House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, on Friday called Joe Biden the “president-elect” of the United States after he pulled ahead in key election results.
“President-Elect Biden has a strong mandate to lead,” Pelosi told reporters after Biden overtook President Donald Trump in the potentially decisive state of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania would be enough to put Biden past the magic number of 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College, which determines the presidency.
Meanwhile the US state of Georgia said Friday it will recount votes from the election in which Joe Biden has eked out a razor-thin lead over President Donald Trump.
“With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters in Atlanta.
Raffensperger, the top elected official overseeing elections, said that the presidential contest in the state “remains too close to call.”
Almost complete results as of Friday morning showed Biden leading by just over 1,500 votes in Georgia, where changing demographics and strong turnout from African-Americans have put in play a Southern state once seen as reliably backing Trump’s Republicans.
Georgia is equally critical as it is the only state holding elections for both its Senate seats this year, meaning it will determine which party is in control.
Under Georgia’s system, Senate races go to a runoff if no candidate receives 50 percent in the first round.
“The final tally in Georgia at this point has huge implications for the entire country,” Raffensperger said.
The stakes are high and emotions are high on all sides. We will not let those debates distract us from our work. We’ll get it right and we’ll defend the integrity of our elections.”
He said that Georgia was letting observers from both campaigns watch the counting after Trump, with no evidence, alleged widespread fraud nationwide.
-Twitter bans former Trump aide Bannon’s account-
Twitter said Friday it permanently banned an account created by former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon which had called for the execution of federal officials during this week’s post-election social media turmoil.
The @WarRoomPandemic account was “permanently suspended for violating the Twitter Rules, specifically our policy on the glorification of violence,” a statement from the social media platform said.
Before the account was blocked, it included a call by Bannon to cut off the heads of FBI director Christopher Wray and top pandemic official Anthony Fauci.
Bannon tweeted that he would “put the heads on pikes” of the officials, in a reference to Tudor-era England as “a warning to federal bureaucrats.”
A video with the same message was also removed from YouTube, according to media reports.
Bannon, a former top Trump strategist, was pushed out of the White House in 2017 after frequent clashes with other officials.
Earlier this year Bannon was arrested for allegedly defrauding donors to a Mexico border wall fundraising campaign. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and another of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Prosecutors said the online crowdfunding campaign known as “We Build the Wall” raised more than $25 million, which the defendants promised would go towards construction of a southern border barrier but was siphoned off instead.
