Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DONALD DUMPED
» Biden closes in on election victory » ‘Rigged votes’ tirade continues
JOE Biden edged closer to the Whit White te House last night as hysterical Donald Trump Tru ump kept up his twisted tirades.
The President was still in denial ial l over his chances of clinging to power despite pite e his rival overtaking him in key states. Democrats cra ats vowed to escort “trespasser” Mr Trump from m his office.
The US leader continued to falsely lse ely claim the vote is rigged.
But Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney ne ey said: “What he needs to do is pu put ut his big-boy pants on. Acknowledge dg ge he’s lost.”
DONALD Trump’s desperate bid to cling to power with lies and accusations continued last night even as it became clear Joe Biden was on course to replace him.
But while the hysterical President lashed out with further false claims of election-rigging, his Democratic rival threatened to have him evicted from the White House if he refuses to go.
Mr Biden had trailed the Republican in the key states of Georgia and Pennsylvania but by yesterday had overtaken him as voters rejected the man who has divided America with his toxic leadership.
Even members of Mr Trump’s own Republican party blasted him after he gave a rambling address from the White House accusing opponents of cheating and trying to “steal” the election from him by counting illegal votes – with no evidence.
And US TV stations stunned by what they were broadcasting cut him off for making “a number of false statements” as he stayed in denial.
Mr Trump later fired off more angry tweets, including claiming Philadelphia “had rotten history on election integrity” and accusing a Pennsylvania governor of “flagrantly violating the Constitution of the US”.
CHAOS
The President vowed to take his vote to the Supreme Court, which he has packed with sympathetic judges. But Mr Biden’s spokesman Andrew Bates said: “As we said on July 19, the American people will decide this election.
“And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”
As Mr Biden edged ever closer to becoming leader, Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney urged the President to accept his four-year reign of chaos and confusion was over. He said: “What he needs to do, frankly, is put his big-boy pants on . He needs to acknowledge that he lost. And he needs to congratulate the winner.”
Republican Senator Mitt Romney, who lost the 2012 election to Barack Obama, warned Mr Trump’s wild accusations risk sparking civil unrest and violence on the streets – as angry supporters of the President gathered outside centres still counting votes.
He said: “The President is within his rights to request recounts, to call for investigation of alleged voting irregularities where evidence exists, and to exhaust legal remedies.
“He is wrong to say the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen.
“Doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions.”
Last night, Mr Biden overall had received 73,708,884 votes to Mr Trump’s 69,772,211. The former vice president remained on 253 Electoral College votes needing 17 more to claim victory. His rival had 214.
If Mr Trump loses, he will be one of only five US leaders to serve one term
The President needs to put his big-boy pants on and accept Biden is the winner JIM KENNEY MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA
before being kicked out. And Mr Biden will become the oldest President.
Mr Trump’s defeat could leave him open to a string of investigations he had been protected from while in the White House.
The President, who also claimed victory in the election race despite votes piling up against him, refused to take questions after his 17-minute TV address claiming election-rigging.
But many viewers in the States would have missed that anyway as at least seven broadcasters, including ABC, CBS and NBC, cut him short.
He had said: “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”
State and federal officials have not reported any instances of widespread voter fraud. MSNBC’S news anchor Brian Williams said: “Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the President of the United States but correcting the President of the United States.
“There are no illegal votes that we know of, there has been no Trump victory that we know of.”
NBC’S Lester Holt told viewers: “We have to interrupt here, because the President has made a number of false statements, including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting. There has been no evidence of that.”
Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator Pat Toomey said later : “I saw the President’s speech, and it was very hard to watch. The allegations of large-scale fraud and theft of the election are just not substantiated.
“I’m not aware of any significant wrongdoing here.”
But yesterday, Mr Trump was at it again. He said: “This is about the integrity of our entire election process.
“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 at every turn.”
In Pennsylvania, Mr Trump’s team claimed there were “many irregularities including having election officials prevent our volunteer legal observers from having meaning ful access to vote counting locations”.
They also alleged the campaign was “denied the transparency we are entitled to under state law”.
That came after Mr Trump won a court hearing in the state to have an equal amount of witnesses in the ballot counting room.
In Nevada, where Mr Biden is also expected to win , the campaign claimed th ere “appear[s] to b e thousands of individuals who improperly cast mail ballots”. Democrat Mr Biden edged ahead with more postal ballots to be counted in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
However Georgia said it would be carrying out a full recount as the results were so tight.
Mr Trump’s campaign general counsel Matt Morgan repeated false claims of voter fraud. He wrote: “Georgia is headed for a recount, where we are confident we will find ballots improperly harvested, and where President Trump will prevail.”
Other staunch Republicans made baseless accusations.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz said: “I’ll tell you the President is angry and I’m angry and the voters ought to be angry.” He also claimed Pennsylvania’s Democratic Attorney General had ordered vote-counting in the state’s largest city of Philadelphia “until Joe Biden wins”. He said of the polling stations: “We need to get in there now.”
South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham claimed :“Philadelphia elections are crooked as a snake. Why are they shutting people out?”
Boris Johnson last night pledged to work “very, very closely ” with the winner of the White House race – which looks like being Mr Biden.
But he refused to condemn Mr Trump’s over his lies and smears on opponents. The PM said: “I don’t think you’d expect any international leader to comment on the democratic processes of a very friendly country.”