Biden time for divided US as climate pact tops agenda

Joe Biden will recommit the US to the Paris Agreement as one of his first acts in the White House, the former vice-president declared as Donald Trump initiated legal challenges.

Joe Biden speaks at the Chase Centre in Wilmington, Delaware on Thursday. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden will recommit the US to the Paris Agreement as one of his first acts in the White House, the former vice-president declared as his campaign moved closer to victory by claiming several key swing states.

But Donald Trump has initiated legal challenges in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as his path back to the presidency diminished after a late surge in votes for Mr Biden early on Thursday, Australian time.

Mr Biden, responding to the formal withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement climate pact, said he would recommit to the deal as one of his first acts in office.

The Trump administration announced an exit from the accord dealing with emissions reductions three years ago, a move that only came into force on Wednesday.

The US is the first party to withdraw from the agreement.

Mr Trump had previously ­labelled the Paris Agreement as “job killing” and said it “(punished) the American people while enriching foreign polluters”.

“Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris ­Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it,” Mr Biden tweeted.

If elected, he will take the presidential oath on January 20.

 

The Trump campaign says it remains confident of upset wins in Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania, which would give Mr Trump an election-winning lead.

Mr Biden has 264 electoral college votes to 214 for Mr Trump.

Mr Biden said he was not yet declaring victory but he believed he would emerge victorious.

“I’m not here to declare we have won, but when all the votes are counted I believe we will be the winners,” he said, standing with his running mate Kamala Harris in Wilmington, Delaware.

“It’s clear that we’re winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency,” Mr Biden said. “Every vote must be counted. No one is going to take our democracy away from us … we the people will not be ­silenced.”

Mr Biden’s comments came as the Trump campaign launched legal action over the results, with the President clearly frustrated as the vote count moved against him.

“Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in ­almost all instances Democrat run & controlled,” Mr Trump tweeted.

“Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the ‘pollsters’ got it completely & historically wrong!”  In another tweet he said: “They are finding votes all over the place — in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So bad for our country.”

But the Trump campaign maintained that it could still win the election. Campaign manager Bill ­Stepien said the President ­remained in a “very, very, very good position”.

“We are confident in our pathway,” Mr Stepien said.

“We are confident in our math.

“We said all along we are viewing some of these races as math equations. If we count all legal ballots, the President wins.”

The continued counting of votes came as the US recorded over 100,000 new coronavirus cases for the first time since the pandemic began with five states setting single-day case records.

As of late Thursday AEDT Mr Biden held a narrow lead of 49.3 per cent to 48.7 per cent over Mr Trump in Nevada with 86 per cent of the vote counted.

The Biden campaign believes it will win the state with the ­remaining mail-in votes expected to favour the Democrat.

But the Trump campaign maintains it still has a chance to win in Arizona, despite the state being called for Mr Biden by Fox News and the Associated Press.

As of late Thursday Mr Biden leads that state by 50.5 per cent to 48.1 per cent with 86 per cent of votes counted.

The Trump campaign has prematurely claimed a win in the key swing state of Pennsylvania but the Biden campaign also ­believes it can still win the Keystone State. Mr Trump leads by 50.7 per cent to 48.1 per cent with 89 per cent of the vote counted, but there are still many mail-in votes to be counted that are tipped to favour Mr Biden.

The Trump campaign said it would demand a recount in Wisconsin, a move which is permitted by law if the final certified margin is less than 1 per cent.

“There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results,” Mr Stepien said. “The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”

The Trump campaign also said it was suing to halt the counting of mail-in ballots in Michigan and Pennsylvania ­because it had not been provided with “meaningful access” to counting locations.

However, Mr Trump questioned that move, raising speculation that he is losing heart for a protracted legal fight. “Our lawyers have asked for ‘meaningful access’, but what good does that do,” he tweeted. “The damage has already been done to the integrity of our system, and to the Presidential Election itself.”

Mr Trump, who prematurely declared on election night that he had won the election, has said he will challenge the results in the Supreme Court.

However, it is unclear what legal grounds the President would use to ask the court to examine the results.

Mr Biden received more than 71 million votes in this election, the most in history.

“I will govern as an American president,” he said on Thursday.

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

Meanwhile, Republicans appear to have kept majority control of the Senate, a victory that would undermine the ability of Mr Biden to enact his agenda if he is elected. Democrats have picked up Senate seats in Colorado and Arizona but have lost one in ­Alabama, reducing the Republican majority to 52-48.

Five other close Senate races have yet to be called but it is considered unlikely that the Democrats will win the two extra seats needed to secure a majority.

The Democrats have gone backwards in the House of Representatives, losing at least five seats to Republicans and ensuring that they will have only a narrow majority from next year.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia