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Live: Biden closes in on presidency as Trump launches legal action

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Thu, 5 Nov 2020, 2:47PM

Live: Biden closes in on presidency as Trump launches legal action

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Thu, 5 Nov 2020, 2:47PM

Joe Biden is within touching distance of the White House after today claiming the key states of Michigan and Wisconsin.

Biden's victory in Michigan pushes him to 264 Electoral College votes - just six short of the 270 needed to win the White House. Donald Trump is at 214 electoral votes.

The latest results mean Biden is now one battleground state away from crossing the threshold and becoming president-elect.

Nevada, which has six electoral votes, is among the states Democrat Hillary Clinton won in 2016 that hasn't yet been decided.

 

The flip from red back to blue was a huge blow to Trump, whose victories in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in 2016 sent him to the White House. Biden also carried Wisconsin, though Pennsylvania hasn't been called yet

Earlier today Biden said the Democrats were on track to claim the White House, telling America: "We believe we will be the winners."

In a nationally televised speech he said: "After a long night of counting it's clear we're winning enough states to win 270 votes to win the presidency."

He and deputy Kamala Harris were on track to win more votes than any other ticket in history.

Biden stopped short of declaring victory as vote counting continues in the presidential election, but he says, "When the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners."

"I will govern as an American president," Biden said.

"There will be no red states and blue states when we win. Just the United States of America."

The Associated Press hasn't called the presidential race. Biden currently has 248 electoral votes, while President Donald Trump has 214. It takes 270 to win the presidency.

On a day of electoral uncertainty and legal action, Biden was confirmed today as winning Wisconsin - reclaiming a key part of the "blue wall" that slipped away from Democrats four years ago - and narrowing Trump's pathway to re-election.

A full day after Election Day, neither candidate had cleared the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House.

Margins remained tight in several fiercely contested states including the Great Lakes battlegrounds of Michigan and Pennsylvania. But Biden's victory in Wisconsin loomed as an important step to the presidency.

Biden addressed reporters from Wilmington, Delaware, alongside his running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris.

Biden said: "Every vote must be counted."

He added: "We the people will not be silenced."

Biden also tried to sound like a president-elect, promising to reach out to political opponents and insisting that the presidency "itself is not a partisan institution".

He did not take questions.

Trump lawyers seek to halt vote counting in key states

Meanwhile the Trump campaign said it filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Michigan - laying the groundwork for contesting the outcome in undecided battleground states that could determine whether President Trump gets another four years in the White House.

Suits in both states are demanding better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, the campaign said.

The campaign also is seeking to intervene in a Pennsylvania case at the Supreme Court that deals with whether ballots received up to three days after the election can be counted, deputy campaign manager Justin Clark said.

The campaign said it is calling for a temporary halt in the counting in both states until it is given "meaningful" access in numerous locations and allowed to review ballots that already have been opened and processed.

Trump is running slightly behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Michigan. The President is ahead in Pennsylvania but his margin is shrinking as more mailed ballots are counted.

There have been no reports of fraud or any type of ballot concerns out of Pennsylvania.

The state had 3.1 million mail-in ballots that take time to count and an order allows them to be counted up until Friday if they are postmarked by November 3.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a CNN interview the lawsuit was "more a political document than a legal document".

"There is transparency in this process. The counting has been going on. There are observers observing this counting, and the counting will continue," he said.

The campaign also said it would ask for a recount in Wisconsin, a state Associated Press called for Biden.

Campaign manager Bill Stepien cited "irregularities in several Wisconsin counties".

The Biden campaign didn't immediately comment on the new lawsuits in Michigan or Pennsylvania over access for campaign observers.

But the campaign has been seeking donations for what it is calling the "Biden Fight Fund".

"Our legal team is standing by, and they will prevail," campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon wrote in a fundraising email sent to supporters earlier today.

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