In the moments after Joe Biden was declared president-elect, thousands of revelers took to the streets in cities across the country, blasting car horns, screaming and singing.
In Washington DC, hundreds of jubilant Biden supporters began to gather at the Black Lives Matter Plaza outside the White House as vehicles honked their horns and revelers sprayed each with Champagne.
One group of revelers carried a huge blow-up doll in the image of President Trump singing “Hey, hey, hey goodbye.”
One man carried a sign which read “Trump Over.”
In Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold in the state that clinched the electoral college votes that proved decisive to Biden’s victory Saturday celebrations erupted throughout the city even as Trump supporters carrying blue signs tried in vain to drown out the cheers of Biden revelers.
In Atlanta, activists who had gathered for a Count Every Vote Rally in Freedom Park, erupted in cheers when they heard that Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris were victorious.
Although Georgia is too close to call, Biden expanded his lead by 7,200 votes after gaining 2,800 absentee and provisional votes in Fulton County, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
At the city’s State Capitol more than 200 people gathered to rally for Trump, with some waving a giant white banner with “Stop the Steal” in large block letters. Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene addressed the pro-Trump crowd, saying “I’m fighting hard for President Trump. I’m fighting hard for every vote in Georgia.” Taylor-Greene demanded an audit of the state’s new voting machines.
In Chicago, hundreds gathered outside the Trump Tower, clapping and cheering, while Biden supporters in Los Angeles banged pots, honked car horns and set off fireworks as results hit in the early morning on the west coast. Dozens uploaded early morning videos in which honking car horns and a cacophony of jubilant shouting could be heard echoing in hillside neighborhoods in Los Anges.
As the news spread, many in California took to the streets to celebrate one of their own — Oakland-bred Harris, who will make history as the first woman and the first woman of color to be elected a vice president.
“This was truly the victory America needed to be the America we know we can be,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement. He said it was “both fitting and phenomenal” that the first woman to become vice president is Harris, a senator from California and the former state attorney general.
In Biden’s home town of Scranton, Pa, dozens gathered outside his old home on a tree-lined street to take selfies and honk car horns.
“It’s an affirmative, uplifting story for a lot of Americans but I think in a very special way for people in northeast Pennsylvania and Scranton, said US Sen. Bob Casey in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer.
