ADDS DETAILS IN GRAFS 13-15
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON (AA) - Blaring car horns and exuberant exhalations were being heard in cities nationwide Saturday after US President-elect Joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump in the race for the White House.
Revelers flocked to the White House and amassed at Black Lives Matter plaza, which is just one block away from the executive mansion, holding Biden-Harris signs as at least one person shouted "democracy has been saved" following Trump's defeat.
Others held signs reading "Bye Don," an allusion to the president-elect's surname, and "You've been fired," a reference to Trump's catchphrase from his reality television days.
In New York City, the US's financial capital, thousands amassed in Times Square, chanting Biden's name and singing Sister Sledge's 1979-hit We Are Family and Kool & the Gang's Celebration.
Biden won the crucial state of Pennsylvania earlier in the day, and with the victory there surpassed the necessary 270 Electoral College delegates needed to claim the White House, according to The Associated Press and other news organizations.
Biden now holds a commanding 290 delegates after the AP also called Nevada for the president-elect.
The states of Georgia, North Carolina, and Alaska remain outstanding several days after Tuesday’s presidential election, but it is now mathematically impossible for Trump to win re-election without a major change in vote counts.
"America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country," the president-elect said on Twitter ahead of public remarks expected for Saturday evening, US time.
"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."
Biden's victory makes Trump the first single-term president in nearly three decades. Trump has, however, vowed to pursue legal challenges to the vote totals in several states.
Trump refused to concede shortly after every major news outlet in the US called the race for his opponent, instead lashing out defiantly in a statement distributed by his campaign that claimed the 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," the outgoing president said. "Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media."
Undeterred, people amassed in Los Angeles, the US's second-most populous city, to cheer on Biden with Angelenos pouring into the city's sprawling sidewalks while others flew Biden-Harris from their vehicles in the car-centric city.
“Ay, Santo Bendito [there is a blessed saint],” one celebrant exclaimed in Spanish in the predominantly Latino city, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In Chicago, the largest city in the midwest, people gathered near the Trump International Hotel & Tower to celebrate the president's electoral defeat.