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DECEMBER 15, 2020 / 7:32 AM / CBS NEWS
President-elect Joe Biden accused President Trump of an “unprecedented assault on democracy” in a speech Monday night hours after the Electoral College formalized his victory. Mr. Trump has refused to concede the election and has tried repeatedly to use the courts to challenge the results without success.
“Every single avenue was made available for President Trump to contest the results,” Mr. Biden said. “He took full advantage of each and every one of those avenues. President Trump was denied no course of action he wanted to take.”
He also highlighted Mr. Trump’s insistence that he won in a “landslide” in 2016 with 306 electoral votes, the same number Mr. Biden won in 2020.
“At the time, President Trump called the Electoral College tally a landslide,” Mr. Biden said. “By his own standards, these numbers represented a clear victory then. And I respectfully suggest they do so now.” Mr. Trump won 232 electoral votes.
Mr. Biden also praised local election workers, saying they “we owe these public servants a debt of gratitude” for working through the coronavirus pandemic and through threats of violence.
The 538 members of the Electoral College convened Monday at state capitals from coast to coast, where they cast paper ballots individually for president and vice president. While the vote typically takes place without much fanfare, this year’s meeting was thrust into the spotlight as Mr. Trump tried to pressure state Republican lawmakers to subvert the will of voters and name their own electors. This gambit, too, failed.
As of Monday afternoon, electors in six battleground states where the president challenged the election results and alleged fraud — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada — all cast their ballots for Biden.
Congress will count the votes of the electors on January 6.
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Article URL : https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-president-elect-speech-trump/