United States President Donald Trump on Saturday refused to accept defeat in the 2020 presidential elections and reiterated that it was “far from over”. Several major news outlets projected that Democrat leader Joe Biden will be the 46th American president with more than 270 electoral votes. Counting of votes is still underway.
Kamala Harris will be Biden’s vice president. She is the first woman as well as the first person of colour in the post.
As expected, however, Trump did not concede and claimed that Biden was rushing to “falsely pose as the winner” and his media allies were trying hard to help him because “they don’t want the truth to be exposed”.
“The simple fact is this election is far from over,” Trump’s campaign said in a statement. “Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor.”
He added: “In Pennsylvania, for example, our legal observers were not permitted meaningful access to watch the counting process. Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.”
On Saturday, AP called the crucial state of Pennsylvania as well as Nevada, which took Biden’s electoral votes to a total of 290 votes. Biden is leading in Arizona and also has a razor-thin lead over Trump in Georgia, where a recount will be held as the margin between Trump and Biden was under 0.5% of the vote.
“Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated,” Trump’s statement said. “The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots. This is the only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election.”
He added:
“It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters. Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to block their access. So what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”
— Donald Trump
Earlier on Saturday, Trump had falsely tweeted that he had won the elections. Twitter had immediately flagged it.
The Trump campaign has consistently claimed election fraud, with Trump even appearing to announce victory early Wednesday. This was before millions of mailed ballots were counted. Trump also filed lawsuits in some states to stop counting of mail-in ballots, but the cases were quashed.
A record number of Americans mailed in their votes this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the US harder than any other country in the world. Mail-in ballots are counted last in many states, including Georgia and Pennsylvania. Analysts had predicted Trump might appear to be ahead in the election before mail-in ballots were counted, since typically most postal ballots are for Democrats. This is what happened, and once Trump’s lead began to lessen as the mail-in ballots were counted, him and his campaign cried foul.
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