WASHINGTON – Four days after a bitterly contested presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, America on Saturday still awaited definitive results, with the Democratic former vice president on the brink of winning the White House.
Biden was leading in most of the key states left in play, including Pennsylvania — where a victory would put the veteran Democrat past the magic number of 270 votes in the Electoral College, which decides the presidency.
But Trump, whose bid for reelection looked increasingly unlikely, showed no signs of conceding, blasting off a series of morning tweets decrying what he called “illegally received” votes in Pennsylvania and other “razor thin” states.
….Bad things took place during those hours where LEGAL TRANSPARENCY was viciously & crudely not allowed. Tractors blocked doors & windows were covered with thick cardboard so that observers could not see into the count rooms. BAD THINGS HAPPENED INSIDE. BIG CHANGES TOOK PLACE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
Those tweets were flagged and masked by the messaging platform as containing potentially misleading content.
Late Friday, the 77-year-old Biden appealed to Americans for unity — he repeated his belief that he would emerge the victor, but said the country needed to wait for the process to run its course.
“The numbers tell us … it’s a clear and convincing story: We’re going to win this race,” Biden said, adding that he and his running mate Kamala Harris were already meeting with experts as they prepare for the White House.
We may be opponents — but we are not enemies.
We are Americans.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 7, 2020
Biden’s speech was originally planned as a victory celebration, but he changed his approach in the absence of an official call from television networks and other election forecasters.
“We must put the anger — and the demonization — behind us. It’s time for us to come together as a nation and heal,” Biden said in his home city of Wilmington, Delaware accompanied by his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris.
“My responsibility as president will be to represent the whole nation.” In his late-night address, Biden adopted a decidedly presidential tone, vowing to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic as new cases in the United States — still the worst-hit nation in the world — hit a new high of more than 127,000.
“The pandemic is getting significantly more worrisome all across the country,” Biden said, noting that he and Harris had a briefing Friday on the crisis, which has claimed more than 235,000 American lives.
Biden, however, stopped short of formally declaring victory, given that the races in Pennsylvania, Georgia and other battleground states remained undecided.
But Biden’s lead steadily grew in Pennsylvania, and stood Saturday morning at more than 28,000, according to state election data.
Biden was also ahead in Arizona and Georgia — two states that have not voted for Democrats in the 21st century — as well as Nevada, while Trump held a slim lead in North Carolina and was expected to win Alaska.
Georgia said it was ordering a recount due to the narrow margin. The southern state will also have runoff races in January for both its Senate seats, which will likely determine if Democrats wrest control of the upper chamber from Republicans and give Biden a wider path to legislative victories.
Trump, on the other hand, has several times prematurely named himself the winner, refusing to accept the data showing Biden poised for victory. The Republican incumbent has remained defiant, vowing to press unfounded claims of fraud as his Republicans sought to raise US$ 60 million to fund lawsuits challenging the results. But some in his camp described the legal effort as disorganized, and so far they have not found success in the courts.
On the fifth day of vote counting, former Vice President Biden had a 284-to-214 lead in the state-by-state Electoral College vote that determines the winner, according to Associated Press.
