With the US presidential race too close to call, President Donald Trump has claimed victory in states that are still being counted. Washington’s seat of power, the Senate, appears to still be with Republicans.
American voters watched in confusion as President Donald Trump called for “voting to be stopped” on election night as he vowed to ask the Supreme Court to weigh in on the inconclusive election. No major US news organisations or pollsters have declared a winner in the presidential race.
Trump appeared before supporters at the White House on Wednesday morning and cried foul over the election results, calling the process “a major fraud on our nation.” His own administration’s officials said earlier on Election Day that things going as expected and that there was no evidence of foul play in the cliffhanger.
The night ended with hundreds of thousands of votes still to be counted, and the outcome still unclear in key states Trump needs if he is to win the electoral college against Democrat Joe Biden.
Nevertheless, he has cast the night as a disenfranchisement of his voters. He said: “We will win this and as far as I’m concerned we already have won it.”
Trump says: “We’ll be going to the US Supreme Court – we want all voting to stop.” In fact, there is no more voting – just counting.
Protesters arrested in Seattle
Police have arrested at least eight people in Seattle after late night demonstrations and marches in the city on US Election Day.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or that the protests were linked to the US election, but some demonstrators carried “Black Lives Matter” banners, Q13 Fox Seattle television reported.
The Seattle Police Department said the arrested people included one who put nails in a road and another who drove over a barricade and into a police bike lane.
“Eight arrests this evening for pedestrian interference, obstruction, assault on an officer, reckless driving, and criminal mischief”, Seattle Police said on Twitter.
Biden wins Arizona, flipping state for Dems
Democrat Joe Biden has won Arizona and its 11 electoral votes, flipping a critical battleground state that Donald Trump won four years ago and that could help determine which candidate wins the presidency.
The victory by Biden was a huge blow to Trump’s chances for reelection. Arizona has backed a Democratic presidential candidate only once in the last 72 years.
Biden’s campaign had focused on Arizona as part of its expanded battleground map through the Sun Belt, citing demographic changes, new residents and realignment away from Republicans among key suburban voters.
Arizona is among the more than half a dozen states that will help determine which candidate gets the 270 electoral votes to capture the White House.
Without citing evidence, Trump says ‘sad group of people’ seeks to disenfranchise supporters
Trump, without providing evidence, said “a very sad group of people” is trying to disenfranchise millions of his supporters who voted for him.
“A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise” the millions of people who voted for Trump, the Republican president said in a statement at the White House.
“Frankly, we did win,” Trump told supporters at the White House.
But election results from some battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia, were still not clear and projections from major networks and Edison Research showed Trump still short of the 270 electoral votes needed to win re-election.
Biden is expected to get between 220 to 236 electoral votes at this time.
Source: TRTWORLD
