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Trump’s defiant statement closed an election night marked by uncertainty, with the recount still underway in at least five key states and with neither candidate reaching the minimum of 270 delegates who give the keys to the White House.
“We will go to the Supreme Court. We want the entire voting process to stop,” Trump announced around 2:30 am on Wednesday (6:30 GMT) from the party organized at the White House for about 150 guests.
Trump proclaimed that he had already “won the elections”, something false since the situation is very tight in several states. In addition, he asserted that a “fraud against the American people” had been committed without providing evidence that legal voting procedures were being interfered with.
The president also did not clarify how this fraud had materialized, apart from stating that the opposition was “trying to take away the right to vote” from its supporters, something of which there is no evidence either.
Pending results
His remarks came after key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin warned they would need more hours, and even days, to count all the votes, due in part to increased mail-in suffrage in the wake of the pandemic.
When Trump spoke, the results in two other key states, Georgia and North Carolina, were also unclear, and his words confirmed the fears of many Americans that the president would accept a recount that would extend beyond election night, as it has been weeks. warning.
For months now, he has sown distrust in voting by mail – despite the fact that there is no evidence that it can lead to widespread fraud – and last Sunday he announced that he planned to initiate litigation in the key state of Pennsylvania if it was tight.
The Trump campaign has questioned the procedures established in Pennsylvania, where votes by mail received within three days after this Tuesday will be valid, provided that the postmark confirms that they were sent within the legal term.
“For me, this is a very sad moment, and we will win this. As far as I’m concerned, we have already won,” Trump said Wednesday, shortly before giving the floor to his vice president, Mike Pence, who contradicted him by commenting that he hoped that once the count was completed, the results would give them victory.
Biden expresses optimism
Trump’s speech contrasted with that given two hours earlier by his Democratic rival, who appeared briefly alongside his wife, Jill, to ask his followers to “keep the faith” and wait patiently for the results.
“As I have said many times, it is not my responsibility or Donald Trump’s to declare who won this election, that is up to the Americans, but I am optimistic about the result,” said Biden from Wilmington (Delaware), where he resides.
The Democratic Party is confident that, when the recount ends, Biden will have around 290 electoral votes, twenty more than necessary to proclaim himself president of the United States.
However, the feeling left by Wilmington’s Chase Center, which had been preparing all day to host the possible victory celebration party in a parking lot, had a bitter aftertaste.
After less than ten minutes of Biden’s speech, everyone drove home after hours of waiting in their vehicles and maintaining social distance.
None reaches 270
In the absence of results or projections from the media in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Alaska, Biden has at least 236 delegates in the Electoral College, compared to the 213 that Trump has accumulated, in his goal common to reach 270 that give victory.
According to media projections, Biden will be the first Democrat to win Arizona in a White House election since 1996, while Trump made clear his dominance in the key delegate-rich state of Florida, prompted in part by the vote of many Americans. of Cuban and Venezuelan origin.
As four years ago, the route to the White House of any of them will necessarily pass through the key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which in 2016 propelled Trump to power by a narrow margin of just 70,000 votes in total.
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