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In a short speech to the American people, which he hoped would be a victory speech before the vote count was prolonged, the Democratic candidate expressed confidence that his victory over President Donald Trump would soon be declared. He called for calm and patience at a time of intense national tensions, as Trump warns that he will dispute the election result if he does not win. And he painted a picture of a nascent administration already preparing to deal with the pandemic and help jump-start the economy on his first day in office.
“The numbers tell us a clear and compelling story. We are going to win this race,” Biden said.
The former vice president spent the day widening his tracks in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada and withholding the president’s challenge in Arizona, as he continued the vote count and got closer and closer to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
In the latest batch of results from the Keystone estate, Biden widened his lead over Trump, which is now 28,833, meaning the president’s already slim hopes of catching up are rapidly diminishing. Trump cannot win a second term without Pennsylvania, and if Biden captures his 20 electoral votes, he cannot be stopped.
The former vice president is also expanding his leads in Nevada and Georgia, although each state remains too close to call. He leads Trump by more than 22,000 votes in Nevada and is ahead of more than 4,000 in Georgia. Counting will be complicated in Pennsylvania by tens of thousands of provisional ballots and many others that require additional care for reasons including damage, readability, signature issues, or other defects.
The president cannot reach 270 electoral votes without winning both Pennsylvania and Georgia, and at least one of the other prominent states. Biden can get over the top by winning Pennsylvania alone or taking Nevada and Arizona. The challenger currently leads the president by 253 to 213 electoral votes, CNN projects.
Trump is slashing the Democrat’s lead in Arizona, which has fallen to less than 30,000 votes with 94% reported, but it is unclear if his margins are wide enough to overtake his rival with 235,000 votes yet to be counted.
Biden’s late-night appearance in Wilmington, Delaware stands in contrast to Trump’s grievance-filled speech the night before, in which he made false claims that the election is being stolen and vowed to keep fighting in court. Calling for a mandate to ease the nation’s angry divisions, the former vice president promised that life in the United States under the Biden administration would be less distressed and bitter, and on the worst day yet for Covid-19 infections, more than 125,000. he offered his condolences to those who have lost loved ones.
“We have to remember: the purpose of our policy is not an all-out, relentless and endless war. No. The purpose of our policy, the nation’s job, is not to fan the flames of conflict, but to solve problems,” Biden said. “To guarantee justice. To give everyone a fair chance. To improve the lives of our people.”
Trump has not appeared in public after his press conference full of complaints and lies at the White House on Thursday, and when a battle of wills began to emerge between the president and Biden’s side over the end of the election. Trump said in a tweet that Biden should not “unfairly claim” the office of president and promised legal proceedings to try to hold onto his post. But so far, the Trump campaign has offered conspiracy theories and indictments, but little concrete evidence to back up its claims of election corruption.
Biden takes the lead in traditionally Republican Georgia
The former vice president’s surprising strength in Georgia was due to large black voter turnout in Fulton County and other Atlanta suburbs, fatigue with Trump in Georgia’s fast-growing suburbs, which have become increasingly young and diverse. in recent years, and a regular job. for more than a decade to boost Democratic registration in the state.
“Right now, Georgia remains too close to call. Out of approximately 5 million votes cast, we will have a margin of a few thousand,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said at a news conference on Friday, adding , “With a margin that small, there will be a count in Georgia.”
There is no automatic recount in Georgia, but a candidate can request a recount after the votes are certified if the results are within 0.5%.
Trump’s campaign attorney general Matt Morgan said in a statement earlier Friday: “Georgia is heading for a recount, where we are confident we will find improperly collected ballots and where President Trump will ultimately prevail.”
No Democratic presidential candidate has won the state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Clinton narrowly defeated former President George HW Bush in that state, in part because he and Bush were in a three-way race that included Ross Perot, a candidate. independent to the presidency.
Trump refuses to back down
As the drama unfolded across the country, the president’s allies launched legal challenges and raised conspiracy theories as Trump tweeted “Stop the count!”
On Thursday night, Trump did indeed send a signal that he has no intention of leaving power without a fight if he ends up losing the election. The White House meeting room speech, in which Trump falsely claimed that votes cast before and during the election, but counted after Election Day, are illegal votes, could end up being one of the most presidential statements. dangerous in America. history.
The president also made ridiculous claims that his leads on Election Night were lowered because Democratic officials keep finding ballots, when in reality the counts have been lowered because election officials in many states counted vote-by-mail ballots, which is why. which favored the Democrats, after Election Day. votes, which tended to favor Republicans.
Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney tweeted Friday that Trump’s comments on a rigged election “hurt the cause of freedom here and around the world,” going further than the rest of the Senate Republican conference, where some of Major Republicans have continued to defend Trump’s unfounded claims. electoral fraud.
As the president spoke Thursday night, the daily count of new coronavirus infections in the US hit 114,876, the worst daily count in history, summarizing how Trump’s political obsessions have fueled his neglect of a crisis. which has killed more than 236,000 Americans.
Road to 270
It has long been known that Biden would benefit from a late spike in vote-by-mail that was preferred by Democrats amid the pandemic. The president spent months on the campaign trail, falsely criticizing mail ballots as prone to fraud, one of the reasons Republican voters have been shown to be far less likely to use them.
Trump cannot find a route to 270 electoral votes without Georgia and Pennsylvania, so his chances of securing re-election will depend on developments in those two states in the coming days.
In Arizona, several Maricopa County voting tranches, which includes Phoenix, cut Biden’s lead to just under 40,000 votes, and Trump’s team insisted that the president will ultimately prevail and keep their hopes of reaching 270 alive. .
If Biden has the upper hand in Arizona and Nevada, he will get 270 electoral votes and become the next president, regardless of what happens in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
CNN projects that Biden will win at least three of Maine’s four electoral votes, plus Wisconsin, Michigan, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Virginia, California, Oregon, Washington State, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Colorado, Connecticut , New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Delaware, Washington, DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, and one of Nebraska’s five electoral votes. Nebraska and Maine award two electoral votes to their state winners and divide their other electoral votes by electoral districts.
CNN projects Trump to win Montana, Texas, Iowa, Idaho, Ohio, Mississippi, Wyoming, Missouri, Kansas, Utah, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, Indiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Virginia West, Florida and Tennessee and four of Nebraska’s five electoral votes.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
