WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump daringly claimed victory in the presidential election on Wednesday — despite no winner being declared and millions of votes waiting to be counted in several key battleground states — as Joe Biden urged Democrats to “keep the faith” and wait for the final results.
Trump spoke from the White House and claimed Biden “can’t catch us” in a number of those states, despite counting still ongoing. “We will be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning,” he said.
“We will win this, and as far as I’m concerned, we already have won it.”
Before Trump’s comments, Biden took to the stage in Delaware in the early hours of Wednesday with confidence.
“We believe we’re on track to win this election,” he told a crowd of supporters. “It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to say who won this election. That’s the decision of the American people. But I’m optimistic about this outcome.”
Biden said his campaign is “confident about Arizona,” “feeling really good about Michigan,” and that Democrats are “still in the game in Georgia.”
He acknowledged that it will take time for all votes to be counted but said he’s sure he will win Pennsylvania.
Results in states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Arizona play a critical role in delivering the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House, and they’re still too close to call.
Florida, a key battleground state with a history of close elections, was awarded to Trump late on Election Night. He gains its 29 electoral votes, the biggest prize among the battleground states. He later won Texas and its 38 electoral votes on Wednesday morning.
Minutes after Biden’s address, Trump took to Twitter and baselessly accused the Democrats of “trying to STEAL the Election.”
“We will never let them do it,” he tweeted. The post was flagged by both Twitter and Facebook for containing misleading information.
Election officials are processing a historically large number of mail-in votes. The surge of mail ballots will mean some states will need more time than others. However, officials have stressed that accuracy is more important than speed.
Plus, according to laws in states such as Ohio and North Carolina, some ballots received after the election must still be counted if they are postmarked by a deadline.
Impact on markets
The undefined U.S. elections are already hitting financial markets in the eastern world, where the start to Wednesday’s session with the Asia-Pacific trade could have not been more different than from the ‘risk-on’ tone that prevailed throughout markets on Tuesday, according to experts from DailyFX. The much closer-than-anticipated US presidential election race definitely caused some repricing by investors.
DailyFX experts noted that the close race of the candidates in the key pivotal states initially transpired into risk aversion that sent the haven-linked US Dollar higher as S&P 500 futures and anti-fiat gold prices declined.–MercoPress
