Biden projects confidence as Trump’s path to victory narrows
Democratic nominee Joe Biden inched closer to the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House on Wednesday as President Trump’s team scrambled to file legal challenges in several swing states as the path to victory narrowed.
Biden picked up pivotal wins in Wisconsin and Michigan, according to the Associated Press, and was gaining on the Republican incumbent as ballot counting continued Wednesday night in Pennsylvania — pulling ahead in a trio of states Trump won by fewer than 80,000 votes in 2016.
The former vice president was bullish on his prospects as he addressed the nation from his home state of Delaware Wednesday afternoon, saying, “It’s clear that we’re winning enough states to win 270 electoral votes.”
“I’m not here to declare that we won,” Biden said. “But I am here to report when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”
In another show of confidence, the Biden campaign let its transition website go live Wednesday evening.
“Only three presidential campaigns in the past have defeated an incumbent president,” Biden, who served two terms under former President Barack Obama, said. “When it’s finished, God willing, we’ll be the fourth.”
Trump, who did not appear publicly after prematurely claiming victory from the White House in the wee hours on Wednesday, doubled down on unfounded claims of fraud via tweet. And he claimed wins in Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina in missives that were flagged by Twitter as containing “disputed” or potentially “misleading” information. The AP had not called the race in any of those states as of Wednesday evening.
The president’s re-election campaign, facing fewer paths to victory as the day wore on, launched a flurry of legal challenges.
Trump’s team attempted to temporarily halt ballot counting in Michigan and Pennsylvania by filing lawsuits citing observation issues. And the campaign said it was “moving to intervene” in an existing case before the U.S. Supreme Court over Pennsylvania’s extended deadline that allows mail-in ballots to be accepted through Friday as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 3.
Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, said in an afternoon press conference in Philadelphia that the Republicans would “not let” Democrats “steal” Pennsylvania.
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said in an earlier call with reporters that the campaign had a “high degree of confidence” that Trump would prevail in Pennsylvania as he honed in on the Keystone State and Arizona as potential paths to victory in a shrinking map.
Stepien also cited “irregularities” in several counties as he said the campaign would file for a recount in Wisconsin, which a candidate can do if the margin is less than 1%.
Earlier in the day, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said the Democratic nominee was “on track to win this election.”
She expected victories to come in Wisconsin and Michigan, which the AP called in Biden’s favor at 2:16 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively. And she predicted Nevada and Pennsylvania, where counts continued into the night, would also end up in the former vice president’s column.
“Pennsylvania is going to count every vote and make sure that everyone has their voice heard,” Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said in response to the Trump campaign’s legal maneuvers as hundreds of thousands of ballots remained uncounted in his state. “These attempts to subvert the democratic process are disgraceful.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3kYD2Yh
Post a Comment