NEW YORK, Nov 07 (APP): Celebrations broke out across US cities with people dancing in the streets, motorists honking their horns and cheers filling the air as Joe Biden is named the next president of the United States on Saturday.
Biden was called the next president at 11.25 a.m. ( 9:25 pm PST) Saturday by television networks and the Associated Press, while Donald Trump played golf.
CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the AP and USA Today all made the call and Fox News followed suit 10 minutes later as votes in Philadelphia pushed his margin in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania over the edge.
This took him to 273 electoral votes – over the 270 needed to win the White House race.
Kamala Devi Harris, his running mate, becomes the first female vice president and the first black and Asian-American vice president in history.
Most Muslim-Americans, including Pakistanis, who have been under pressure since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, voted for Biden, according to reports.
There are more than 3.45 million Muslims living in the US, which has a population of over 328 million.
Throughout his 2016 presidential campaign and time in office, President Donald Trump has made Islamophobic comments that alienated Muslim voters.
At a 2015 campaign rally, Trump told a supporter he would look into the country’s “Muslim problem”. Later that year, he made promises to implement a database or “watchlist” to track Muslims in the U.S., and issued a statement calling for the shutdown of Muslim immigration to the U.S. He also falsely claimed he watched thousands of Muslims cheering as the World Trade Center collapsed on 9/11. During a debate, he said “Islam hates us.”
In 2017, the first executive order in what is commonly referred to as Trump’s “Muslim Ban” went into effect, banning refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries.
On his part, Biden has. said he would withdraw that order on day one of his presidency.
In New York City, cheers of celebration, clapping and car horns filled the air seconds after Biden’s victory was called.
Cheers could be heard all across Manhattan as walkers in Central Park stopped and threw their arms in the air in celebration.
Many people flocked to their balconies to join in the celebrations in the streets below.
Footage on social media revealed the moment many New Yorkers learned Biden would become the 46th president of the United States.
Over in Philadelphia – where the latest votes to be counted pushed Biden to victory – people cried and embraced in the streets outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Some Biden supporters danced in the streets as they couldn’t contain their emotion over the victory for the Democrat.
People in Washington choked back tears of relief and hugged each other.
Outside the White House on Saturday afternoon, the resident made themselves heard. Cars honked nonstop as drivers stuck their head out windows and waved Biden flags. Cyclists cheered as they sailed past, lifting fists in the air. Along a nearby street where protesters had so many times marched against the outgoing President, a young Black woman stuck her head above the sunroof of her car, yelling: “FINALLY!”
Parents waved small American flags and held their children on their shoulders, and even a recycling truck blared its horn as scores of vehicles headed south on Connecticut Avenue toward the White House.
People flocked toward the White House on foot and by car, honking their horns, sticking solidarity fists out their windows and congratulating strangers on the street. They carried Biden-Harris signs, Black Lives Matter signs, American flags — the mood one of a party inside a sigh of relief.
The Trump hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW became a scene of beeping horns, middle finger waves and many expletive-laced goodbyes.
