BIDEN HIS TIME
■ BE PATIENT, WE HAVE WON IT, SAY DEMOCRATS ■ BUT TRUMP SAYS IT’S NOT OVER AND HE’LL SUE by line in here
JOE BIDEN appealed for ‘calm and patience’ last night, as he appeared to be on the brink of winning the US presidential election. The Democrat candidate’s team announced they were confident of securing the 270 electoral college votes needed to get their hands on the keys to the White House, despite counting continuing to drag on in the last few states to announce results. Campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said: ‘Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.’
Mr Biden himself tweeted: ‘Be patient, folks. Votes are being counted, and we feel good about where we are.’ Meanwhile, Donald Trump was refusing to accept it was all over, claiming he was a victim of ballot fraud and had been ‘cheated’. He threatened to go to court in every state that had backed Mr Biden.
‘IF YOU COUNT THE LEGAL VOTES, I EASILY WIN THE ELECTION! IF YOU COUNT THE ILLEGAL AND LATE VOTES, THEY CAN STEAL THE ELECTION FROM US!,’ Mr Trump tweeted. Last night, Mr Biden had 254 electoral
college votes but Pennsylvania, with 20 of them, Arizona (11) and Nevada (six) are not expected to finish counting until today.
Many of the postal ballots still being counted are said to come from traditional Democrat areas.
Mr Trump’s lead in Georgia (16 votes) was last night shrinking, down to 14,837 – which represents 0.3 per cent. Meanwhile, Mr Biden, 77, had a lead of 11,500 in Nevada (one per cent of the vote). His campaign team said they were feeling ‘bullish’ about their chances.
Ms O’Malley Dillon said: ‘Joe Biden now has won more votes than any presidential candidate in history and we’re still counting.
‘Over 140million votes have been counted so far with more than 72million of those votes going to vice-president Biden. Voters have turned out in record numbers for the vice-president. Because he knows he’s losing, Donald Trump continues to push a flailing strategy designed to prevent people’s votes from being counted.’
Mr Trump, 74, insisted he was the victim of voter fraud, with his Republican team claiming some supporters being denied their vote while other votes had been submitted on behalf of dead people and pets. The president tweeted: ‘ All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged.’ In other posts – which contained an accuracy warning – he tweeted: ‘STOP THE FRAUD!’ and ‘STOP THE COUNT!’ In Pennsylvania, judge Christine Fizzano Cannon decided election observers could stand within 6ft of vote counters in a move announced by Mr Trump’s campaign spokesman Corey Lewandowski.