless power to reward his friends, settle scores and stack boards and commissions with his allies during his final days in office.  

Why it matters: After defeat, there are no constraints on ordinary presidential powers between the election and the inauguration. Trump has shown a willingness to stretch the norms of what has been done and what can be done. So expect him to go out the way he came in. 

Executive clemency: Presidents can wipe away or minimize past offenses with pardons, commutations, remissions or reprieves — like when Bill Clinton pardoned donor Marc Rich despite indictments over tax evasion and wire fraud.

“Burrowing in”: Presidents can convert political appointees to career employees, and under certain circumstances, presidents can make recess appointments so personnel can serve into the succeeding administration.

“Midnight rulemaking”: Outgoing presidents often rush to finalize the rules that administrations write to enact laws passed by Congress.

Don't forget: Trump can still fire people — and as Axios' Jonathan Swan and Alayna Treene have reported, he was already planning to push out FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Defense Secretary Mark Esper if he got a second term.

“It seems like an obvious point, but it’s really worth emphasizing that Donald Trump will still be president” until Jan. 20, said Max Stier of the Partnership for Public Service. 

Barack Obama sought to strengthen his legacy by filling as many federal posts as he could with people who would continue serving after he left office.

But, but, but: Most presidents work hard to ensure a seamless handoff to their successor, Stier said. “You can look to the outgoing (George W.) Bush administration — Bush to Obama — as the gold standard in how to do this best,” he says.

Bush was still settling into office when terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, so he didn’t want Obama to be vulnerable with the ongoing war in Afghanistan, or in the event of another terrorist strike.

“Presidents who are leaving office usually do not feel wholly unrestrained; in fact, there is now a more immediate and pressing restraint: ‘What will history think of me?’” says John Burke, a retired University of Vermont professor who specialized in presidential transitions.

“It might be tempting for him to fire those he deems disloyal, for example, but it will not serve him well over the long run. Pettiness is an expensive exercise.”

Trump's 75-day finale, fully unrestrained

He can reward his friends, settle scores and stack boards and commissions with his allies.

Photo illustration of President Trump surrounded by stars

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Joshua Roberts/Getty Images

Donald Trump

Future

Axios Future

 Joe Biden appears close to an electoral win that will likely be narrower than election forecasts projected, and the initial sense that he underperformed expectations, which were themselves off base, could color his election and perhaps his presidency. 

The big picture: We can't help but judge events based on whether they exceed or fall short of our expectations for them — but those expectations often aren't grounded in reality.

While the polling industry will sift through the reasons it missed how close the Electoral College fight ultimately was this year, it's vital to keep in mind that our shifting perception of what happened in the election is being shaped by the prior expectations formed by those polls and the order in which information about the vote has come in.

Scientists have long known that our expectations about future events influence how we perceive those events when they occur, even on a neurological level. 

Driving the news: President Trump has complained that polls projecting a Blue Wave this year equate to a form of voter suppression that kept his supporters home, but the number of votes cast this year gives no support for that argument.

Voter turnout this year could end up being the highest since 1900, so there's not much evidence that the forecasts kept Trump's or Biden's supporters at home.

Yet the fact that Biden seemed to be coming in below those forecasts — especially at first — likely shaped the early perceptions of the election.

The backstory: A 2020 paper found that election forecasts — which can translate what appear to be small polling gaps between candidates into fairly large probabilities that one will ultimately win — are often badly mischaracterized by the public.

One-third of study subjects in the paper thought a candidate with an 80% chance of winning had the support of 80% of voters — which is very much not the case.

Forecasts that Hillary Clinton was far more likely to win the 2016 election may have shaped coverage of the race as well as decisions by key officials like then-FBI Director James Comey, and could have led many of her supporters to skip voting, according to the study.

But, but, but: "If the polls are wrong, they never described reality, and there is no divergence to explain," the political writer Ezra Klein tweeted. "The map being wrong isn't a mistake of the terrain."

The American voting population — at least in terms of electoral votes — was simply closer and more divided than we expected. Had the map been correct, we wouldn't have been surprised by a nail-biter.

Be smart: The unique nature of the 2020 election — conducted during a pandemic, with a record-breaking number of mail-in ballots  — also wreaked havoc on our perceptions.

Because different states reported results at different times — in part because battleground states like Pennsylvania were not permitted to begin counting mail-in ballots until Election Day — it appeared as if Trump had built a lead that Biden then whittled down over time.

But remember: the votes existed before they could be counted. What appeared to be Biden "catching up" was just an illusion created by the order in which different votes were counted, albeit an illusion that helped shape how we viewed the election, as some polling experts noted.

The bottom line: Given how problems in polling are making it difficult to really know what the American electorate is thinking, we would be smart to approach the next election — and this one, as the final votes are tabulated — with a little more humility. 

Why we struggle with the election expectations game

Both pre-election forecasts and the pace at which different votes were counted affected how we viewed the results.

Illustration of ballot with a tic tac toe losing game

Joe Biden said late Friday that while "we don't have a final declaration of victory yet," vote counts across the U.S. "tell us a clear and convincing story: We're going to win this race."

Why it matters: Biden is closing in on the 270 electoral votes needed to defeat President Trump, according to AP projections, with the critical battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin now called for the former vice president.

Biden is currently in the lead in the key states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada as vote counting continued.  

What he's saying: "Look at the national numbers. We're going to win this race with a clear majority of the nation behind us," Biden said. "We've gotten over 74 million votes ... That's more than any presidential ticket has ever gotten in the history of the United States of America," Biden said, with Sen. Kamala Harris by his side. 

"Vote tallies on TV moves very slow. As slow as it goes it can be numbing, but never forget the tallies aren't just numbers. They represent votes and voters, men and women who exercised their fundamental right to have their voice heard." 

"What's becoming clearer each hour is that a record number of Americans of all races, faiths, religions chose change over more of the same. They've given us a mandate for action on COVID, the economy, climate change, systemic racism."

"They made it clear. They want the country to come together, not continue to it pull apart. The people spoke."

"While we're waiting for the final results, I want people to know that we're not waiting to get the work done."

Biden said he knows "tensions are high. They can be high after a tough election. One like we've had, but we need to remember to remain calm and let the process work out." 

"Democracy works. Your vote will be counted. I don't care how hard people try to stop it. I will not let it happen." 

Go deeper: Biden's nearly insurmountable math

Biden: "We’re going to win this race"

"Democracy works. Your vote will be counted," Biden said as he closed in on 270 electoral votes.

Joe Biden. Photo: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) will go to a Jan. 5 runoff contest after failing to win 50% of the popular vote in the race against Democrat Jon Ossoff, AP reports.

Why it matters: No winner has been declared in either of Georgia's two Senate battles, which means we likely won’t know which party will hold the Senate majority until 2021.

In the state's special election, neither Democrat Raphael Warnock nor Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler was able to collect half the votes necessary to avoid a runoff. 

Georgia is the only state in the country with both senators on the ballot this election cycle.

The big picture: Democrats and Republicans are already organizing fundraisers for both races, sources tell Axios' Hans Nichols and Alayna Treene.

Republican pro-life groups are also planning to take a stand, with the Women Speak Out PAC announcing a $4 million independent expenditure campaign in support of Loeffler and Perdue.

The state of play: Perdue — who has served as senator in Georgia since 2015 — led unofficial returns against Ossoff, who is looking to pick up votes from left-leaning counties, per AP.

Ossoff received about 50.7% of the vote in the state's Democratic primary — just over the threshold to prevent a primary runoff, according to AP.

Worth noting: As of Wednesday, both Democrats and Republicans hold 48 Senate seats each. AP still has not projected any results for the races in North Carolina or Alaska.

Democrats have flipped two seats in Arizona and Colorado, but lost one in Alabama.

The party initially hoped to win four seats to gain majority or three if Joe Biden wins the White House.

What to watch: "[G]et ready for nine more weeks of nasty campaign rhetoric, nonstop political advertising and even more visits from political VIPs, especially if control of the U.S. Senate remains at stake," AJC writes.

Go deeper: All eyes — and $$$ — on Georgia

Both Georgia Senate seats are heading to a runoff

The balance of Republican control won’t be known until January.

Picture collage of David Perdue, John Ossoff, Raphael Warnock and Kelly Loeffler

Saturday's top stories