[ad_1]
(Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s campaign on Wednesday took another step in its legal strategy to reverse its electoral defeat in the United States by filing a lawsuit in Michigan, while Georgia announced a recount and President-elect Joe Biden focused on sitting down. the bases of his new administration.
The Republican president’s team went to federal court to try to stop Michigan, a Midwestern battleground state that won in 2016, from certifying the results of the Nov.3 election. Trump fell behind by roughly 148,000 votes, or 2.6 percentage points, in Michigan’s unofficial vote totals.
Biden has a slimmer lead of just over 14,000 votes, or 0.3 points, in Georgia, a southern state that hasn’t been run by Democrats since 1992.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced a manual count of all ballots cast there, which he said was expected to begin this week and would be completed in time to certify results before the Nov.20 deadline.
“It will certainly take all the time we have left. It’s a huge boost,” Raffensperger said at a news conference.
Trump has refused to grant Biden the election, instead filing a series of lawsuits in key states to try to back up his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. The Michigan lawsuit also made allegations of voting misconduct, with the focus on the Democratic stronghold of Wayne County, which includes Detroit.
Jake Rollow, a spokesman for the Michigan State Department, said the Trump campaign was promoting false claims to erode public confidence in the Michigan election.
“It doesn’t change the truth: Michigan’s elections were conducted fairly, safely, and transparently, and the results are an accurate reflection of the will of the people,” Rollow said in a statement.
Prominent Republican lawmakers and other Trump allies have backed the president’s strategy, saying he has the right to challenge the election results. The lawsuit came a day after Biden called Trump’s failure to acknowledge it as “shameful.”
Judges have thrown out several of Trump’s lawsuits, and legal experts say the litigation has little chance of changing the outcome of the election.
While acknowledging that there was “no silver bullet” to overturn the election, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Wednesday’s events were part of a process that could pave the way for a second four-year term of Trump.
Earlier, the Trump campaign said it had evidence that a handful of people killed in Georgia had voted in last week’s election.
VETERANS DAY
Last Saturday, Biden achieved election victory by winning a series of states on the battlefield to surpass the 270 electoral votes needed in the Electoral College state by state. Biden was winning the national popular vote by more than 5 million votes, and some states were still counting the ballots.
Biden planned to meet with advisers on Wednesday to help him prepare to take office on Inauguration Day, Jan.20.
Trump placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, his first public appearance in addition to two golf outings since Biden was screened as the winner on Saturday.
While Trump did not comment on the cemetery, in Twitter posts Wednesday he maintained his narrative of voter fraud, referring to “a mountain of corruption and dishonesty” while attacking pollsters.
Nearly 80% of Americans, including half of Republicans, say Biden won the election, according to a Reuters / Ipsos poll released Tuesday.
Trump’s refusal to accept defeat, even as world leaders congratulate Biden and look toward his future relations with the United States, culminates the volatile nearly four years in office with the country deeply polarized and facing a sharp resurgence in coronavirus cases. . During the campaign, Trump had refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power.
The Trump administration is not cooperating with Biden’s transition team, which has been unable to move into federal government office space or tap into funds to hire staff.
The outcome of elections in a small number of states remained undecided with Trump leading the way in North Carolina and Biden leading in Arizona as well as Georgia. Counts are unlikely to change results.
To stay in office, Trump would need to win all three swing states and override the results in one or more states in Biden’s column.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, Jeff Mason, Andy Sullivan, Noeleen Walder, and Jarrett Renshaw; Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Susan Heavey, Julia Harte, Jan Wolfe, and Tim Ahmann; Written by Daniel Trotta and Paul Simao; Edited by Ross Colvin, Will Dunham and Howard Goller)
[ad_2]
