‘I Could Not Be Prouder’: Obama Congratulates Biden, Harris After Media Declare Victory

 

Former President Barack Obama congratulated Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) on Saturday after establishment media projected them the winners of the 2020 presidential election.

“I could not be prouder to congratulate our next President, Joe Biden, and our next First Lady, Jill Biden,” Obama said in a statement posted to Twitter. “I also couldn’t be prouder to congratulate Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff for Kamala’s groundbreaking election as our next Vice President.”

A spokesperson for Obama said the former president also spoke separately with both Biden and Harris Saturday afternoon, “and told them how proud he was of the campaign they ran in unprecedented times,” according to CBS News.

Despite the calls of victory from the Biden campaign, Trump and his legal surrogates maintain that the contest remains undecided. Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser to the president, told the The Daily Wire: “Media coordinated efforts are attempting to simply declare Joe Biden the president and ignore the rule of law. There is no official winner until every legal vote is counted accurately, the states certify results, and all legal challenges are resolved.”

Read Obama’s full statement below:

I could not be prouder to congratulate our next President, Joe Biden, and our next First Lady, Jill Biden.

I also couldn’t be prouder to congratulate Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff for Kamala’s groundbreaking election as our next Vice President.

In this election, under circumstances never experienced, Americans turned out in numbers never seen. And once every vote is counted, President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris will have won a historic and decisive victory.

We’re fortunate that Joe’s got what it takes to be President and already carries himself that way. Because when he walks into the White House in January, he’ll face a series of extraordinary challenges no incoming President ever has – a raging pandemic, an unequal economy and justice system, a democracy at risk, and a climate in peril.

I know he’ll do the job with the best interests of every American at heart, whether or not he had their vote. So I encourage every American to give him a chance and lend him your support. The election results at every level show that the country remains deeply and bitterly divided. It will be up to not just Joe and Kamala, but each of us, to do our part – to reach out beyond our comfort zone, to listen to others, to lower the temperature and find some common ground from which to move forward, all of us remembering that we are one nation, under God.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who worked, organized, and volunteered for the Biden’s campaign, every American who got involved in their own way, and everybody who voted for the first time. Your efforts made a difference. Enjoy the moment. Then stay engaged. I know it can be exhausting. But, for this democracy to endure, it requires our active citizenship and sustained focus on the issue – not just in an election season, but all the days in between.

Our democracy needs all of us more than ever. And Michelle and I look forward to supporting our next President and First Lady however we can.