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Washington – (BBC):
US President Donald Trump accused Democrats, without providing evidence, of “cheating” in the vote to steal Tuesday’s US election that was still unsolved.
And his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, had previously asked voters to remain calm as the vote counting continued in five states.
The current elections are described as one of the fiercest presidential races in modern history.
What did Trump say?
“If you count the legal votes, I will win easily,” the president said, in his first public statement since his appearance early Wednesday morning.
He added: “If they count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the elections from us.”
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Trump and Biden
Beyond allegations of wrongdoing, the Trump campaign did not present any evidence of electoral fraud.
In a White House speech on Thursday, Trump said: “We had won all the important sites, many in fact, and then our numbers began to miraculously decline in secret and they did not allow legally authorized observers.”
Critics of Trump indicated that his progress was slowing because he actively urged his supporters not to vote by mail, while Biden urged his voters to use postal ballots, and it is these votes that are now counted in major states.
The president added: “There was a lot of manipulation and we cannot tolerate that in our country.”
What is the reaction?
Trump’s fellow Republicans, who in the past were voices opposed to the president, implicitly criticized his recent comments.
“The votes will be counted. If there are alleged irregularities, they will be investigated and ultimately resolved in court,” said Mitt Romney, a senator from Utah and a former presidential candidate in 2012.
He added: “We have confidence in our democracy, our constitution and the American people.”
“If you have legitimate concerns about fraud, present the evidence and take it to court. Stop spreading false information … It’s crazy,” said Adam Kinzinger, a congressman from Illinois, without naming the president.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a former critic of Trump, was the most outspoken of his criticisms.
“There is no defense of the president’s statements tonight that undermine our democratic process,” he wrote on Twitter.
However, David Purdue, the recently re-elected Georgia state senator, wrote on Twitter that “every legal vote counts once,” and then the president wins.
What did Biden say?
Earlier Thursday, Biden, speaking from his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, called for calm across the country.
The Democratic competitor once again expressed his confidence by announcing the winner of the elections, in a short interview broadcast on television.
“Democracy is complicated sometimes, so it also requires a little patience,” he said.
He added: “This patience was rewarded for more than 240 years with a regime that was the envy of the world.”
He added: “I asked everyone to remain calm, all people to remain calm. The process continues, and the count is complete, and we will find out very soon.”
With the results gradually emerging, protests were held over the counting of votes, in which both sides participated in the main cities.
What is the current state of the race?
Tuesday’s presidential elections came to a dramatic end in the states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina.
Biden was declared the winner in Michigan, and possibly Wisconsin, while the decisive vote that counted the minuscule differences kept the United States in a tense watch in the other five states.
Biden has garnered 253 votes in the electoral college so far, giving him a breakthrough in the race to obtain the 270 votes needed to win the White House under the US electoral system, while Trump garnered 214 votes.
A victory in Pennsylvania alone or in two of the four remaining states would be enough to secure Biden the presidency, barring any long-standing legal challenges.
Trump needs to win Pennsylvania and three of the four remaining states: Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.
A senior Trump administration official told BBC America partner CBS News that Trump had no intention of giving in if Biden finally declared victory.
The official, who was not identified, promised that the legal battle would continue, adding: “In free and fair elections, the president will win.”
Trump’s team has raised millions of dollars for a legal battle.
Meanwhile, Meade Mulvaney, the former White House chief of staff, predicted in a webinar organized by a think tank Thursday that Trump would run again for president “almost certainly” in four years if he lost to Biden.
What are the latest news on the vote count?
Election officials also asked for patience, as they dismissed Trump’s campaign allegations of voting irregularities.
The majority of the votes will be counted Friday, Penn Secretary of State Cathy Bukfar said at a news conference, but the race is still too hot to be announced.
He added Thursday: “It’s very close to Pennsylvania, right, no question, and that means it will take longer to find the winner.”
Trump led Pennsylvania with more than 50,000 votes, with 95 percent of the votes counted.
And in the state of Georgia, Trump leads with fewer than 3,500 votes, with 1 percent left to count.
Georgia Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling said he had seen no evidence of voter fraud, adding that election officials “were doing a very good job” under pressure.
In Arizona, Biden had a lead with fewer than 57,000 votes, or 88 percent of the vote.
CBS called this a “likely” victory for the Democratic nominee, and Trump supporters gathered Thursday in front of a vote-counting center in Maricopa County.
An election official said the results of more than 51,000 mailed ballots would be updated on Friday.
What legal measures did the president take?
The Republican president filed a series of lawsuits to challenge the vote count, alleging irregularities and a lack of transparency.
The president called for a recount in the state of Wisconsin, as is the right of any candidate with a difference of one percent from his opponent in the total vote.
Biden, however, leads with 20,000 votes in Wisconsin, and election analysts say previous state counts yielded differences of a few hundred votes.
On Thursday, the courts dismissed the Trump campaign lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia.
But the Trump campaign scored a legal victory in Pennsylvania when a state appeals court judge said Republican observers should be allowed to take a closer look at the voting process.
The president’s team also promised to file a lawsuit alleging voting irregularities in Nevada, without providing evidence.
“We believe there are voters killed in the counting process,” Adam Laxalt, a former Nevada attorney general and Trump campaign ally, said at a news conference in Las Vegas.
Biden’s attorney, Bob Bauer, said the lawsuits were “legally unfounded” and intended to “send misleading messages about what is happening in the electoral process.”
