Biden’s Lead Widens in Key States, Pushing Him Closer to Victory
Biden Predicts Victory as Lead Over Trump Grows in Key States
(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden’s lead in the presidential race widened in several swing states early Saturday as the painstaking work of counting ballots inched him closer to the White House.
“We’re going to win this race,” he said Friday night in Wilmington, Delaware. “I want people to know we’re not waiting to get the work done.”
He stopped short of declaring victory and, in urging patience with the slow vote count, drew a sharp contrast with President Donald Trump’s complaints about the process.
Trump took to Twitter Saturday to assert, without evidence, that the election was being stolen from him through widespread fraud. Most of his tweets were hidden by Twitter as “misleading.”
But a U.S. election official insisted there was no proof of voter fraud or vote tampering in the election.
“There is no evidence of voter fraud,” Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic member of the Federal Election Commission, said on CNN Saturday. “There is no evidence of illegal votes being cast.”
On Friday, the Democratic nominee overtook Trump to claim a slim advantage in Pennsylvania, where a victory would push him past the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. He currently leads by nearly 29,000 votes there, according to the Associated Press, and the late-counted ballots are overwhelmingly in his favor. More vote totals are expected midday Saturday.
As the nation awaited the final outcome, Biden also held close leads in Nevada and Georgia. The former vice president has also won Arizona, according to the AP and Fox News, although his lead there is narrowing as counting continues and other television networks see that race as too close to call.
John Lapinski, who manages race calls for NBC News, made clear that his network was taking a cautious approach to declaring who will win the White House.
“This particular year, there are just so many curveballs that have been thrown our way that we really are taking a little bit more time to make sure that we understand exactly what we’re seeing and analyzing it,” he said.
The prolonged count left voters and markets on edge for the end of a bitter campaign waged under the shadow a sharp economic downturn and the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. stocks registered the biggest weekly increase since April. The S&P 500 fell less than 0.05% in the wake of a four-day rally added more than $1.5 trillion to the value of stocks. The benchmark index climbed 7.3% this week.
‘Race Is Not Over’
Decision Desk HQ, an election-data firm, projected Biden will win Pennsylvania and therefore the presidency early Friday, but other news organizations have not followed suit. Bloomberg News does not use Decision Desk HQ projections to determine election winners.
The Trump campaign immediately rejected that call.
“This race is not over,” said Trump campaign lawyer Matt Morgan. He said the call was based on faulty projections in four states that he claimed had voting irregularities.
The Biden campaign, however, dismissed attacks on the results and concerns that Trump might not concede.
“The American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House,” said campaign spokesman Andrew Bates.
With the Georgia result razor thin -- Biden is currently up by 7,248 votes -- the Georgia secretary of state said Friday there would be a recount of the presidential vote total there.
In many ways, the week has unfolded in the way many observers predicted, with Trump racking up leads in key states in votes counted on election night, while Biden has added to his totals with mail-in votes counted later that eroded Trump’s advantage. Trump has pointed to that change in his fortunes as evidence of fraud but such volatility was expected because of increased mail-in voting due to the coronavirus.
In addition, Trump spent so much time before the election telegraphing his contention that only votes on Election Day should be counted, and his threat to challenge the results, that it gave legal experts a chance to educate voters ahead of time.
Trump Allies
Trump’s legal challenges were largely aimed at slowing or pausing counting of the votes, and were generally unsuccessful.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney slammed the president’s claims of sweeping fraud.
“He is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen -- doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic, and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions,” Romney said on Twitter.
Nevada Count
In Nevada, Biden’s lead jumped to 22,657 in Friday counting. The state has just six Electoral College votes, but would clinch the presidency for Biden if he also held neighboring Arizona, with 11 electoral votes.
Winning Pennsylvania would be particularly meaningful for Biden, who lived in the state until age 10 and was sometimes called the state’s third senator because the Philadelphia media market reaches into Delaware, which he represented in the Senate.
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