Trump vows to fight as Biden widens leads in key states
Democratic nominee Joe Biden overtook President Trump in two key states and expanded his lead in another on Friday, but as yet another day past Election Day turned to night he had yet to earn the coveted 270 Electoral College votes needed to become president-elect.
Trump grew increasingly defiant as he hunkered down in the White House, firing off missives on Twitter as his early leads in Georgia and Pennsylvania slipped. A projected win in Pennsylvania would put Biden over the 270-vote threshold.
“Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the President. I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!,” Trump said in one tweet.
In another, he typed, “I had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by. Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward!”
Biden remained out of sight into the night after two days of public appearances. He had been preparing to speak from his hometown of Wilmington, Del., during prime time Friday. But those plans became increasingly uncertain as the election remained uncalled well after dark.
Trump pledged further legal action and continued to peddle unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud as vote counting continued in a handful of key battleground states across an anxious nation. A recount is now expected in Georgia, the secretary of state said Friday, and the Trump campaign has said it will seek a recount in Wisconsin.
“From the beginning we have said that all legal ballots must be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted, yet we have met resistance to this basic principle by Democrats,” Trump said in a statement through his campaign. “We will pursue this process through every aspect of the law.”
As the future of the nation’s leadership hung in the balance for another day, Republicans increasingly split ranks over the president’s challenges to the election’s integrity.
Newly re-elected U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters on Friday he would “stand” with Trump and that he was “not conceding” that Biden would win. Graham told Fox News Thursday that he would donate $500,000 to the Trump campaign’s legal efforts.
But Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker lambasted Trump’s claims of voter fraud as “bad for democracy.”
“The president’s comments that there’s some national conspiracy around this aren’t supported by any of the facts and they are damaging to democracy,” Baker said Friday. “They cheapen all of those of us who serve in public life and who ran and who were either elected or defeated based on the will of our people.”
Former Massachusetts governor and current Utah U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney said Trump is “within his rights to request recounts, to call for investigation of alleged voting irregularities where evidence exists, and to exhaust legal remedies.”
But Romney, a frequent Trump critic, said the president “is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen” because it “recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2JzAxhh
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