The pandemic also caused an unprecedented spike in
mail-in voting, which did not require voters to appear in person at polling stations.[7][8] As a result, while media organizations have been largely able to predict the results of U.S. presidential races on
election night in recent decades, several
battleground states remained too close to call on November 3, 2020.[9][10] In particular, a
Pennsylvania law precluding the process for counting mail-in ballots until polls closed caused a marked delay in the state's tabulations.[11] As counting progressed, then-President
Donald Trump falsely claimed he had prevailed in Pennsylvania. On the morning of November 7, the
Associated Press and other major media organizations determined that Biden's lead in Pennsylvania was sufficient to declare him the winner of the state and thus that he had accumulated enough votes in the
Electoral College to become
president-elect.[12][13]
Video
At 12:23 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time on November 7, after news organizations began calling the election, Harris tweeted a 16-second video in which she stands in a grassy field wearing
athletic clothes and sunglasses, holding a cell phone in her right hand and wired
ear buds in her left. Harris tells the person on the phone, reportedly Biden, "We did it. We did it, Joe! You're going to be the next president of the United States," then laughs.[1][14][15][16] A black
Chevrolet Suburban crosses the frame in the first few seconds of the video, and a person in a black suit is seen in the upper right portion of the frame.
Harris's husband
Doug Emhoff said that he filmed the video after the two received the news of the election result while they were out
jogging.[17][18] Twenty minutes before Harris posted the video, Emhoff tweeted a picture of the couple hugging in a grassy area.[19] The event reportedly took place near the Biden campaign's headquarters in
Wilmington, Delaware.[20]
Reception
By the afternoon of November 7, the video had been liked on X, then Twitter, more than 800,000 times.[21] It would later amass 2.9 million likes, making it the 16th-most liked post on X ever as of July 2024.
In the days after the video was posted, creators on
TikTok spoofed it using the original audio or their own renditions, exaggerating Harris's lilting tone and the lack of enunciation in her third sentence.[22] By
Thanksgiving later that month, users posted videos in which they recited the "We did it, Joe!" video in place of
saying grace at family gatherings.[23]
The phrase "We did it, Joe!" became adopted by
White House personnel, including Harris and Emhoff, as a form of celebration.[18] In June 2023, the actor
Keke Palmer delivered an impression of the "We did it, Joe!" phrase onstage with Harris at an event in
New Orleans.[24][25]
In February 2022,
Kanye West released the song "
Louis Bags", which samples the "We did it, Joe!" video in its introduction.[26]
References
^
abHarris, Kamala [@KamalaHarris] (November 7, 2020).
"We did it, @JoeBiden" (Tweet). Retrieved July 6, 2024 – via Twitter.
^Becket, Stefan; Quinn, Melissa; Segers, Grace; McNamara, Audrey; Watson, Kathryn; Baldwin, Sarah Lynch; Freiman, Jordan (2020-11-08).
"Biden wins White House after taking Pennsylvania". CBS News. Retrieved 2024-07-06.