Elections in the United States: Donald Trump addressed a press conference from the White House.
New Delhi:
US President Donald Trump falsely declared victory over Democratic rival Joe Biden early Wednesday with millions of votes still to be counted in a close race for the White House. Shortly after Biden said he was confident of his victory and warned that the count “could take a while,” Trump appeared at the White House to claim victory and said he would go to the Supreme Court. Americans braced for a prolonged period of uncertainty with the results still expected from key states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.
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“We were preparing to win this election. Frankly, we won this election,” Trump said at an extraordinary press conference from the White House at 2.30 am.
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“This is a huge fraud in our nation. We want the law to be used properly. So we will go to the Supreme Court of the United States. We want the voting to stop,” said the president, who monitored the election results with members of his family in the living room of the White House residence.
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Biden’s campaign soon fought back, calling the president’s offer to stop counting votes “outrageous” and “unprecedented,” and saying his legal teams were ready to fight him in court.
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“The counting will not stop. It will continue until every duly cast vote is counted,” Biden’s campaign said.
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Polls have closed and voting has stopped across the country, but election laws in U.S. states require all votes to be counted, and many states typically take days to finish counting legal ballots. More votes could be counted this year than in the past as people voted early by mail and in person due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Trump won the battlefields of Florida, Ohio and Texas, erasing Biden’s hopes of a decisive early victory. Biden won Arizona and Wisconsin and his hopes are pinned on the so-called states of Michigan and Pennsylvania that sent Trump to the White House in 2016.
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Trump was ahead in all three states in partial counts, and Democratic mail ballots have yet to be counted. Winning those three states would be enough to give Biden an Electoral College victory.
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“We believe we are on our way to winning this election,” Biden said in a speech in his Delaware hometown earlier.
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Biden leads 227 to 213 over Trump in the fight for 270 votes in the Electoral College.
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In tweets, Trump had accused Democrats of “stealing the election” without offering evidence. Biden had said in his speech shortly after: “It is not my place or Donald Trump’s to declare the winner of this election. It is the place of the voters.”
(With contributions from Reuters and AFP)
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