Biden wins Wisconsin and Michigan; Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada too close to call.
Democrat Joe Biden is 6 Electoral Votes away from the presidency late Thursday, after networks called Michigan and Wisconsin in his favor. If the former vice president holds on to his lead in the western state of Nevada, he will have enough votes to defeat President Donald Trump.
While Trump, who had earlier declared victory of sorts after a cliffhanger of a presidential election Tuesday, has filed legal challenges in multiple states, Biden called for all the votes to be counted.
Addressing the media, the Democrat said on Wednesday afternoon: “After a long night of counting, it is clear we are winning in enough states to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. I am not here to declare that I have won. I am here to report that when the count is finished, I believe I will be the winner.”
By Wednesday evening, Fox News gave Biden 264 to Trump’s 214 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to clinch the race.
Trump, who had trailed Biden in polls throughout the campaign won his adopted home state of Florida as also Ohio and Iowa to forge a narrow path to a second term.
Biden won the swing states of Arizona and Colorado, and hung on to Minnesota, a state Trump had wanted to flip.
READ: Trump, Biden locked in tight race to the White House (November 4, 2020)
On Wednesday, Associated Press called Wisconsin and Michigan. Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, which were leaning Republican, and Nevada, leaning Democratic, are too close to call as of 8 pm EST.
Early on Wednesday, Trump had accused Democrats of “trying to steal the election” and threatened to go to the Supreme Court to prevent further “voting.”
Asserting he will have a “big win,” Trump tweeted, “We are up big, but they are trying to steal the election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the polls are closed.”
With counting still incomplete, Trump threatened to go to the Supreme Court to stop “voting” alleging there was fraud apparently confusing it with counting.
“This is a fraud on the American public, this is an embarrassment to our country,” he told supporters at the White House late at night.
READ MORE: Road to the White House
“We’ll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any balance at four o’clock in the morning and add them to the list.”
“As far as I am concerned we already have won,” he said adding, “We were getting ready for a big celebration. We were winning everything. And all of a sudden it was just called off.”
In response to Trump’s earlier tweet about a “big win,” Biden tweeted, “It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare the winner of this election. It’s the voters’ place.”
Twitter labeled Trump’s statement as “some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process”.
Biden, who with his Indian American running mate Kamala Harris had made his Wilmington, Delaware home as their election night hub, was the first to speak on Tuesday night. He told a drive-in rally of supporters honking horns, “We believe we’re on track to win this election.”
“I’m optimistic about this outcome,” he said but added “it ain’t over until every vote is counted, until every ballot is counted”.
On the back of his victories in a string of states, the former vice president spoke much more confidently on Wednesday evening.
An estimated 97.6 million of about 152 million registered voters had cast their ballots by Sunday, 62.1 million by post and 35.5 million early in-person, according to the US Elections Project.