In national address, Biden touts 'a clear victory' after bitter election season

Joe Biden addressed the nation on Saturday night after multiple media outlets declared him the victor of the 2020 election, putting forth a message of unity after a bitterly divisive election season against the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump.

"I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify," Biden said during the address in Wilmington, Delaware, which he has called home for decades. 

"Once again, America has bent the arc of the moral universe more toward justice," he said of his victory, paraphrasing Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Promising to run an administration representative of the broad demographics of modern America, Biden implored the country: "Let's give each other a chance." He pronounced it "a time to heal in America" and asked citizens who disagree with one another to refrain from treating each other like enemies. 

The longtime Democratic politician was first elected to the Senate in 1973. He has lost two other presidential bids, one in 1988 and one in 2008; from the latter he would go on to serve as Barack Obama's vice president for two terms.