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US President Donald Trump is testing how far he can go by using the traps of presidential power to undermine confidence in this week’s election against Joe Biden, as the Democrat gained ground in close races in some key states in the battlefield.
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Jack Tame from Q + A has this report from outside the United States. Source: 1 NEWS
As his path to re-election appears to be shrinking, Trump today filed unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud to falsely argue that his rival was trying to seize power. It was an extraordinary effort on the part of a sitting US president to cast doubt on the democratic process.
“This is a case where they’re trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election,” Trump said from the podium in the White House meeting room.
The president’s remarks deepened the sense of anxiety in the United States as Americans enter their third full day after the election without knowing who will serve as president for the next four years. His remarks also prompted a reprimand from some Republicans, particularly those seeking to steer the party in a different direction in a post-Trump era.
Neither candidate has reached the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. But Biden overshadowed Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan, two crucial states on the Midwestern battlefield, and came ever closer to surpassing the president in Pennsylvania and Georgia, where votes were still being counted.
It was unclear when a national winner would be determined after a long and bitter campaign dominated by the coronavirus and its effects on Americans and the national economy. The United States set another record for daily confirmed cases yesterday, as several states recorded all-time highs. The pandemic has killed more than 233,000 people in the United States.
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As the race for the White House grew tighter, Democrats and Republicans clashed across the United States. Source: 1 NEWS
Biden spent today trying to ease tensions and project a more traditional image of presidential leadership. After participating in an information session on the coronavirus, he declared that “every ballot must be counted.”
“I ask everyone to stay calm. The process is working, ”Biden said. “It is the will of the voters. Nobody, nobody else to elect the president of the United States of America ”.
Biden’s victories in the upper Midwest put him in a strong position, but Trump showed no signs of giving up. He returned to Twitter around 2.30am today (local time), insisting that “the United States Supreme Court should decide!”
It could take several more days for the vote count to conclude and a clear winner to emerge. With millions of ballots yet to be tabulated, Biden had already received more than 73 million votes, the most in history.
Trump’s erroneous assertions about the integrity of the election challenged Republicans now faced with a decision to break with a president who, although his grip on his office tightened, garnered sky-high approval ratings from rank-and-file members of the Republican Party. .
Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, a potential 2024 presidential hopeful who has often criticized Trump, said unequivocally: “There is no defense for the president’s comments tonight that undermine our Democratic process. The United States is counting the votes and we must respect the results as we have always done before. “
But others rumored to be considering a White House run of their own in four years lined up with the incumbent, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who tweeted his support for Trump’s claims, writing that “If the latest 24 hours have made something clear, is that we need new electoral integrity laws NOW ”.
The Trump campaign engaged in a number of legal activities to try to improve the chances of the Republican president, requesting a recount in Wisconsin and filing lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed Trump’s campaign lawsuits there today.
Trump had a small advantage in Georgia, although Biden was winning it as the votes continued to be counted. The same thing happened in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lead had slipped to about 22,000 votes, and the race is set to get tighter.
One reason is that election officials were unable to process mail-in ballots until Election Day under state law. It’s a form of voting that has leaned heavily in Biden’s favor after Trump spent months claiming without evidence that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud.
Mail ballots from across the state were overwhelmingly breaking in Biden’s direction. The final vote total may be unclear for days because the use of mail-in ballots, which require more time to process, has increased as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Trump campaign said it was confident the president would eventually win a victory in Arizona, where votes were also being counted, including in Maricopa County, the most populous area in the state. The AP declared Biden the winner in Arizona and said today it was monitoring the vote count as it progressed.
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All eyes in the United States are on Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Source: 1 NEWS
“The Associated Press continues to observe and analyze the results of Arizona’s vote counting as they come in,” said Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor. “We will follow the facts in all cases.”
The Trump campaign presented legal challenges in several states, although it faced great difficulties. He would have to win multiple trials in multiple states to stop the vote counting, since more than one state was undeclared.
Some of the Trump team’s demands only call for better access for campaign watchers to the places where ballots are processed and counted. A Georgia judge dismissed the campaign suit there less than 12 hours after it was filed. And a Michigan judge dismissed a Trump lawsuit over whether enough Republican contenders had access to handling absentee ballots.
Biden’s attorney, Bob Bauer, said the lawsuits were legally “without merit.” Its sole purpose, he said, “is to create an opportunity for them to send false messages about what is happening in the electoral process.”
