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‘Counting will not stop’ - Biden campaign hits back at Trump─── 15:53 Wed, 04 Nov 2020
Joe Biden’s campaign manager has lashed out at President Donald Trump, after he threatened to approach the Supreme Court, in a bid to stop vote counting, during a critical stage of the hotly contested election race.
“The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect. It was outrageous because it is a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon.
Dillon’s remarks come after Trump prematurely claimed victory in the race, despite millions of votes yet to be counted. He said he had won states like Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan – however, this he will only know after several hours, when tallying has been concluded.
At the time of publishing, Biden has 238 electoral votes while Trump has 213. The president has so far bagged several key states including Florida – which could be a determiner in the race. However, in states like Pennsylvania, mail-in ballots haven’t been counted.
A candidate needs 270 votes to win the election.
Addressing his supporters in the East Wing of the White House, Trump slammed the majority mail-in votes and said they had won the election.
“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,” he said.
“This is a very big moment. This is a major fraud in our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at four o’clock in the morning and add them to the list. It’s a very sad moment,” Trump continued.
Legal and political pundits in the US have said Trump would not be allowed to stop vote counting, particularly as it gets underway.
Dillon said they were ready and willing to take counter legal action, should Trump stay true to his word.
“Having encouraged Republican efforts in multiple states to prevent the legal counting of these ballots before Election Day, now Donald Trump is saying these ballots can’t be counted after Election Day either,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, Joe Biden Campaign Manager said. “We have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist… and they will prevail.”
