Harris speaks to Americans at Howard University in Washington, D.C. after conceding election
President-elect Donald Trump concluded a long and tumultuous 2024 presidential election campaign as the victor. Vice President Kamala Harris did not address party-goers last night at her alma mater Howard University in Washington, D.C., following her loss.
President Biden spoke by phone with Vice President Harris. He congratulated the Vice President on her historic campaign.
President Biden also spoke by phone with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory.
President Biden expressed his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition and emphasized the importance of working to bring the country together. He also invited President-elect Trump to meet with him in the White House. The staff will coordinate a specific date in the near future.
Tomorrow, President Biden will address the nation to discuss the election results and the transition.
-- Fox News' Peter Doocy
Vice President Kamala Harris' abiding silence following President-elect Trump's victory suggests an inability to step up as a leader for her base, legal scholars say.
The Democratic nominee has not yet spoken to her supporters, nor encouraged them to accept the election results, since Trump was named the victor of the 2024 presidential race early Wednesday morning. Two sources confirmed to Fox that the Harris campaign was radio silent Wednesday morning and did not provide talking points to surrogates, donors or influencers.
The vice president is expected to deliver remarks at Howard University at 4 p.m. EST on Wednesday, where she will address Americans for the first time since losing the presidential race to Trump. However, analysts say she should not have waited until the afternoon after the election to address her base.
Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar and a Fox News contributor, said Trump's clear path to victory should have prompted her to concede sooner.
"The true test of leadership is to step forward when it is most needed. Half of this population is deeply aggrieved by this decision. Part of that angst and anxiety was fueled by the rage rhetoric and panic politics on the left, including the Harris campaign," Turley told Fox News Digital.
The Fox News Decision Desk projects that Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin will defeat former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, to succeed longtime Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.
Slotkin's challenger, Republican Mike Rogers, served as a Representative in Michigan's 8th Congressional district from 2001 through 2015.
Slotkin is projected to win with 99% of the vote reported with a narrow margin of 48.6% over Rogers' 48.3%.
She is a former CIA Middle East analyst and current Representative for Michigan's 7th Congressional district.
At least three Senate seats have been flipped thus far for the GOP in the 2024 elections.
Vice President Kamala Harris standing up her devastated Democratic supporters last night is drawing attention to a similar choice by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in November 2016.
Both Democrats would have become the country's first female president if they beat Trump.
In 2016, when the race was called for Trump, Clinton did not address her supporters until the following morning. Harris will speak to supporters Wednesday evening.
At the time, some critics blasted Clinton for not giving a consolation speech that same night at the Javits Center in New York. Clinton instead allowed her campaign manager, John Podesta, to briefly speak to supporters.
On the following day, Clinton urged her supporters to "accept this result, and then look to the future."
"Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead," she said.
Likewise, on Tuesday night, Harris supporters trickled out of the watch party at Howard University once they learned from a Harris spokesperson she would not be addressing the crowd. Users on social media quickly took note and critiqued the VP for not showing face after supporters waited hours for her to come out.
Harris-Walz campaign manager David Plouffe took to social media to thank staff and lament Vice President Kamala Harris' "devastating loss."
"It was a privilege to spend the last 100 days with @KamalaHarris and the amazing staff led by @jomalleydillon who left it all on the field for their country," Plouffe wrote on X. "We dug out of a deep hole but not enough. A devastating loss. Thanks for being in the arena, all of you."
In the wake of former President Donald Trump's historic win projected by the Fox News Decision Desk, several winners and losers of the 2024 election have become clear.
Here are those who came out on top on Election Day and those who didn't quite meet expectations.
Winners
Trump
Trump defied all expectations, even some of the more conservative-leaning estimates of the 2024 election.
By notable margins, Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in several key battleground states, being projected by the Fox News Decision Desk to win the election by amassing the necessary 270 electoral votes before a number of other top swing states had been called.
Republicans
Trump's top of the ticket projected victory was followed by significant victories for Republicans across the board.
Senate Republicans were projected by the Fox News Decision Desk to retake the majority in the Senate in 2025, racking up wins in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana, which were previously blue.
There are still multiple outstanding Senate races in swing states, giving the party hope for an even larger majority.
Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes is projected to survive her closely watched re-election bid by defeating her GOP challenger.
The Associated Press called the race for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District for Sykes over former Ohio state Sen. Kevin Coughlin on Wednesday just before 3 p.m. ET.
Sykes, a first-term Democrat who won in 2022 by five points, was defending her seat in a district that includes parts of two counties that former President Trump comfortably won in 2020.
"This is as 50/50 of a district as it comes," Sykes said. "It has been rated as such all across the country and there are all eyes on Ohio’s 13th Congressional District."
Sykes comes from a well-established political family in Akron. Both her parents served as state lawmakers and her father, Vernon Sykes, currently serves as a state senator in Ohio.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Normal Torres, is projected to win reelection the U.S. House, according to a call by the Associated Press.
Torres defeated Republican challenger Mike Cargile in the race for California's 35th Congressional District.
Torres has served in Congress since 2015 and previously served in the California State House an Assembly from 2008-2014.
The call comes as the balance of power in the House of Representatives is still up for grabs, with the Fox News Decision Desk projecting that Republicans currently have a lead in the race to maintain their majority, though the Decision Desk has yet to call the race for the GOP.
The Justice Department is looking to wind down two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump as he prepares to be sworn in to a second term in the White House— a decision that upholds longstanding policy that prevents Justice Department attorneys from prosecuting a sitting president.
In making this argument, Justice Department officials cited a memo from the Office of Legal Counsel filed in 2000, which upholds a Watergate-era argument that asserts it is a violation of the separation of powers doctrine for the Justice Department to investigate a sitting president. It further notes that such proceedings would "unduly interfere in a direct or formal sense with the conduct of the Presidency."
"In light of the effect that an indictment would have on the operations of the executive branch, ‘an impeachment proceeding is the only appropriate way to deal with a President while in office,’" the memo said in conclusion.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr also backed this contention Wednesday in an interview with Fox News Digital, noting that after Trump takes office in January, prosecutors will be unable to continue the cases during his term.
Ahead of Harris' concession speech, Harris and Trump spoke on the phone earlier today, former President Trump's campaign confirmed.
“President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone earlier today where she congratulated him on his historic victory," Steven Cheung, Trump Campaign Communications Director said in a statement to Fox News.
"President Trump acknowledged Vice President Harris on her strength, professionalism, and tenacity throughout the campaign, and both leaders agreed on the importance of unifying the country," Cheung said.
Democrats are growing increasingly concerned that they will narrowly lose the House of Representatives after Republican victories in the Senate and White House.
The balance of power in the House is expected to run razor-thin no matter who wins, but sources who spoke with Fox News Digital are worried that the Democrats' path is narrowing."We're almost certainly going to lose the House by a narrow margin," a senior House Democratic aide told Fox News Digital. "We got our a--es kicked."
The House aide found optimism, however, in Republicans' comparatively decisive victories in the upper chamber and presidential race.
"If you told me [President-elect Trump] won the popular vote, dominated the electoral college, and they could end up with 56 seats in the Senate, this House map is really not too bad," they said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his election victory but vowed the state would also be ready to fight against his administration.
"If possible, we will work with his administration. But we will not compromise our values or our integrity or our principles. We did not expect this result, but we are prepared to respond to this result," James said. as a press conference on Wednesday. "And my office has been preparing for several months because we've been here before. We faced this challenge before, and we use the rule of law to fight back. And we are prepared to fight back once again because as the Attorney general of this great state is my job to protect and defend the rights of New Yorkers and the rule of law. And I will not shrink from that responsibility."
The Fox News Decision Desk projects that Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., managed to survive a tough re-election battle, defeating her Republican opponent in the swing state. She overcame challenger Eric Hovde, a Republican businessman who sought to unseat her. He was notably endorsed by former President Trump. Baldwin will now serve a third term in the upper chamber after first being elected in 2012.
The race in Wisconsin was considered particularly competitive given the expectation that the state would also be decisive in the presidential election. With the steep decline in split-ticket voting, a Senate candidate would have a much greater chance at winning if the presidential candidate also took the state.
The Fox News Power Rankings rated Wisconsin as a toss up in the presidential election as of mid-October. In late September, the Senate race was rated "Leans Democrat."
Top political handicapper, the Cook Political Report, had similarly long held that the Wisconsin Senate race was in the "Lean Democrat" category, but last month shifted its rating to a "Toss up," citing a closing polling gap between the candidates.
A smiling Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., congratulated both President-elect Trump for his projected win and his fellow Senate Republicans for being projected to retake the majority in the new Congress.
He told reporters on Wednesday, it is "certainly a happy day for the GOP."
McConnell addressed the significance of the projected Trump win, remarking, "What he's accomplished has not been done, as all of you know, since Grover Cleveland, which was a while back."
Former President Grover Cleveland was notably the only president to serve non-consecutive terms.
"I also want to commend the Trump campaign for running a sharper operation this time," he added.
Harris campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon sent a letter to all campaign staff on Wednesday, Fox News Digital has learned. The email stated:
"Just a few moments ago, the Vice President connected with President Trump to concede the race. In the call, she told him that she would work with President Biden to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, unlike what we saw in 2020. She also made clear that she hopes he will be a President for all Americans.
I don’t have words to express the gratitude I have for everyone getting this email. You left everything on the field. You built a first-rate, historic Presidential campaign in basically 90 days. You navigated things that no one has ever had to navigate, and likely no one will ever have to again.
You stared down unprecedented headwinds and obstacles that were largely out of our control. We knew this would be a margin of error race, and it was. And, your work mattered: the whole country moved to the right, but compared to the rest of the country, the battleground states saw the least amount of movement in his direction. It was closest in the places we competed. That speaks to both the work you did, and the scale of the challenge we ultimately couldn’t surmount.The Vice President will speak to the nation later today at Howard University.
Immediately following the Vice President’s speech, she and Governor Walz will host an all staff call to speak directly to you about what we accomplished in this short run and the road ahead for all of us.
We hope you’ll join us and we’ll have a calendar invite shortly. I’ll leave you with this: losing is unfathomably painful. It is hard. This will take a long time to process. But the work of protecting America from the impacts of a Trump Presidency starts now.
I know the Vice President isn’t finished in this fight, and I know the very people on this email are also going to be leaders in this collective mission. View this as the beginning, not the end. It will be hard work. But as the boss says: hard work is good work. And I look forward to standing beside you."
A senior aide for Kamala Harris tells Fox News that the vice president has called President-Elect Trump Wednesday to congratulate him on winning the 2024 race.
During the call, Harris discussed the importance of peaceful transfer of power and serving as a president who represents all Americans, the aide said.
Harris is expected to make public comments later this afternoon during a speech at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Fox News' Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report.
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