Pbs newshour special. Woodruff good evening and welcome to this pbs newshour special, on the night joe biden has been declared the next president of the United States. Im judy woodruff. In just a moment, president elect biden and Vice President elt Kamala Harris will appear before cameras in their first remarks since the winn was called. Its been four days since the nation gathered at tv sets and smart phones to watch election returns, only to discover the vote count would take longer. Weve been waiting patiently nce then, and late this morning, the Associated Press called the state of pennsylvania for biden, putting biden above to become president. Tes needed his running mate Kamala Harris is breaking three glass ceilings at once becoming the firstwo n, the first black american, and the first Asian American to serve as Vice President. We expect both of them to speak shortly in wiln and to see some of the celebration to follow. Well talk with analysts and with our correspondents, including Yamiche Alcindor at the white house, where psident trump has disputed the results and charged democrats with fraud. John yang in wilmington with the biden team, daniel bush in pennsylvania, stephanie sy in arizona, miles obrie georgia, and here along with me in the studio is amna nawaz,s lisa desjardd amy walter looking at how voters voted. Later, well review the state of the country after such a competitive and fraut president ial race that has taken place in the midst of a oncein a century pandemic. Before i talk to our correspondents, a word of explanation before we move further into this evening the newshour again this year has relied on the Associated Press d lare the outcomes of the election. For 174 years, the a. P. Has been reporting thoroughly and fairly on events in this country and arnd the world. They adhere to the highest standards of journalism. Their team of expert political observers collected voter data and crunched numbers, and onlyen hey were confident there was no path for another candidate to win, did theyar dewinners. Now with me as we wait for this importanoment, i want to go to our john yang in williamington. John, you are there. They are waiting for joe biden and dr. Jill biden, his wife, to arrive. Tell us a little bit about what people are saying. Theyre happy. Reporter well, ill tell you, they are happy indeed. There is not only a drivein rally here, people parked in cars in this prking lot, but along the fence line over here to the side of me, we cant get a shot of it, there are people, several deep, pressed up against a chain link fence. They have been here for hours. They have been here since the middle of the afternoon, looking forward to this momet. As you say, we have been waiting for this moment since tuesda joe biden has been waiting for this moment since 1987, when he first ran for theresidency. This is his third campaign, and in some wayets, this is sng of a remarkable political story, his third campaign, but this is the first year that he actually won a political president ial primary when he won the South Carolina primary. Remember, his candidacy was given up for dead at me point early on in this campaign, and he surged back once the candidates, other candidates consolidated around him and waltzed to the convention and then through this campaign and to this long election night, which is endi on saturday tght, began tuesday night. Ialked to a Senior Advisor to the Biden Campaign to former Vice President iden about this long wait, and the advisor said, you know, nothing about this campaign has been easy, so why should we have expected that the election wouldave been easy . Woodruff yeah, well, for sure. And, john, tell us a little bit about the layout there. You are at whats called the chase center, this big sports arena in wimington. This is where former Vice President biden spoke during the democratic convention. This is where he and Kamala Harris will be. Reporter thats right, Campaign Headquarters is located inside the chcase ter. Sitting in a big parking lot around it. There is a stage set up outside. Cars sort of set up like at a driveine ovie that hiven up. A lot of these people appear to be some perhaps donors. Theyre well dressed in suits there are some elected officials among folks in tir cars at this drivein rally. Folks along the fenceline, also. Nator harris motorcadeay arrived heree 20 minutes ago. Shes going to introduce something of a departure. Usually on victory statements on election nigs, the Vice President elect is seen but not heard, but i think they want to take advantage of the moment of those three glass clingss you mentioned that are being broken here tonight. She will speak for about five minutes and introduce Vice President biden, who will speak for about 18 to 20 minutes, we have been told, and then, afterward, were told tha thgoing to be a drone light show. Im not quite sure what that is im looking forward to that, quite frankly. There will be some fireworks fov about e minutes. This is a night that they had hoped to do last night, and there was actually a little bit of fro frustration among some campaign officials, frustrated that the networks and other news organizations of the Associated Press hadnt made the call that would delare Vice President biden now the president elect. They held off last night making this moving here to the chase center to make the statement. Im hearing a cheer coming , the motorcade nearing, maybe theyre seeing some flashing lights. Woodruff i want to turn toci yamiche or at the white phouse. Yamichsident trump is there and has not accepted these results, has not conceded in any way and is talk about lawsuits. Reporter thats right, the president has not at all wanted to embrace the idea or the fact at this point that he is only the tenth u. S. President not to win reelection. E president is in complete denial. Petle close to the presid said he is fuming, angry. He is sitting in the white house now releasing statements thate thction is not over, claiming he won the election, we are watching a Disinformation Campaign happening, headqutered at the white house, where the president is trying to wrestle back the election. But weve already seen republicans, jeb bush, brother of former george bush, former president , a republican, allies of england, canada, congratulating Vice President elect joe biden. Here at the white house, there are protestors cheering around the white house. There are large a lot of streetd clecause there are a large group of people celebrating he is launching a bunch of legal maneuvers trying to see what he can do, but there are already judges tossing outrguments and cases from the Trump Campaign in georgia, michigan and pennsylvania. So the president is continuing to say hes going to fiht on, but the strategy and math is not on his side. Woodrf its interesting, mitt romney is another one of those who has tweeted that the time to respect the results is now, and im just hearing a few minutes ago that former white house chief of staff mick muisaney saying the time has come to respect the results. So you do see rnsubli starting to make these statements, but certainly,e, yaminot everybody around the president. The people very close to this president are sticking with him. Reporter thats right, people close to the president are sticking with him, ut i talked to somebody who has been in touch with the president , and there arreally two schools of thought happening in the white house now. First, they want to fight for the president want to try to make sure the president gets every single legal argument heard in court. Theyre even possibly thinking the Supreme Court might try to wrestled back from thet this, president , but people who are critics of the president say its nearly impossible for them en launch some sort of lawsuit that wil up at the Supreme Court. The other thought is a lot of people are accepting the loss that are close to the president , on to the trump base. O they hold millions and millions of americans who cast their vote for trump are questioning the election. A lot of republicans are thinking about 2022 nd 2024, that if they abandon t trump t quickly, those might turn on the Republican Party. A hes stiad of the Republican Party. The bottom line is the president is in complete denial and he very much angry at all the defense republicans who comingsa oung that they congratulate joe biden as president elect. Te i should also hat the president was golfing when this news came out. He is omeone who had to drive back into the white house and see a line of prtesters who were celebrating his failure, so theres also a tough thing going on. The president has admitted that does not like to lose, that he hates to lose, in fact, so the president is having to deal with hard realities as he sits at thwhite house watching a this play out on tv. Woodruff one other thing, yamiche, the lawsus that the people around the president , including rudy giuliani, his personal lawyer, are taking about, i mean, these are serious pursuits theyre making. I think theres a sense that we dont get a clear sense of who his legal representatives are. Reporter theres no one, judy, heading up officially the legal strategy for the trump caaign, which is why all o this is really, really confusing. There is david boss he was the head of a conservative Advocacy Group citizens united, who is trying to think through the strategy here, but his not head attorney. They are claim ago outof knees lawsuitsinre serious, say there are irregularities and voter fraud but theres just no evidence of that, judy. Theres no evidence to back up the legal claims which is why youve seen judges in state after state starting to toss out the lawsuit. Hthe preside been saying a lot of things on twitter. Twitr has been having to label tweet after tweet after tweet saying its disputed information, incorrect, disinformation, so that gives you a sense of what the lawsuit and the legal arguments are, theyre not really founded on any sort of evidence. When ive asked the Trump Campaign for edence, ive gotten nothing. So the Trump Campaign is trying to make this case that the president is a victim of se sort of conspiracy theory. The tough thing of that,f course, is there are reublicans who had great gains. The house of representatives, a couple new seats on the g. O. P. Side, the republicans ld on to the senate, it seems, so the president is saying i am the victim of this conspiracy stretching coast to coast, but the republican par as a whole actually saw a good wave, a red wa said, at some point, so its a tough thing for h to argue. Woodruff yamiche will stay with us at the white house. John yang in wilmington. Well stay at the studio while we wait for smar Kamala Harris o introduce the president eict. Here with amna nawaz, Congressional Correspondent lisa desjawiins, alon amy walter of the cook pol of wnycs politics with amy walter. Republicans did well, better than expected. Thats rightand well be digging through the data in the coming days. There are a nber of voters who continued voting for republicans but did not vote for donald trump. They liked the ia of a divided government, they were going to vote for joe bi to be in the white house. They didnt love the idea of having one party ionn trol. We saw some districts that in the 2018 wave went to democrats. They movacedto their sort of ancestral home, you could sayes, cially waiting for the fennel rules but in places like orange counties or charleston, South Carolina, where d emocrats ought maybe they made permanent inroads into these places. So this is going to be fascinating, judy. As yamiche said, wedere wonng about the trump base and is it going to stick around for republicans in 2022, if they feel likrepublicans have abandoned the president . Anybody other than donald trump turn out these voters . Were going to find that out in the coming years. Woodruff i want to take that we to amna nawaz. Amna, you did spend time in this campaign talking to voters, some of them obviously very loyal who liked donald trump, and others who liked joe biden. Did you get a sense of how mh their attitude toward President Trump, if they were planning to vote for him was because of personal appeal and i how much wthe issues . Tell us about that. Yeah, judy, its interestingo on elenight, which now feels like a full lifetime ago, i was in touch wh a number of Trump Supporters who were voted for in 2016 andow tracking they were viewing the presidency over the last four years, and there was the full range of Human Emotion in there, as you can exec. Weve heard all these issues report out before about how some of his policies and decisionand rhetoric resonated across different parts of his base. Tone thing that stood o to me in the county in which i spent a 20t of time in and 2018 and texas who had the highest level of support in 2016 is 90 of the county in the texas panhandle votefor him, that increased in this past election, that level of suppo. Among these viewers were people. Who they had to hold their nose to vote for him back then. I think now both sides hereob ly have the full range of voters, right. Theyve got people who feel like thall in with the candidate, people who feel like there are some policies that speak to them. But i do wanto take a moment tonight to reflect on what is essentially going to be asp victorch we are going to hear, the kinds we usually hear on that night, the vote is go and the races are called, because, as john mentioned, you know, this history that is being made in so many ways for Vice President elect for president elect biden, rather, is decades in the making, but hundreds of years in the making, and i dont think we should lose sight of thatht tonight its a moment, regardless of you politics, that hundreds of years aved blackfirst ensl people were brought to this country, 100 years after women were first given the right to vote, that we have the first woman of color to hold thatfi , first black woman, first asianamerican woman, a child of immigrants, and if the idea of our democracy s a representative government. There are so many more americans who may feel they are represented by this ticket than tickets of the past. We are still, as e everys pointed out, deeply divided. Youve seen Vice President biden cross the 75 million vote markms in t of popular vote, but as pointed out more than 70 million voted for donald trump. Om that will behing this ticket inherits and very muchth influence hoy govern moving forward. But we shouldnt lose sight isof onight because regardless of your politics, its a moment for america. Woodruff no question about it. Think we cant point that out often enough because we know both president elect biden and Vice President elect harris are moving into a truly challenging time with thede panc, two the economy, so many other issues front and center, climate change, and the list goes on, nestic, international, ans i think itso important that we do take a moment to think about what this moment means in history. Lisa desrdins, i want to, while were waiting for the bidenharris ticket to speak to the people, joe biden will be at the white house but he is aling with aven larger will, in the houseit looksu like democrats are not going to be in the majority in the senate. So, i mean, the reality of getting anything done is daunting. It is dauntinand we still will face multiple crises that we dont think will be sved in by inauguration. R three months when you talk to somerooms, i did hear one elent of hope that some republicans, even those who worked for President Trump tell me asthis was unfolding in the last couple of weeks that they acally are okay with the idea of a President Biden if there was a Republican Senate. They were saying openly this is a chance forub the rcan party to sort out its own identity beyond trump if there is ant identity i doump fit works out that way. Le rega of who controls the senate, there i there are modere members who dont go with the extreme side of the party. The progressives and the moderates will be an interesting dynamic for nancy pelosi to contain as fee takes on climate change. There are progressives who want to go with a green new deal. Moderates dont want that. They are scared and they dont want larger government. That how they see it. Progressives say no, this is government that will help more ople. That is an unresolved iss. Here comes biden who wants to expand healthcare with a publici option whi a sort of first step toward universal healthcare. Ewill he even be able tot that . Its not clear. So he does he is somne who says he wants to work with compromise. He has to to get anything done. One other personal note, i have been covering joe biden in thisv cycle, and ito say, he kind of is the ultimate comeback kid. People don realize he first considered running for president in 1984. He first actually ran in 1988. T s has been on his mind a long time. Im thinking back to the days a year ago when it really looked like joe biden was not going to be the candidate to rise. Almost some people said he changing his legacy,this, hes embarrassing himself. It wasnuntil South Carolina, Campaign Said once we win South Carolina everything changes, we werent sure it was true and