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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Thursday (November 5) tried to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the US elections, even as vote counting continued in key states on the battlefield, claiming that results were being fabricated without substantiating his affirmations.
“If you count the legal votes, I win easily,” he said in a White House speech. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”
Trump currently holds the lead in the states of Georgia and Pennsylvania, where the count is ongoing, but results released throughout the day have shown that his lead is narrowing as votes subsequently counted from urban centers and mail-in ballots favor Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
By Thursday night, Trump had an advantage of 3,000 votes or 0.1 point in Georgia and 64,000 votes or 1 point in Pennsylvania, while the votes continued to be counted.
Biden had previously asked for patience, saying that all votes had to be counted and that he was confident that the final count would show they had won.
Biden has 264 electoral votes, six of the 270 needed to win the White House, including Arizona, which some media have not asked the former vice president for.
In his speech, Trump complained that his leadership in swing states was eroding as more votes were counted, and touted the Republican Party’s achievements in the House and Senate elections, as well as a surge in support. of minority voters.
“They are trying to manipulate an election and we cannot allow that to happen,” he said. “Our goal is to defend the integrity of the election. We will not allow corruption to steal elections. “
Trump has long criticized mail ballots, claiming they are susceptible to fraud, although studies have shown otherwise. On Thursday he repeated the claims, saying: “It has really destroyed our system … it makes people corrupt even though they are not by nature.”
“They’re finding ballots all of a sudden … It’s amazing how the ballots are so one-sided,” he added, referring to how ballots mailed tend to lean toward the Democrats.
His message came hours after Biden spoke from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
“Every ballot has to be counted and that’s what we’re going to see,” Biden said from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
“Democracy is sometimes messy. Sometimes it also requires a bit of patience. But that patience has now been rewarded for more than 240 years with a system of government that has been the envy of the world,” he added.
The battleground states of Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada currently hold the key to the presidential election.
Biden has 264 electoral votes, six of the 270 needed to win the White House, including Arizona, which some media have not asked the former vice president for.
Trump is ahead in Georgia and Pennsylvania, but Biden edged his lead in both states during the day as more votes were counted.
Biden’s campaign previously said they hoped he would get through in Pennsylvania and that he could win Georgia, which was shaping up to be a true launched race.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said in the early afternoon that “we could definitely” find out who won in Pennsylvania at the end of Thursday, adding that all ballots would be counted by Friday.
In Nevada, which has six electoral votes, Biden has a small lead that expanded slightly Thursday as more results were released. But the count is not expected to end soon.
Biden said he and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, were confident the final count would show they had won.
“We continue to feel very good about where things are,” he said. “So I ask everyone to stay calm. The process is working, the count is being completed and we will find out very soon.”
Biden and Harris were briefed in the afternoon by a panel of experts on the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis.
“Cases are increasing across the country and we are approaching 240,000 deaths due to Covid, and our hearts go out to each and every family that has lost a loved one to this terrible disease,” Biden said in his comments. .
The Trump campaign has mounted a series of legal challenges to stop the counting of votes or contest the votes that are counted in key states.
In Georgia, a judge dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit alleging 53 ballots could have been received after the Nov.3 7 p.m. deadline, and wrote that there was no evidence that votes were accepted late.
In Michigan, which was summoned for Biden on Wednesday afternoon, a judge also dismissed a challenge from Trump’s campaign to stop the absentee vote count so Republican observers have “meaningful access” to the count.
The count had been largely completed, the judge said.
In Pennsylvania, a judge ruled to allow Republican observers to observe the count from six feet away instead of the original 20 feet away, which the Trump campaign had requested. Democrats appealed, arguing that closer access was a delaying tactic.
As poll workers scrambled to count ballots in Pennsylvania, supporters of Trump and Biden held tense rallies at the main vote counting center in Philadelphia, the state’s largest city. Biden supporters want every vote to be counted, while Trump supporters want votes that arrived in the mail after Election Day to be ignored.
Trump had alleged, without proof, electoral fraud in states he had lost in a series of tweets that Twitter marked as misleading or disputed.
“All of the states that Biden recently claimed will be legally challenged by us for voter fraud and state election fraud. Lots of evidence, just check the media. WE WILL WIN! America first!” he said. Twitter marked the tweet as disputed.
For live results and updates, follow our live coverage of the US elections.
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