expected to address the nation in the coming hours he's already tweeted that he's not only on and that america has chosen him to lead he says the work ahead will be hard but he has promised to be a president for the americans those who voted for him and various who didn't as an immense occasion hang on al-jazeera thanks for being with. us. hello i'm barbara sarah this is al jazeera live from london it's just after 900 g.m.t. and 1400 eastern time in the u.s. when unprecedented election has finally delivered a winner joe biden has been declared president elect of the united states it follows more than 4 days of painstaking ballot counting in a handful of key swing states the democrat took the lead over donald trump in

pennsylvania and georgia is he maintained his lead in arizona and nevada bidens a razor thin margin grew is millions of mail in ballots were tallied securing him more than enough electoral college votes to become the 46th president of the united states well the announcement has sparked celebrations across the country large crowds have gathered in washington d.c. as well as new york city and philadelphia well let's go live now to alan fischer in washington d.c. allan you obviously have been following every twist and turn of this election it took a couple of days but joe biden is now the president elect. exactly i came to trump in 4 years ago and it looks as if a year when we're counting him but the republican party are seeing quite yet we are just above the white house you can see lafayette park behind me which has been sealed off since around the time of the george lloyd protest. in the summer behind

that is the white house the oval office is just over to the right and in front of lafayette park and for some considerable distance into washington d.c. itself for several city blocks thousands of people have gathered here to mark the occasion of donald trump losing the presidency the church in front of me there with that school dorm that's important as well because that's the church you'll remember where donald trump came to use the chemical additives to clear peaceful protesters and stand during the george boyd protest with a bible in this hand and talk about the law and order of the thousands here most i can see are wearing masks given the the rising covert over the last few days that's probably a good idea but let's get back to what donald trump and the republican party are saying donald trump earlier on this morning tweeted out that i won the selection by a lot and then he went off to play golf and while on the golf course he found out

from the american media that joe biden probably had enough electoral college votes to be declared the president elect immediately his team put out a statement saying that they would challenge that in court on monday and that it wasn't the media that decided elections in the united states it was the people that has been backed up by a rule not mcdaniel who is the chairwoman of the republican national committee she has tweeted just in the last few moments the media don't decide who wins elections voters do in multiple states the margins are razor thin with counting on going several of which are heading for a recount in order for americans to have confidence in elections we need time to let the canvassing and set of the kitchen process take place along with investigations of irregularities or fraud. just a reminder in the build up to the election donald trump said that if you lost the election it would because it would be because of fraud and he would take it as far as the supreme court to try and over to. that decision that's exactly how this is

playing out in space session speech from the president it seems that he is going to continue fighting this for several days we had a similar thing back in 2002 remember florida and the infamous hanging chads that went on for more than 30 days this process could still take a while but as far as the people on the street here in washington and in many other cities across the united states joe biden is the president elect and will be the $46.00 president of the united states and alan of course who will be focusing on the legal challenges by the trump team to this result but tell us briefly when it comes to locations in specifics briefly what is the trunk team fighting against and what challenges will they bring. well they're alleging that in arizona for example that there were dead people who were allowed to vote in pennsylvania that they were allowed to observe the ballots as they were being counted which they say gives the

opportunity for corruption and ballot stuffing they are saying in georgia some of the standards for electro law were not met all of these things they will take to the various regional courts of course they have not presented any evidence of this they were in a court case in pennsylvania just a couple of days ago arguing that observers were not in the room the judge said hold on a 2nd wasn't there someone from the trump campaign a load in the room and they admitted there was so in the judge's words i don't see what your problem is they have a high bar to pass to prove that there is a problem in another case a judge said what you're bringing me is hearsay evidence you're telling me that someone told someone and they told someone that the parent something that is never acceptable in a court what the term campaign warhawk is that they can appeal this all the way up to the supreme court no you don't automatically get to take your case to the supreme court they've got to decide whether or not they want to hear that donald

trump believes with 9 justices on the court a 63 conservative majority 3 of whom he installed during his 4 years in the white house that the will rule for him that is by no means guaranteed but what is guaranteed is that donald trump in the next couple of days isn't planning to make a concession speech and the republicans are going to take this to the courts so as far as they're concerned this election is not over yet alan fischer with the latest there from washington d.c. for the moment allan thank you. well joe biden is expected to address the nation in the coming hours but before that he has tweeted that he is all nerds that america has chosen him to lead he says the work ahead will be hard but he promised to be a president for all americans whether they voted for him or not and he's promised to keep the faith that americans have placed in him well jim let's say i'll joins us live now from outside biden said quarters in wilmington delaware we can really

see people gathering behind you there jamal obviously getting ready to celebrate because we are waiting to hear from biden himself in the coming hours are only. indeed barbara we expect that the president elect will take to the stage behind me here in roughly about just over maybe 5 hours from now 8 pm local time more and more of his supporters have been converging onto this parking lot area just outside the chase center where his campaign headquarters has been set up for several days some of these people have been coming and going the past few days in anticipation of waiting finally for them the wait is over as has been announced that he is indeed to the winner of this much contested election interesting enough it's not just congratulations that have come from the democrats there have been

a couple from the republican losing mitt romney and the congressman from michigan as well who have come out to congratulate joe biden told mitchell they are making that statement just in the past hour or so so the people here extremely happy we've spoken to many of them they've been expressing the different reasons why they are happy but there is a constant here that there is a hope that the divisions that have really arisen over the past 4 years may possibly be healed their reason relief that they believe donald trump who calls the real threat to many of the core values that they hold is now no longer or keys will no longer be in the white house and they've been speaking about that's to us over the past few hours and about tell me a little bit about the crowd there is young people old people and makes how does it reflect would you say the base the support base that joe biden has.

it reflects a quite well you'd think it is based on diversity both in terms of age gender and background that he was able to garner so much support remember he is he now holds the record for the most amount of votes that any candidates in u.s. presidential history has been able to garner and you get people from different backgrounds like i say who have decided to come here to show their support this is juxtaposed to maybe the more kind of let's say. singular face of many of the trump rallies in fact i'm going to put over a couple of people here who have come to celebrate this occasion tell me how you guys feel about this this announcement yeah we're very happy that biden wine so yeah we're very happy and elated so. did it for president michel you guys on the doug vultures that been speaking about you

actually voted for by the early voted by me and then we are both that are called the last one being any voted by you to mail ballots so we're very one of the latest ones that get counted on what is the most important thing you feel that biden needs to do once he takes up office. i think he eats a quality game back to quality of everyone so. about immigration in about everything he's stopped all those threats to make that. equal you know for everyone yeah well now you have also the 1st ever female vice president in u.s. history what message does that send to you oh that the same message for me for women vice president this is the 1st time that she was the one who won and i feel very glad that the women are already empowering the women as a vice president thank you very much so they will barbara there is not diversity as

you mention and it is something that really is bringing hope because one of the things that many people felt insecure about under a trump presidency was his rhetoric towards minorities was his rhetoric towards women was his rhetoric on race relations and we saw that's something that really did scare a lot of people but the reality is what's very important to note here is that there are still millions of people who voted for donald trump knowing what his views are there is still systematic racism in many institutions within the united states which both joe biden himself has acknowledged when he was speaking late on friday as well as members of the democratic party who are seem to be on the more cornhole progressive side of things very much see it as something that really needs to be dealt with will be interesting to see what joe biden says about that when he speaks he is due to speak in a couple of hours i'm sure the crowds behind you keep on getting bigger and bigger

for the moment in wilmington delaware john thank you. well let's go to kristen salumi she's covering events in pennsylvania joins us now from philadelphia kristen of course pennsylvania was crucial in all of this tell us what's happening there now and how it unfolded there. well barbara this is the state that put joe biden over the top he is in the lead here by a mere 31000 votes but that was enough to take him up to a half percentage point lead over president and for major media outlets in this country to declare joe biden a victory and you can hear the celebration going on behind me i'm outside of city hall in philadelphia where people have been gathering with american flags and biden harris posters to take pictures to share and to celebrate a lot of tension built up around this event but the president of course is not

conceding defeat just yet and pennsylvania remains the focus of his ire and his legal activities not too long after the race was called his personal attorney rudy giuliani held a press conference here where he discussed plans to submit another lawsuit alleging that monitors in the state were not given access to observe the ballot counting now an earlier claim was dismissed by a local judge this is a federal claim our rights to squirm a nation claim the attorney said that he had statements from $25.00 poll workers around the state alleging misconduct and suspicious behavior he had a couple of them with him at this event including a woman who said they weren't allowed to take pictures they saw some boxes that looked specific suspicious but the allegations of a bit vague but the attorney promising to take this to the court saying

that this is a sign that the voters were being surprised here of course officials here in philadelphia have been denying that all along they point out that there's a 24 hour camera here in philadelphia in particular in the place where the ballots were being counted as well as having monitors the whole. all time in there in the room from the republican and the democratic party so the battle continues but if you listen to the celebrations around me people here obviously consider this a done deal i should point out however that the ballots are not completely counted they are still going through what appears to be less than 100000 ballots these are some of the most difficult ones to tabulate because they may have to be verified because of issues with the ballot the official state count does not come out until the 20th of november and if for some reason that count brings the total

within the last and a half a percentage point that is either candidate is ahead by less than a half a percentage point that would trigger an automatic recount so while there is a lot of celebration going on here there is still some time for those results to be finalized and of course these legal issues also to be taken out by president jacques. christen salumi with the latest in philadelphia pennsylvania kristin for now thank you. well it is a historic election because vice president elect obama harris will be the 1st woman 1st south asian and 1st black person to hold that office she learned the news while out jogging and was one of the 1st to congratulate her running mate the week we did it joe. here giving the next president of the united states the.

so very happy camel harris they will get we live on the joins us now on the phone from new york's times square paint us a picture of what it's looking like there. well thousands of people in the heart of times square there's some that are standing. street signs there are people dancing in the middle of the street every so often the most are playing music cheers will break out people holding fight in paris signed. last hour tonight stepped away about a half a block away just so you could hear me but it's a it's a real mix of people a lot of young people teenagers in their twenty's thirty's some older people as well and they just sort of taken over the heart of times square and they're cheering and just sort of. taking in this moment if you will this is not an organized

a philip aeration in any way there are several other organized celebrations that are going to be happening here in new york city but this was just where people come to whenever there's big news but just this and that's what's happening right now we did see senator chuck schumer he's the senator from new york in the minority leader in the senate he actually came here on a plan he got up was holding up i didn't harris sign up 20 minutes ago and people were mobbing him taking photographs i actually asked him if he was kind of being mobbed by the crowd i asked him what is your message to president donald trump at this moment and he told me and these are his words my message is the president. it's time to go back to florida your home that's the message that senator schumer told me just a few minutes ago his message to president donald trump so clearly it's a nice day here in new york city the temperatures are very good and there's

a lot of people that are out just soaking in this moment. everyone is on the with the latest from new york thank you. for new york let's go to atlanta now georgia and we can join al-jazeera is the tasha good name there and georgia has turned out. georgia has turned out to be a very key state there really a way for same difference tell us what's going on. yeah georgia has been a republican stronghold and right now biden is leading by about 7200 votes which is considered pretty monumental when you consider that the state's 16 electoral college votes have not gone to a democratic presidential candidate since 1992 you also have 2 very tight senate races that are so close they're going to be going to

a runoff in january and the outcome of those races could affect the knowledge of power in government if the democrats people consider it unlikely but if they do happen to pick up these 2 seats democrats would have complete control of the government freedom park in midtown atlanta where there is a big celebration going on and with me is abby ed line she is 18 years old we spotted deer in the crowd because of this sign this is the 1st time she has voted in a presidential election and she was in gauged abbi tell me about some things that you did leading up to the election to ensure that other young people such as yourself would get out and vote so i knew that that youth vote was going to be the thing that would decide this election especially in georgia alternately so along with a lot of my peers at my school we went around and registered every eligible voter we could find in our entire school district and we teamed up with all the other schools and a.p.'s which is our system and we registered over. i think 500 students

in order to vote this year what are some of the issues that made you throw your support behind biden particularly as a young person just starting out in life so the biggest thing for me is ending the gun violence epidemic in our country and i know biden is working towards that as well another one of my big things was his stance on science especially the climate crisis which we all know trying to not fully believe in and so that really caused me to support biden because i know he sees the issues with the world and is going to admit that they're bare in a real he's going to work to fix them so this is a historic moment for women for women of color with vice president elect. where were you as i was tell asking someone else where were you when you found out today and how are you feeling i had just gotten home i walked in my front door from being gone in my friend texted me and i pulled out my phone and i just i felt like to the

floor kind of and i was like i can't believe this is real because i truly i was so concerned that he would it when for my rights for the rights of the people i love and then once i found out he did it was like this weight lifted off my shoulders. that this race was a bit of a nail biter shows that we're still a country divided he said participated in the black eyes matter this these many votes that swept through the country it clearly continues to be kind of a dividing thing could you tell me about how you feel about how georgia's the state is moving forward read these concerns about police and racial john be sure john atlanta is a very very progressive city but that's not the case with the vast majority of georgia but there has been a change in a shift that i've been able to really see and i know other people have to and that people are realizing that not everyone has the same rights people are not treated

equally but we're all going. being in fighting and advocating for one another is slowly shifting to a more progressive state as a whole and heard this said many times over the last couple days even if biden won a lot of people said the fight is not over the work continues what do you think that means for you so while biden did win and that's a huge step in the right direction for our country there is still so much work to be john on the local levels like i said not everyone has the same rights there are huge gaps in between wages between genders why is gay marriage still on the line but i truly believe that our country is going to get its act together you so much abby i do want to mention that we were in an area with a lot of people when the results were announced and there were some truck supporters who were in disbelief they said this is not true he is not our president so there will likely be continue to be

a contingency of americans who not only don't approve of the results but don't believe their true cash are going to aim with the latest from atlanta georgia and the tasha thank you well to discuss all of this in more detail were joined by ken blackwell ohio's former secretary of state he's helping organize trumps eagle challenges and also played a prominent role in the 2004 election when he was sent to stay for ohio he joins us now via skype from philadelphia pennsylvania so thank you so much for joining us here on the ground i don't know whether you heard our correspondent there in atlanta georgia saying that many trump supporters there don't recognize the election result and now you are. helping organize tom's legal challenge tell us a little bit more what that legal challenge will be based on. well let's 1st start out by the by telling your viewers that not once they had certified any returns this celebration is on projection and as we know projections

are not prophecy and so. we have to figure out me to forgive me franco but surely you know having watched young american elections in the past that tends to happen usually people do get to celebrate based on the projections. about you know that but we're not talking about celebrations based on project projections and i think you have an obligation as a journalist to in fact underscore the fact that these are projections that once state has certified their numbers yet not one and because of that we have you on the program to please explain to me like the basis of a challenge so so then don't tell me what i suspect and what i should understand i've been involved in elections not only nationally but globally

for over 50 years i chaired the international foundation for electoral systems funded primarily by us and id and we do it sections all over the globe and at the at the bottom line we talk about the integrity of elections and the integrity of elections are based on transparency accountability and certain menaced the election administration principles and processes being followed what we have now are several states where. the results are heading towards a spirit that is so narrow that any hint of irregularities can in fact be prosecuted pennsylvania on monday the trump campaign will start its prosecution of unscathed and it's going to be based on the united 3

states constitution that basically says that the responsibility for establishing the rules of elections reside with the state legislature not a state supreme court in pennsylvania the state supreme court made a decision to accept ballots 3 days after the close of election that is a constitutional issue there are tens of thousands of ballots that are impacted those have been set aside and fact depending on where which way the court decides what will determine the impact of those ballots so that that's best best tell your viewers that they're close races that are being contested and i think is a bit rich that some folks who never accept that president

trump's clear victory with 3 $106.00 electoral votes are now celebrating on projections. if i could just raise a point though it's not just the people celebrating for joe biden the president himself only hours after the polls closed on tuesday went on twitter and affectively said that he had won so it a sense he's also guilty of what you are accusing biden supporters of doing of sort of the citing the selection before as you say a lot of the legal issues are sorted out well and that's what that's what we're we're going to extend now you know the fact is that the president is a candidate that was on the ballot he has watched as now we have seen that charge that his election was the result of

a russian manipulation he in fact went to went on the offensive but the reality is that we now have this one. elections across the united states a minister by states and the district of columbia we have one it action day but we have those senator centers of election of ministration across the country we now have contentious coast totals and the numbers have not actually been finished we don't know what the final vote is. and north carolina and allana and i know that so i mean and arizona so so i don't want to be. please don't try to put me on the defensive when i come on and say oh let's not start counting you know of the

things that done deals when we still had the outstanding choice you know amazon and so i understand that and i don't think i was trying to put you on the defensive i suppose the point i am putting to you is that many people say that the trunk campaign doesn't actually have a legal case and so what i was asking you for was examples of these legal cases and the mechanism gauges actually and i gave pennsylvania where i have been working i gave you the real big question as to whether or not. if a supreme court change the in day when that when ballot will be accepted and i know there's other issues at the end and the supreme court will probably hear that case and i'm sure you know legally it will proceed i think starting from monday am having listened to all our correspondents we can see that

the us regardless of what the result is is a very divided country and we've already heard of trance supporters that will refuse a certainly now refuse to accept the possible biden presidency if the courts do find that actually there were no irregularities or not enough to make sure the president trump stays in the white house do you think the president should tell his supporters to actually endorse a joe biden and respect him as president that's best go back i think the president after all of the processes have been in so. if in fact he loses he will do well on the losing candidates have done whether you're talking about george h.w. bush well you're talking about gore with a talk.