Democracy on the edge
Trump threatens to go to Supreme Court as Biden edges to US election victory
DONALD Trump was accused of trying to destroy democracy by falsely claiming he had won the US election as his path to victory narrowed last night.
The race for the White House remained too close to call, with a handful of now crucial states yet to declare. However former vicepresident Joe Biden sounded confident as Wisconsin was called in his favour, with Michigan expected to follow.
Last night Mr Biden stopped short of declaring victory but, speaking at his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, said he was “confident we’ll emerge victorious” once every valid vote is counted.
“I‘m not here to declare that we won, but I am here to report that when the count is finished, we will be the winner,” he said.
The former vice-president, flanked by his vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, added: “No one is going to take our democracy away from us.”
His speech came as President Trump’s campaign said it was suing to halt vote counting in the crucial state of Pennsylvania. It is also mounting similar legal challenges in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Early yesterday, Mr Trump, amid a backdrop of American flags, sparked outrage after he warned of a “fraud on the American nation”, vowing to go to the US Supreme Court – which has a conservative majority – to get vote counting stopped, but without any evidence of wrongdoing.
He then declared to cheers from supporters: “We were getting ready to win this election; frankly, we did win this election.”
Democrat headquarters condemned the “outrageous” remarks, saying they were “a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens” and insisted the “counting will not stop”.
The 2020 contest looked like being the most litigious in US history with an estimated 300 lawsuits having been filed.
In Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon said she had listened to the President’s remarks with a “sense of discomfort and foreboding” and insisted counting all the votes was an important democratic principle.
“I hope sensible voices in America come to the fore in terms
of the protection of the integrity of democracy; whatever the direction the final few state tallies take us in,” added the First Minister.
During Prime Minister’s
Questions, Sir Keir Starmer urged Boris Johnson to join him in saying it was not up to Mr Trump to say when votes should stop being counted, noting: “The next
president must be the free and fair choice of the American people.”
But the Prime Minister declined the Labour leader’s invitation, telling MPS: “Of course, we don’t comment as a UK Government on the democratic processes of our friends and allies.”
This led Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, to rebuke Mr Johnson, tweeting that his response was “one of the most cowardly statements I’ve ever heard #PMQS”. Earlier, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, also refused to be “sucked in” to the row over the President’s words, saying: “We need to be patient and wait and see who wins the US election.”
He stressed that it was “important the process is given sufficient time to reach a conclusion but we have full confidence in the checks and balances of the US system to produce a result”.
Mr Raab made clear the special relationship with the US would endure whoever won the bitterly contested American election.
However, his predecessor at the Foreign Office, Jeremy Hunt, had no qualms in expressing alarm at Mr Trump’s controversial remarks.
“My biggest worry is that we forget that the US is the leading democracy in the world and if we end up with a huge argument about process, and people talking about a stolen elections left, right and centre, we are only going to put a smile on the face of people like President Putin and President Xi who will look at their own people and say: ‘Are you not pleased we have not got any of this mess?’ and that would be an absolute disaster.
“We must remember that the reputation of democracy across the world is at stake here,” he said.
But Mr Trump received support from Janez Jansa, the right-wing populist Prime Minister of Slovenia, who tweeted: “It’s pretty clear American people have elected @realdonaldtrump @Mike_pence for #4moreyears.”
He added: “More delays and facts denying from #MSM (mainstream media), bigger the final triumph for #POTUS. Congratulations @GOP for strong results across the #US.”
With just a few swing states to fully declare their result, Democrat HQ was privately confident of victory. By 10pm CNN declared Mr Biden was projected to have 253 votes in the Electoral College against Mr Trump’s 213; 270 is the magic number to secure a victory.
Jennifer O’malley Dillon, Mr Biden’s campaign manager, said: “We expect that the vice-president will have leads in states that put him over 270 electoral votes today.”