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Video report from ITV News Washington correspondent Robert Moore
Joe biden he has said he is confident of winning the presidency but has refrained from declaring a victory as he secured two key states on the battlefield.
Speaking in Delaware, as votes from various US states continued to be counted, he said, “It is clear that we are winning enough states to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.”
However, he said he was “not here to declare that we have won,” but said he believes “we will be the winners” after the count is over.
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See presidential candidate Joe Biden speaking in Delaware:
His comments came as the Trump campaign indicated that it will file a lawsuit to stop the count in the battlefield state of Pennsylvania and request a recount for Wisconsin.
CNN projected Biden’s victory for Michigan bringing him closer to 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. This came hours after Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien said a lawsuit would be filed to stop the count in the battlefield state.
Ahead of the projected victory in Michigan, Stepien said in a statement: “As votes continue to be counted in Michigan, the presidential race in the state remains extremely tight as we always knew it would be.”
“President Trump’s campaign has not had meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of the ballots and the counting process, as warranted by Michigan law.
“We have filed a lawsuit today in the Michigan Claims Court to stop the count until meaningful access has been granted.
“We also demand to review ballots that were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access. President Trump is committed to ensuring that all legal votes are counted in Michigan and elsewhere.”
The Trump campaign also indicated that it would ask the Supreme Court to intervene to stop the count in Pennsylvania.
Deputy Campaign Manager Justin Clark said in a statement that the campaign “is suing to prevent Democratic election officials from hiding the counting and processing of ballots from Republican election observers.”
He said the campaign wants to “temporarily stop the recount until there is meaningful transparency and Republicans can ensure that the entire recount is done correctly and in accordance with the law.”
He also said the campaign would seek to intervene in an ongoing Supreme Court case involving the deadline for receiving ballots by mail.
On Wisconsin, Stepien said in a statement: “The president is within the threshold to request a recount and we will do so immediately.”
Biden said that “people would not be silenced” and urged unity in what he described as a “difficult campaign.”
“Now, every vote must be counted. No one is going to take away our democracy, not now, not ever,” Biden said. “We, the people, will not be silenced, we, the people, we will not be intimidated, we, the people, will not surrender, my friends, I am sure that we will be victorious.”
He said: “Yesterday proved once again that democracy is the heartbeat of this nation, just as it has been the heartbeat of this nation for two centuries.
“Even in the face of the pandemic, more Americans voted in this election than ever before in a century. More than 150 million people voted, I think that’s just extraordinary.”
He added: “The people rule here. Power cannot be taken or affirmed. It flows from the people and it is their will that determines who will be the president of the United States, and only their will. “
Both candidates have claimed to be winning since voting ended Tuesday, with the president making the unsubstantiated claim that there is “fraud in the American nation” surrounding the vote.
After a divisive campaign, Biden urged the American people to “unite, heal, and unite as a nation.”
He said: “Once this is over, it’s time to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to each other again, to respect and care for each other.
“I will work just as hard for those who did not vote for me as for those who did. There will be no blue states or red states when we win, only the United States of America.”
Trump has said in a series of tweets, which the social media company has marked as “ misleading, ” accusing Democrats of cheating and unfounded reports that ballots were thrown.
Eric Trump repeated the claims, saying they have “declared victory” in Pennsylvania.
He said: “The Democrats know the only way to win this election is by cheating in Pennsylvania.
“This is a fraud. They are trying to make fun of the election of this country.”
In a statement Wednesday morning, Trump claimed to have won the election and called for “all voting to stop” despite ballots still being counted and the result still unknown in nine of the 50 states.
In response to Trump’s statement at the White House, the Biden campaign described the president’s statement as “outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect.”
Later on Wednesday, the president tweeted that he had been leading in “many key states,” including Democratic strongholds overnight, before referring to “surprise dumps” that he claims without supporting evidence made his track “magically disappear”, something called “very strange”.
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Watch ITV News Washington editor Robert Moore’s live analysis:
Here’s the situation so far:
Joe Biden and Donald Trump are in 253 and 213 electoral college votes respectively, with most of the projections of results already requested.
the The winner must secure 270 votes in the electoral college to win the presidency. – the remaining states that have yet to be announced each have a different amount of those votes.
Projections have not yet been made for seven states, including the remaining four key battlefield states of Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia.
Nevada, currently unannounced, has warned it will have no further results updates until Thursday.
While Pennsylvania authorities have said the result may be delayed until Thursday as election officials continue to count the ballots.
See ITV News’ Emma Murphy’s analysis of Joe Biden’s speech:
Speaking at the White House, Trump said: “This is a fraud to the American public, this is a disgrace to our country.”
Trump said: “We were preparing to win this election, frankly, we won this election. So our goal now is to ensure integrity for the good of this nation. This is a very important moment.
“This is a huge fraud in our nation. We want the law to be used properly. So we will go to United States Supreme Court, we want all voting to stop. “
In response to the threat of legal action, the Biden Campaign issued a statement that read: “If the President follows through on his threat to go to court […] we have legal teams ready to be deployed to resist that effort. “
Donald Trump claims ‘fraud’ and says ‘we won this election’
Listen to ITV News’ US Election podcast, Will Trump Win? with reaction and analysis on election night and Trump’s comments
Biden had started the night as a healthy favorite over Trump.
Yet the president of the United States again beat pollsters’ predictions, just as he did against Hillary Clinton four years ago.
As in 2016, Trump held onto the key sunshine state of Florida and Ohio, with 29 and 18 electoral college votes respectively.
But Biden was projected to become an Arizona Democrat on the first round of the election, giving him a path to the 270 votes required by the electoral college.
