Vice President Kamala Harris concedes as former President Donald Trump wins the White House, and Special Counsel Jack Smith prepares to wind down two federal cases against Trump.

Trump wins the 2024 presidential election, completing historic comeback

Taking the stage to concede the election, Vice President Kamala Harris told supporters in Washington on Wednesday that she would "never give up" on the main points of her campaign -- including expanding reproductive rights, combatting gun violence the fight for democracy and the rule of law.

"My heart is full today," Harris said at her alma mater, Howard University. "The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for, but hear me when I say, hear me when I say, the light of America’s promise will always burn bright. As long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting."

She told the crowd that she congratulated President-elect Donald Trump and emphasized her commitment to a peaceful transfer of power."

“We must accept the results of this election," she said. "Earlier today, I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory. We will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.”

Former President Donald Trump has clinched enough electoral votes to win the White House, The Associated Press declared on Wednesday, making him the first U.S. president to win a non-consecutive term since Grover Cleveland in 1892, the oldest person ever elected president and the first person convicted of a felony to win the office.

Battleground Wisconsin, one of the three "blue wall" states that previously reliably voted for Democrats, put Trump over the top early Wednesday morning with its 10 electoral votes.

Running on a campaign largely fueled by criticism of the Biden administration’s immigration and economic policies — as well as personal grievances and vows of revenge against his political foes in the wake of his multiple criminal indictments — the 45th president, and soon-to-be 47th, overcame a challenge from Vice President Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee this summer.

After Pennsylvania, the largest battleground state in the country, put him on the cusp of clinching the 270 electoral votes needed to win back the White House, Trump declared victory.

“There’s never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond,” Trump, addressing a jovial crowd of supporters at his election night party in Florida, said of his political movement. “And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance, because we’re going to help our country heal."

“We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly,” he added. “We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country. We made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that.”

Trump's victory completes an improbable comeback after his loss to Biden in 2020 and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when his supporters stormed the building to try to disrupt the certification of the Democrat's win. In the four years after his electoral loss, Trump was charged with dozens of felonies across four separate criminal proceedings -- and was found guilty on 34 of them, with a sentencing hearing expected at the end of the month -- in addition to other legal woes, such as being found liable of sexual abuse and defamation to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in civil penalties.

Trump's win caps an election unlike any other, which saw two unsuccessful assassination attempts against the former president, as well as an unprecedented swap of which Democrat the Republican would be facing on Election Day. 

In his speech early Wednesday, Trump urged all Americans to “unite” behind his presidency and called to heal divisions — a curious proposition from a candidate who espoused personal grievances and made vows of revenge against his political foes on the campaign trail.

Special counsel evaluating how to wind down two federal cases against Trump after presidential win

Special counsel Jack Smith is evaluating how to wind down the two federal cases against Donald Trump before he takes office in light of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

Smith charged Trump last year with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. But Trump's election defeat of Kamala Harris means that the Justice Department believes he can no longer face prosecution in accordance with decades-old department legal opinions meant to shield presidents from criminal charges while in office.

The person familiar with Smith's plans was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.

By moving to end the cases before the inauguration in January, Smith and the Justice Department would avert a potential showdown with Trump. The president-elect said as recently as last month that he would fire Smith, who was appointed in November 2022 by Attorney General Merrick Garland, "within two seconds" of taking office.

NBC News first reported Smith's plans.

Smith's two cases charge Trump in a conspiracy to undo the election results in the run-up to the Capitol riot, and with retaining top secret records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and obstructing FBI efforts to recover them.

The classified documents case has been stalled since July when a Trump-appointed judge, Aileen Cannon, dismissed it on grounds that Smith was illegally appointed. Smith has appealed to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the request is pending.

In the 2020 election interference case, Trump was scheduled to stand trial in March in Washington, where more than 1,000 of his supporters have been convicted of charges for their roles in the Capitol riot. But the case was halted as Trump pursued his sweeping claims of immunity from prosecution that ultimately landed before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump could be emboldened by the Supreme Court's ruling in July, which granted former presidents expansive immunity from prosecution for acts taken in the White House and explicitly put off-limits any alleged conduct involving Trump's discussions with the Justice Department. That included his efforts use the Justice Department to conduct sham election fraud investigations as part of his bid to stay in power.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine which of the other allegations in the indictment, if any, could move forward to trial.

In response, Smith's team last month filed a 165-page brief laying out new evidence to persuade the judge that the actions alleged in the indictment were taken in Trump's private capacity as a candidate — not as commander-in-chief — and therefore can remain part of the case. Trump's lawyers are scheduled to file their response later this month. Whatever Chutkan rules is expected to be appealed again to the Supreme Court, meaning a possible trial would be likely a year or more away.