The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Stand up for the facts! Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now # Fact-checking Joe Biden’s speech after Electoral College vote * National * Elections ![\\"President- elect](\\" President-elect Joe Biden speaks after the Electoral College formally elected him as president on Dec. 14, 2020, at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del. (AP/Semansky) ![\\"Bill](\\" By Bill McCarthy December 15, 2020 #### If Your Time is short * President-elect Joe Biden blasted President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election in a roughly 13-minute address. * The speech came shortly after electors across the country officially cast 306 electoral votes in Biden’s favor, sealing his victory in a vote that is typically procedural but took on added importance as Trump refused to concede. * Biden’s claims about the election and Trump’s challenges to it were mostly accurate. President-elect Joe Biden called for unity and healing while assailing President Donald Trump’s unprecedented attempts to overturn the results of the election in a Dec. 14 speech. Biden delivered the address from Wilmington, Del., on the day electors from across the country cast their votes to seal Biden’s victory. It was a harsh rebuke of Trump, who refuses to concede defeat, and of the Republicans who have adopted Trump’s baseless claims of fraud. \"In America, politicians don’t take power,\" Biden said. \"People grant power to them. The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know nothing — not even a pandemic or an abuse of power — can extinguish that flame.\" Biden called Trump’s attacks on the election and local officials \"unconscionable.\" He urged Americans to \"turn the page\" and, with a nod to the more than 300,000 Americans who have died to COVID-19, pledged to focus on controlling the pandemic and repairing the economy. \"We need to stand in solidarity as fellow Americans, to see each other, our pain, our struggles, our hopes, and our dreams,\" Biden said. \"We’re a great nation. We’re good people.\" The claims Biden made about the election and the president’s weeks-long campaign to upend the results were largely accurate, PolitiFact found. Here are some that stuck out. The Biden transition team did not respond to a request for comment. > \"They voted in record numbers. More Americans voted this year than have > ever voted in the history of the United States of America.\" This is accurate when comparing total vote counts. More than 157 million people cast ballots in 2020, the most ever. Nationwide, Biden received 81 million votes to Trump’s 74 million. That translated to an Electoral College win of 306 to 232, a margin the electors made official Dec. 14. In terms of sheer ballots, 2020 eclipsed 2008’s record, when nearly 131.5 million people voted. According to news reports, voter turnout increased in every state over 2016. But turnout as a share of the voting population has been higher, albeit under different circumstances. The Washington Post reported that the roughly 66% of voting-eligible Americans who voted in 2020 is the highest percentage since 1900, when the pool of voters was much smaller. Nearly 74% of eligible Americans voted in that year, but women and other groups had not been granted the right to vote. And the voting age was 21 until 1971. > \"306 electoral votes is the same number of electoral votes that Donald > Trump and Vice President (Mike) Pence received when they won in 2016. At the > time, President Trump called his Electoral College tally a landslide.\" This is largely accurate. Trump, like Biden, earned 306 electoral votes when he defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. He called it a \"landslide\" in a claim we rated False. But technically, Trump received fewer than the 306 electoral votes he earned on Election Day. When it came to the Electoral College votes, two electors pledged to Trump didn’t vote for him. These \"faithless electors\" meant Trump officially received 304 electoral votes. There were no faithless electors in 2020, according to reports. > \"They were heard by more than 80 judges across this country. And in every > case, no cause or evidence was found to reverse or question or dispute the > results.\" Biden’s figure is accurate. The Washington Post reviewed court documents and reported that 86 judges rejected at least one post-election lawsuit filed by Trump or his supporters. The judges served on the bench at many different levels, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Biden is also correct that Trump’s litigation has uncovered no evidence to change the results of the election. As PolitiFact reported, dozens of lawsuits failed because they did not prove the widespread voter fraud they alleged, made errors or faced jurisdictional problems. \"The only decision in the campaign’s favor was in Pennsylvania about a three- day extension of a deadline for mail-in voters who had not provided a proper ID with their timely-submitted ballots to cure the defect,\" said Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas. That case wasn’t about fraud, and it involved a small number of ballots that didn’t change the outcome. > \"A few states went for recounts. All the counts were confirmed. The results > in Georgia were counted three times. It didn’t change the outcome. The > recount conducted in Wisconsin actually saw our margin grow.\" This is accurate. Georgia conducted three counts — including the original, an audit-triggered hand recount and a formal recount requested by the Trump campaign. Each count saw Biden receive more votes than Trump and resulted in Biden winning the state. In Wisconsin, a state Biden won by a larger margin, Biden picked up an additional 74 votes following a partial recount in two counties, PolitiFact reported. Election results have been certified in Washington, D.C., and all 50 states, including the key battlegrounds that helped tilt the election in Biden’s favor and became targets of litigation. > The Texas lawsuit was \"a position so extreme, we’ve never seen it before.\" Legal experts agreed with Biden’s assessment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit, which asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the election results in four states that Biden won. The challenge, which was filed directly in the Supreme Court and received public backing from 17 Republican attorneys general and a majority of Republican House members, would have disenfranchised millions of legal voters had it not been rejected for lack of standing. \"I do think the Texas case was extreme,\" said Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California, Irvine. \"It was both legally extreme — there’s no basis in the Constitution for one state to challenge how another state’s legislature decides on procedures for choosing presidential electors — and factually extreme, raising debunked or ridiculously weak claims of election fraud and irregularities to try to justify flipping the election from Biden to Trump. It was outrageous and antidemocratic.\" \"Nothing I can think of comes close\" in terms of precedent, Hasen said. Vladeck agreed that the lawsuit was unprecedented. \"There had never before been a suit filed in the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in which one state contested how multiple other states conducted their elections,\" Vladeck said. > \"His own cybersecurity chief overseeing this election said it was the most > secure in American history.\" This is accurate. Christopher Krebs, the cybersecurity expert in question, was fired after his agency released a statement saying the election was \"the most secure in American history.\" Trump wrongly claimed that the agency’s statement was inaccurate when he fired Krebs. But PolitiFact found that it was grounded in evidence and rated Trump’s claim Pants on Fire. Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter ### Our Sources NBC News on YouTube, \"President-Elect Biden Speaks After Electoral College Vote | NBC News NOW,\" Dec. 14, 2020 U.S. Election Atlas, \"United States Presidential Election Results,\" accessed Dec. 15, 2020 National Archives, \"2016 Electoral College Results,\" accessed Dec. 15, 2020 United States Elections Project, \"National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present,\" accessed Dec. 15, 2020 The Washington Post, \"2020 turnout is the highest in over a century,\" Dec. 15, 2020 Politico, \"Electoral College affirms Biden\'s victory,\" Dec. 14, 2020 The Washington Post, \"‘The last wall’: How dozens of judges across the political spectrum rejected Trump’s efforts to overturn the election,\" Dec. 12, 2020 The New York Times, \"Supreme Court Rejects Texas Suit Seeking to Subvert Election,\" Dec. 11, 2020 CNN, \"All 50 states and DC have now certified their presidential election results,\" Dec. 9, 2020 The New York Times, \"Biden Secures Enough Electors to Be President,\" Dec. 9, 2020 Georgia Secretary of State, \"Secretary of State Certifies Election, Kraken Case Dismissed,\" Dec. 7, 2020 NBC News, \"Map: Turnout surged in 2020. See the numbers where you live,\" Dec. 2, 2020 PolitiFact, \"Donald Trump has lost dozens of election lawsuits. Here’s why,\" Dec. 10, 2020 PolitiFact, \"Casting and counting the electoral votes: What to expect,\" Dec. 10, 2020 PolitiFact, \"Recount finds Trump did not win Wisconsin, despite his victory claim,\" Dec. 9, 2020 PolitiFact, \"46 minutes of falsehoods: Trump rehashes baseless election claims in White House video,\" Dec. 3, 2020 PolitiFact, \"Fact-checking Donald Trump’s tweet firing Christopher Krebs,\" Nov. 18, 2020 PolitiFact, \"How narrow was Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump?\" Nov. 13, 2020 PolitiFact, \"The media have called the presidential race for Joe Biden. Here\'s what\'s next,\" Nov. 7, 2020 PolitiFact, \"Donald Trump\'s Electoral College victory was not a \'massive landslide,\'\" Dec. 12, 2016 Email interview with Stephen Vladeck, chair in federal courts at the University of Texas School of Law, Dec. 15, 2020 Email interview with Rick Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, Dec. 15, 2020 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Bill McCarthy slide 4 to 6 of 15 ![](\\" ![](\\" Greg Gutfeld stated on June 23, 2022 in a TV segment: No one “with a concealed carry permit ever committed a mass shooting.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • June 28, 2022 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on June 20, 2022 in an Instagram post: “Gas in Canada is $9.00 a gallon.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • June 22, 2022 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on June 20, 2022 in an Instagram post: A compilation of images shows what Joe Biden has “done to our country.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • June 21, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" TikTok posts stated on July 19, 2022 in a TikTok post: An image shows Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in front of a cross with a figurine of former President Donald Trump on it. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 21, 2022 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 19, 2022 in an Instagram post: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was “faking being arrested” during an abortion- rights protest outside the Supreme Court. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 20, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on July 15, 2022 in a Facebook post: \"Antifa was already inside the Capitol with floor plans dressed as Trump supporters\" on Jan. 6, 2021, proving the attack “was 100% a setup.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 19, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on July 12, 2022 in a viral image: An image shows an “all aboard the Trump train” truck crashed into a bridge. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 15, 2022 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 12, 2022 in Instagram posts: Actor Tom Holland is “confirmed to have died.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 14, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on July 11, 2022 in Facebook posts: Images from Hunter Biden’s laptop show Joe Biden naked with a young girl. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Bill McCarthy • July 13, 2022 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 10, 2022 in an Instagram post: Shinzo Abe was assassinated because he “didn’t mandate vaccines, sent 1.6 million doses back and gave citizens ivermectin.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 11, 2022 ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on July 7, 2022 in in tweets: An image shows that “following his resignation, Boris Johnson has escaped to the sea.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 8, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on June 30, 2022 in Facebook posts: President Donald Trump was in a presidential limousine as he left his Jan. 6, 2021, rally at the White House Ellipse. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 8, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on July 2, 2022 in a Facebook post: \"Fox offers Chris Wallace\'s Sunday spot to Candace Owens.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 7, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Marjorie Taylor Greene stated on July 5, 2022 in a tweet: Says an image shows the Highland Park shooting suspect \"in jail or rehab or a psychiatric center\" before the shooting. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 5, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on June 28, 2022 in a Facebook post: An image shows a “UFO photographed on June 21, 2014 by the pilot from the cockpit of an F-16 military plane flying near Lackland Air Force Base of the United States located in San Antonio, Texas.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • June 30, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Greg Gutfeld stated on June 23, 2022 in a TV segment: No one “with a concealed carry permit ever committed a mass shooting.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • June 28, 2022 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on June 20, 2022 in an Instagram post: “Gas in Canada is $9.00 a gallon.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • June 22, 2022 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on June 20, 2022 in an Instagram post: A compilation of images shows what Joe Biden has “done to our country.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • June 21, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" TikTok posts stated on July 19, 2022 in a TikTok post: An image shows Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in front of a cross with a figurine of former President Donald Trump on it. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 21, 2022 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 19, 2022 in an Instagram post: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was “faking being arrested” during an abortion- rights protest outside the Supreme Court. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 20, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on July 15, 2022 in a Facebook post: \"Antifa was already inside the Capitol with floor plans dressed as Trump supporters\" on Jan. 6, 2021, proving the attack “was 100% a setup.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Bill McCarthy • July 19, 2022 ### Fact-checking Joe Biden’s speech after Electoral College vote * ![](\\" ![](\\" Wisco Project stated on September 16, 2024 in Social media ads: “If you make less than $100,000, Trump is about to raise your taxes. Currently, you’re taxed at 10% and then 12%. He would raise that to a flat rate of 15%.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madeline Heim • September 20, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 13, 2024 in a post: Vice President Kamala Harris’ college professors disparaged her as their “worst student.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu • September 19, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 17, 2024 in a post: Photo shows Kamala Harris posing beside Sean “Diddy” Combs. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sara Swann • September 19, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 18, 2024 in Instagram posts: “BREAKING: Police found ‘explosives’ in car near former President Donald Trump’s rally site on Long Island.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • September 19, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Dave McCormick stated on September 13, 2024 in an X post: Charleroi, Pennsylvania, “has grown by 2,000% due to an influx in migrants.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Caleb McCullough • September 19, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 13, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook: \"El gran respaldo de Taylor Swift\" a Kamala Harris \"le cuesta $125 millones en acuerdos de marca\". ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Maria Briceño • September 19, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Threads posts stated on September 16, 2024 in an Instagram post: Taylor Swift “lost 17 million followers by endorsing Kamala.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 19, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Kari Lake stated on September 13, 2024 in a post on X: Rep. Ruben Gallego’s “first act in Congress was to propose legislation to BAN the use of the term ‘illegal alien.’” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Mia Osmonbekov • September 19, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Sherrod Brown stated on September 4, 2024 in a TV interview: Of Bernie Moreno, “Now, he’s arguing for a national abortion ban, no exceptions.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Caleb McCullough • September 19, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Jon Tester stated on September 6, 2024 in a Facebook ad: “Tim Sheehy told us his health care plan, ‘We need to return health care to pure privatization.’ That would eliminate Medicare.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 19, 2024 Load more #### Offices District of Columbia 1800 I Street NW Washington, DC 20006 Florida 801 3rd St. S St. Petersburg, FL 33701 727-821-9494 #### People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis #### State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin #### About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters #### RSS Feeds * Recent Articles and Fact-checks * Recent Fact-checks Suggest a Fact-check #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Copyright ©All Rights Reserved Poynter Institute 2020, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization ![\\"\\"](\\" ✕ * * *
306 electoral votes is the same number of electoral votes that Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence received when they won in 2016 At the time President Trump called his Electoral College tally a landslide