Trump remains defiant even as Biden makes gains in Pennsylvania, Georgia

President Trump remained defiant on Thursday even as Democratic nominee Joe Biden cut into the incumbent’s leads in several states that remained up for grabs as the undecided election stretched further into extra innings.

Hours before Trump called to “stop the count,” Biden said “each ballot must be counted” and urged Americans to “stay calm” as tallying continued for a third day in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Trump called for an “honest election” and signaled further legal challenges as he repeated unfounded claims of fraud in his first public appearance since early Wednesday.

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” Trump said without evidence during a White House briefing. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. If you count the votes that came in late.”

The president lamented early leads in Georgia and Pennsylvania that were increasingly slipping away from him as the count wore on. In Georgia, Trump complained it was “getting to be to a point where I’ll go from winning by a lot to perhaps being even down a little bit.”

And in Pennsylvania, where Biden was making steady gains through mail-in votes, Trump renewed his attacks on what he called the “corrupt system” of mail-in balloting.

“It’s amazing how those mail-in ballots are one-sided,” Trump said of the system Democrats encouraged their rank-and-file to use amid the coronavirus pandemic but Republicans did not. “I know it’s supposed to be to the advantage of the Democrats, but in all cases they’re so one-sided.”

Trump’s team has become increasingly litigious as his paths to victory narrow, pursuing legal challenges in Pennsylvania and Nevada and a potential recount in Wisconsin.

After judges in Georgia and Michigan dismissed lawsuits from the campaign, Trump vowed to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court for an “honest election.”

“We think we will win the election very easily,” Trump said. But “we think there’s going to be a lot of litigation because we have so much evidence, so much proof. It’s going to end up perhaps at the highest court in the land, we’ll see.”

Biden, who continued to edge Trump in Arizona and Nevada throughout the day as he added votes in other undecided states, said in the afternoon, “We continue to feel very good about where things stand.”

The former vice president appeared poised to overtake Trump in Pennsylvania as results continued to be released. A win in the Keystone State would put Biden over the 270 electoral votes he needs to claim victory.

“We have no doubt that when the count is finished, (U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris) and I will be declared the winners,” Biden said.

Still, both campaigns signaled the race may not be decided until Friday.

In Nevada, where mail-in ballots were still coming in, Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria said more results would be released Friday morning but that counting the “bulk” of mail-in ballots wouldn’t be completed until Saturday or Sunday.

“Mail ballots at this scale are very new here in Nevada,” he said, so “our process has run a little bit slower.”

Sean Philip Cotter contributed to this report.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/32iPvPd