US braces for long wait for election results as
Trump falsely declares victory
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin too close to call
Biden wins Arizona while Trump peddles baseless fraud
claims
David Smith
in Washington, Sam Levine in Philadelphia and Joan E Greve
Wed 4 Nov
2020 14.13 GMTFirst published on Tue 3 Nov 2020 22.34 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/03/america-votes-trump-biden-us-election
Donald
Trump falsely claimed victory in the race for the presidency in the early hours
of Wednesday morning, even as the election remained too close to call with
millions of votes yet to be counted.
America
woke up to a tense political landscape where each candidate still has a path to
electoral victory but with Joe Biden narrowly ahead and key states in the
midwest down to the wire as postal votes were still being counted.
Trump,
addressing a crowd of supporters packed into a room at the White House in the
early hours, despite the pandemic, claimed victory in states that remain too
close to call and peddled baseless claims of “fraud”.
The
president also threatened to challenge the election results in the supreme
court, even as his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, won the state of Arizona –
a remarkable upset for Republicans in a state known as the birthplace of
Trumpism.
Trump’s
victories in Florida, Ohio and Texas have kept his hopes of re-election alive,
but the pivotal swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin remain too
close to call.
Early on
Wednesday morning, Wisconsin was looking vital for Biden as the last votes were
being counted and it was nearing a result.
Addressing
supporters earlier in the evening, Biden said: “I believe we’re on track to win
this election.”
The US on
Wednesday was bracing for a long and agonising fight for the White House .
Democratic hopes of an early landslide for Biden over Trump on election night
were dashed as the president won Florida, one of the biggest prizes of the
night, raising the spectre of legal challenges and civil unrest.
As of 9am
ET on Wednesday morning, Biden had won 238 electoral college votes, and Trump
had taken 213. A winner would need 270 electoral college votes to clinch the
White House.
Trump spoke
in the east room of the White House with numerous US flags behind him and
flanked by two TV screens, which had been showing Fox News. About 150 guests
were standing with few face masks and little physical distancing. Donald Trump
Jr, Ivanka Trump and other family members took front-row seats.
“I want to
thank the American people for their tremendous support,” the president said,
accompanied on stage by his wife Melania, and Vice-President Mike Pence and his
wife, Karen. “Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight and a very
sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people and we
won’t stand for it. We will not stand for it.”
Guests
cheered and whooped in response. There is no evidence for Trump’s allegation of
disenfranchisement.
He added,
baselessly: “This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment
to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win
this election. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity – for the good of
this nation, this is a very big moment – this is a major fraud on our nation.”
The
staggering remarks confirmed the worst fears of activists and analysts who
predicted that Trump would use spurious arguments to stop legitimate mail-in
votes from being counted.
In
contrast, Biden struck a cautiously optimistic tone and warned that it was not
over until every ballot is counted.
“We feel
good about where we are,” Biden told supporters tooting car horns in
Wilmington, Delaware, early on Wednesday. “We really do. I’m here to tell you
tonight we believe we’re on track to win this election.
“We knew
because of the unprecedented early vote, the mail-in vote, that it’s going to
take a while, we’re going to have to be patient until the hard work of counting
votes is finished. And it ain’t over till every vote is counted, every ballot
is counted.”
The former
vice-president added pointedly: “It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to
declare who’s won this election. That’s the decision of the American people but
I’m optimist about this outcome.”
But even as
Biden spoke, Trump made a baseless allegation that appeared to preview a bitter
fight ahead. He tweeted from the White House: “We are up BIG, but they are
trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be
cast after the Polls are closed.” Twitter flagged the tweet as disputed or
possibly misleading.
The
tightening of the race heightened fears of prolonged and perilous limbo,
increasing the risk of street protests and violence. Both sides have hired
battalions of lawyers for a post-election fight.
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