Joe Biden takes the lead in Georgia but Donald Trump won’t let go
Donald Trump is becoming increasingly isolated after claiming the vote was ‘corrupt’ after Joe Biden took the lead in a key state.
Donald Trump is becoming increasingly isolated after he desperately claimed the election result was “corrupt” and as Joe Biden overtook him in the key swing state of Georgia.
Facing likely defeat, Mr Trump accused the Democrats of orchestrating a massive fraud by systematically rigging the vote to ensure a victory for Mr Biden — claims for which he did not provide evidence, inflaming Republican tensions.
Late on Friday, Australian time, the former vice-president was leading Mr Trump by more than 900 votes in Georgia and was within striking distance in the fellow swing state of Pennsylvania — although he needs only the former to win the election.
Mr Biden also held narrow leads in both Nevada and Arizona, where vote counting will continue on the weekend.
His comeback was driven largely by the late counting of mail-in votes, which had tilted significantly in favour of Mr Biden in the key swing states.
A furious Mr Trump accused Democrats of rigging the count, during an extraordinary White House briefing.
“They are trying to steal an election, they are trying to rig an election and we can’t let that happen,” Mr Trump said.
“We will not allow the corruption to steal such an important election — we can’t allow anyone to silence our voters.”
Mr Trump cited a litany of allegations about Republican election observers being kept away from the count and mysterious ballot boxes appearing in the dead of night full of Biden votes.
He claimed mail-in votes were being counted without postmarks or names attached to them.
The three largest television networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — all cut away from Mr Trump’s appearance as he continued to make allegations about the integrity of the election. Mr Trump did not offer any proof to back up his claims but said he would ask the courts to adjudicate.
Mr Trump’s sons — Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr — went on to accuse senior Republicans of abandoning their father, while other GOP figures criticised his comments.
Neither Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell nor House minority leader Kevin McCarthy would comment on Mr Trump’s claims or demands that counting of votes be stopped in some states.
Pennsylvania’s Republican senator, Pat Toomey, said in a statement that “all parties involved must accept the outcome of the election regardless of whether they won or lost”.
Maryland governor Larry Hogan, a Republican critic of Mr Trump’s, said there was “no defence” for his comment.
Even Mr Trump’s former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, wrote on Twitter: “If you want to win in 2024 as a Republican, I would probably start saying something.”
Other leading Republicans, including South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham and Texas senator Ted Cruz, backed Mr Trump.
As both pro-Trump and anti-Trump protesters demonstrated in US cities including Philadelphia, New York and Minneapolis, Mr Biden called for calm.
“I ask everyone to stay calm, the process is working, the count is being completed and we will know very soon,” Mr Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware.
“In America the vote is sacred — it is how people in this nation express their will.
“Each ballot must be counted and that’s what we are going to see, and that’s how it should be. Democracy is sometimes messy and it sometimes requires a little patience as well.
“We continue to feel very good about where things stand — we have no doubt that when the count is finished (vice-presidential candidate) Senator (Kamala) Harris and I will be declared the winners.”
The US Secret Service has already sent reinforcements to Wilmington — where Mr Biden’s campaign headquarters are located — to help protect the former vice-president if he claimed victory in his bid for the White House, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
The late counting of mail-in votes has transformed the election results, turning them from a solid Trump lead on election night, to a decisive Biden lead two days later.
On Friday (AEDT), Mr Trump’s large leads in both Pennsylvania and Georgia, with 20 and 16 electoral college votes respectively, faded quickly as mail-in voters were counted.
Late on Friday (AEDT), Mr Biden was 917 votes ahead in Georgia with about 99 per cent counted and 18,042 votes behind in Pennsylvania where 97 per cent had been counted.
If Mr Biden, who has won 264 electoral college votes compared to Mr Trump’s 214, wins Pennsylvania he will pass the winning target of 270.
Mr Trump needs to win Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and Alaska to reach 270.
In Nevada, Mr Biden leads Mr Trump by 49.4 per cent to 48.5 per cent with 84 per cent of votes counted.
In Arizona, Mr Trump has narrowed Mr Biden’s lead, with his Democrat rival on 50.1 per cent to the President’s48.5 per cent.
The Trump campaign on Friday (AEDT) broadened its legal attacks on the result, filing several lawsuits in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada.
But his re-election campaign lost at least one suit in Georgia and another in Michigan, while a Nevada judge rejected legal action filed by Republicans to stop early vote counting in Clark County, which covers Las Vegas.
Another Nevada lawsuit claimed that “thousands” of people who were not residents of the state had voted, including some who had cast the their ballots with the names of people who were dead.
“We are confident that when all legal votes are tallied — and only legal votes are tallied — President Trump will win the state of Nevada,” said Ric Grenell, a spokesman for the Mr Trump legal action.
Although Mr Trump has threatened to take voting irregularities to the Supreme Court, neither he nor his lawyers have articulated the case they would argue to the court.
At the White House, the President accused workers counting votes in Democrat cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit of “engineering the outcome of a presidential race”.
“Mail-in voting has really destroyed our system, it is a corrupt system … they wait to find out how many votes they need and they find them,” Mr Trump said.
“Democrat officials never believed they would win this election honestly; that’s why they did mail-in ballots.
“We are hearing stories that are horror stories, and we can’t let that happen to the United States.”
Mr Trump complained of how his election-night leads in Georgia and Pennsylvania had narrowed as the mail-in votes came in, and said that once the courts had examined the issue he would end up winning the election.
“We think we will win the election very easily,” he said.
Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia
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