Biden to call on nation to ‘turn the page’ on election

President-elect Joe Biden will call on the nation to “turn the page” from divisive election fights in a national address Monday night, even as President Trump continues his unprecedented effort to overturn the election results.

The Electoral College is in the process of meeting to officially certify Biden’s election victory over Trump.

In his speech, Biden will praise the institutions for holding up despite enormous pressure from Trump and his allies to disrupt the system.

“In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed,” Biden will say, according to excerpts obtained by The Hill. “We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal.”

Electors from all over the country are meeting on Monday to formally cast their Electoral College ballots. Biden should finish with 306 votes, compared to 232 for Trump.

There have been some dust-ups along the way.

Protesters carrying Trump flags gathered outside the capitol in Pennsylvania to protest Biden’s victory there. Electors in other key states, such as Michigan and Wisconsin, were shuffled in through side doors or met at alternative sites due to threats of violence against them.

One Michigan state lawmaker was removed from his committee assignments after saying he could not promise there would not be violent disruptions when the state’s electors gathered to cast their ballots for Biden.

But the outcome is not in doubt.

Congress will meet on Jan. 6 to certify Biden as the winner of the Electoral College.

Still, the president and his allies are promising they will continue the fight to overturn the election all the way up until Jan. 20, when Biden will be inaugurated. Trump’s legal efforts have been broadly dismissed by the courts, including one lawsuit brought by Texas aimed at nullifying the vote in four states that the Supreme Court refused to hear.

Trump’s allies have discussed everything from pushing GOP state legislatures to send Republican electors in states that Biden won to protesting the vote count when Congress gathers on Jan. 6 to certify the Electoral College results.

“If anyone didn’t know it before, we know it now. What beats deep in the hearts of the American people is this — democracy,” Biden will say. “The right to be heard. To have your vote counted. To choose the leaders of this nation. To govern ourselves. In America, politicians don’t take power — the people grant it to them. The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know that nothing — not even a pandemic, or an abuse of power — can extinguish that flame.”