National Post (National Edition)
ADVANTAGE: BIDEN Democrat holds strong lead as Trump renews fraud claim
WASHINGTON/ WI LMINGTON • U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that if “legal” votes are counted he would win the presidential election, in a signal he is in no mood to concede to Democrat Joe Biden.
“If you count the legal votes I easily win,” Trump said in an appearance in the White House briefing room, adding that ballots still being counted suggest to him that the election is being rigged and stolen from him by corrupt Democrats.
He said legal action has begun in several states and the case might end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Biden crept nearer to victory on Thursday in an exceedingly close race that hinged on razor-thin margins in a handful of states. The former U.S. vice president was chipping away at Trump's leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia while retaining slim margins in Nevada and Arizona.
Ballot tabulation dragged on in those battleground states two days after polls closed, while protesters from both sides staged demonstrations in major cities over the vote counting.
After an acrimonious campaign waged during the coronavirus pandemic, the election appeared to be moving toward a nail-biting conclusion in the coming hours and perhaps days.
There is still a narrow path for Trump to win if he holds on in Georgia, where he led by 12,800 votes Thursday evening, and Pennsylvania, where he was ahead by 108,600 votes, and overtakes Biden in Arizona, where he trailed by 68,100 votes, or Nevada, where he was 11,400 votes behind.
But many of the outstanding votes in Georgia and Pennsylvania were clustered in places expected to lean Democratic, such as the Atlanta and Philadelphia areas.
Trump, who attacked the integrity of the U.S. voting system during the campaign, again on Thursday alleged voting fraud without providing evidence and accused Democrats of aiming to “steal” the election.
His campaign has filed several lawsuits in battleground states and called for a recount in Wisconsin, though some legal experts said the court challenges were a long shot unlikely to affect the election outcome.
Backers of Trump and Biden staged competing demonstrations on Thursday at voting centres in battleground states. Both sides held rallies in Philadelphia on Thursday, where election staffers slowly counted thousands of mail-in ballots.
Trump activists waved flags and carried signs saying: “Vote stops on Election Day” and “Sorry, polls are closed,” as Biden supporters danced to music behind a barricade across the street.
Protests have been scattered, small and largely peaceful since Americans went to the polls on Tuesday, defying pre-election fears that tensions could erupt into violence or riots.
Meanwhile, in brief remarks from his hometown of Wilmington, Del., on Thursday afternoon, Biden again urged patience and called for every vote to be counted.
“We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Sen. Harris and I will be declared the winners,” said Biden, referring to his running mate, Kamala Harris. “So I ask everyone to stay cool, all people to stay calm. The process is working, the count is being completed. And we'll know very soon.”
At stake is whether to give Trump and his “America First” policies four more years in office after a tumultuous first term or turn to Biden, a figure on the national stage for a half century who promises to deliver steadiness at home and repair alliances overseas.
To capture the White House, a candidate must amass at least 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College. Such electoral votes are based largely on a state's population.
Most major television networks gave Biden a 253 to 214 lead in electoral college votes on Thursday.
Biden also led Trump by more than 3.7 million in the national popular vote, though that plays no role in deciding the winner.