Jittery public awaits fate of race in bitterly divided US
PHILADELPHIA — They clung to their cocktails and proclaimed themselves sick with dread. They relentlessly checked the news and went outdoors for fresh air. They bemoaned a wipeout wave that never came and held out hope their favored candidate still would eke out a win.
With the fate of the White House undecided Wednesday, a jittery and bitterly divided America braced for rocky days to come and the possibility a man they despise would be leading the nation.
“I can't turn on the news. I don't feel good at all ,” said 61- year-old Tammy Lewandowski, a supporter of President Donald Trump in Milwaukee, where former Vice President Joe Bid en emerged as the state' s winner. That's an outcome Le wan dow ski fears will amount to a loss of law and order and rioting. “I feel like we lost our country. I don't know that anything will be the same again.”
On the other side of the divide but just as troubled, women gathering at a Fems for De ms gathering in the affluent Detroit suburb of Bloom field Hills moaned and dropped their heads into their hands as the returns came in early Wednesday, some considering switching from red wine to tequila. Even as they held out hope, they knew they hadn't won what they wanted: a nationwide repudiation of Trump.
“I honestly feel like I'm going to have a heart attack before the end of this,” said Denice Asbell. “I feel like it's slipping. I'm scared to say this out loud, but the potential for us to see the win that we wanted is slipping away.”
As bell' s daughter, 13- year-old Rh egan St all worth, shared the angst as she braced for the outcome in a country where many don't understand the beliefs of the opposing side.
“It' s like putting your life in the hands of a nation that you don't trust,” said Stallworth.
Votes were still being counted across the country and likely will be for days to come as Biden and Trump both remain short of the necessary 270 electoral votes to win. Nothing was out of the ordinary in that process beyond a predicted surge of mail-in votes, but the lack of certainty wore on a public exhausted by a seemingly endless campaign, and all the attacks, vitriol and costly TV commercials that go with it.
An answer was all but certain to be delayed by recounts and legal challenges of razor-thin margins in one or more of the swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, a bitter pill for those certain the future of the country will be determined by the result.
Though the AP was able to call Wisconsin for Biden on Wednesday afternoon, the other states remained in flux. The fate of lower races remained unknown too, including the balance of the Senate, where forecasts of Democrats achieving a majority now seemed all but out of reach.