Election 2020 updates: Biden warns of 'dark winter,' pushes masks in pandemic plan
The president-elect emphasized how he would handle the pandemic response.
Joe Biden is set to become the 46th president of the United States, capping a tumultuous and tension-filled campaign during a historic pandemic against President Donald Trump. ABC News characterized Joe Biden as the apparent winner of his home state of Pennsylvania, putting him over the 270 vote threshold needed to capture the presidency.
The hard-fought battle against the president was set against the backdrop of racial unrest and the coronavirus pandemic and bitter divisions among the electorate.
Trump had falsely declared on election night, when he held a lead in several key states, that he won the contest and alleged without evidence, after the count started to swing the other way, that the election was being stolen from him and that fraud had been committed.
Painting the election as a "battle for the soul of the nation," Biden won on a message of unity over division, compassion over anger, and reality over what he called Trump's "wishful thinking" as the coronavirus pandemic cast a heavy shadow over the campaign.
The 2020 election has shattered voting records with votes totaling 147 million and counting, surpassing the 138 million who voted in 2016.
Top headlines:
Polls open in Arkansas
The polls are opening in Arkansas.
Polls open in 12 states and Puerto Rico
The polls are opening in North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Arizona, Alabama, in several counties in Tennessee and Puerto Rico.
In new videos, Biden, Harris urge voters to head to the polls in final campaign push
As part of the campaign's final efforts to turn out voters and deny President Donald Trump a second term, both former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris are urging Americans to head to the polls today as a chaotic election is set to near its end.
In two new digital videos released by the Biden campaign on Tuesday, both Biden and Harris are telling Americans that have not voted to make sure their voices are heard.
"Today is Election Day. The future of our country is going to hinge on who votes in the next few hours. So please, if you have to go out and vote, please vote. And vote as soon as possible," Biden says in one of the videos.
"Today is Election Day, our last chance to choose once and for all a brighter future for our country and leadership that will restore the soul of our nation. And we are counting on you to put us over the finish line," Harris says in the other.
The late push comes as a record number of Americans, nearly 100 million, have voted early this cycle, another way in which the coronavirus pandemic has upended the 2020 race and reshaped the electoral battlefield.
Both Biden and Harris were in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Monday, and the former vice president is set to visit his hometown of Scranton later today, while Harris will travel to Detroit, Michigan, to rally voters and boost turnout in another state key to the Democratic ticket's chances of victory.
ABC News' John Verhovek
Polls open in 13 states
The polls are opening in South Carolina, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, District of Columbia, Delaware, Missouri, Louisiana and in several counties in Tennessee.
Biden warns of 'dark winter,' pushes masks in COVID plan
Biden warns of 'dark winter' ahead as he lays out COVID-19 plan, calls for unity on masks
President-elect Joe Biden in his first solo remarks to Americans since his victory speech over the weekend reminded Americans of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as cases and hospitalizations rise across the country, and said the country is “still facing a very dark winter” before offering his plan to combat it.
"We are ready to get to work addressing the needs of the American people. Today, that work begins," Biden said from The Queen Theater in Wilmington Delaware, following a briefing with his newly-announced COVID-19 advisory board. "It starts with doing everything possible to get the COVID-19 under control, so that we can reopen our businesses safely and sustainably, resume our lives, put this pandemic behind us."
While he praised the announcement from Pfizer Monday morning that the company has a vaccine in trial that looks "90% effective in preventing COVID-19," Biden reminded that even if the vaccine is approved, it will not be widely available for months. He went on to urge all Americans, regardless of whether they voted for him, to "end the politicization of basic responsible public health steps."
"This election is over. It’s time to put aside the partisanship and the rhetoric that’s designed to demonize one another," Biden said, reminding Americans to keep social distancing and wearing a mask.
"Doesn't matter who you voted for, whether you stood, where you stood before election day, doesn't matter your party, your point of view. We can save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months. Not Democrat or Republican lives, American lives," he added. "A mask is not a political statement but it is a good way to start pulling the country together."
After pledging to rejoin the World Health Organization on "Day One," Biden also said his advisory board will include experts on global health security, "so that we can restore U.S. global leadership to fight this pandemic" -- in sharp contrast to Trump's isolationist approach to the virus and general policy.