Donald Trump falsely claimed victory in the race for the presidency in the early hours of Wednesday morning, even as the election remained too close to call with millions of votes yet to be counted.
America woke up to a tense political landscape where each candidate still has a path to electoral victory but with Joe Biden narrowly ahead and key states in the midwest down to the wire as postal votes were still being counted.
Trump, addressing a crowd of supporters packed into a room at the White House in the early hours, despite the pandemic, claimed victory in states that remain too close to call and peddled baseless claims of “fraud”.
The president also threatened to challenge the election results in the supreme court, even as his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, won the state of Arizona – a remarkable upset for Republicans in a state known as the birthplace of Trumpism.
Trump’s victories in Florida, Ohio and Texas have kept his hopes of re-election alive, but the pivotal swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin remain too close to call.
Early on Wednesday morning, Wisconsin was looking vital for Biden as the last votes were being counted and it was nearing a result.
Addressing supporters earlier in the evening, Biden said: “I believe we’re on track to win this election.”
The US on Wednesday was bracing for a long and agonising fight for the White House . Democratic hopes of an early landslide for Biden over Trump on election night were dashed as the president won Florida, one of the biggest prizes of the night, raising the spectre of legal challenges and civil unrest.
As of 9am ET on Wednesday morning, Biden had won 238 electoral college votes, and Trump had taken 213. A winner would need 270 electoral college votes to clinch the White House.
Trump spoke in the east room of the White House with numerous US flags behind him and flanked by two TV screens, which had been showing Fox News. About 150 guests were standing with few face masks and little physical distancing. Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and other family members took front-row seats.
“I want to thank the American people for their tremendous support,” the president said, accompanied on stage by his wife Melania, and Vice-President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen. “Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people and we won’t stand for it. We will not stand for it.”
Guests cheered and whooped in response. There is no evidence for Trump’s allegation of disenfranchisement.
He added, baselessly: “This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity – for the good of this nation, this is a very big moment – this is a major fraud on our nation.”
The staggering remarks confirmed the worst fears of activists and analysts who predicted that Trump would use spurious arguments to stop legitimate mail-in votes from being counted.
In contrast, Biden struck a cautiously optimistic tone and warned that it was not over until every ballot is counted.
“We feel good about where we are,” Biden told supporters tooting car horns in Wilmington, Delaware, early on Wednesday. “We really do. I’m here to tell you tonight we believe we’re on track to win this election.
“We knew because of the unprecedented early vote, the mail-in vote, that it’s going to take a while, we’re going to have to be patient until the hard work of counting votes is finished. And it ain’t over till every vote is counted, every ballot is counted.”
The former vice-president added pointedly: “It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who’s won this election. That’s the decision of the American people but I’m optimist about this outcome.”
But even as Biden spoke, Trump made a baseless allegation that appeared to preview a bitter fight ahead. He tweeted from the White House: “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.” Twitter flagged the tweet as disputed or possibly misleading.
The tightening of the race heightened fears of prolonged and perilous limbo, increasing the risk of street protests and violence. Both sides have hired battalions of lawyers for a post-election fight.
The tallies came on a night by turns both inspiring and unnerving, with tens of millions of Americans queueing up to express their voices as a nation facing multiple crises found itself at a crossroads.
From New York to Phoenix, from Detroit to Los Angeles, and even as coronavirus cases surged in swing states, tens of millions of people waited patiently to determine whether Trump will serve a second term or make way for Biden, a former vice-president.
A record of more than 100 million people had voted early due to the surging pandemic, with Democrats thought to have the edge, so Trump, a Republican, was relying on what he called a “red wave” on election day itself. Experts predicted the final total could be around 160 million, a turnout rate of more than two-thirds of the eligible voting population – the highest in more than a century.
Both candidates signaled confidence before polls closed on Tuesday night. Trump, the first impeached president to run for re-election, expressed faith that the size of his campaign rallies would prove a more reliable measure of support than conventional national polling, which has consistently shown Biden leading.
Biden, who at 77 would be the oldest US president ever elected if he wins, visited his childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He wrote in ink on the living room wall: “From this house to the White House with the Grace of God. Joe Biden 11.3.2020.”
He then made a last-ditch appeal to voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, addressing an impromptu street gathering in Philadelphia.
“Trump’s got a lot of things backwards,” he said through a face mask. “If you elect me, I’m going to be an American president.”
Concerns about voter suppression and voter intimidation hung over the election but, as the day went on, election observers said it went relatively smoothly. This may have been a result of increased awareness about the issues in addition to so many people having cast their ballots early, easing pressure on election officials.