Americans went to bed late on Election Night with the worst of all worlds in the 2020 race for the White House, as President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden were locked in a tight race, with a substantial number of votes still to be counted in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
In a short speech after midnight to supporters gathered in Wilmington, Delaware, Joe Biden counseled patience, but expressed the hope that the late results would swing the race in his favor.
“We feel good about where we are,” Biden said to the sounds of car horns honking at the drive-in event.
.@JoeBiden: "Your patience is commendable...We feel good about where we are...we believe we're on track to win this election." https://t.co/TpV5zHqUnt #ElectionNight pic.twitter.com/SToz3aqTHC
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 4, 2020
From the White House, the Biden statement clearly got under the skin of President Trump, who quickly lashed out with social media posts which were immediately red-flagged on Twitter.
“We are up BIG,” the President inaccurately said, “but they are trying to STEAL the election.”
In remarks after 2 am from the White House, the President basically declared himself the winner of the 2020 election, arguing it was wrong to count votes in states where he was leading, as the President declared with no proof there was ‘fraud’ involved in trying to him from winning the election.
"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 4 AM in the morning and add them to the list," Trump says in White House speech #Election2020 https://t.co/O34sVaoiTz pic.twitter.com/SsX71wWI98
— Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) November 4, 2020
The unfounded charge of election fraud was quickly shouted down by members of both parties.
“Stop. Full stop,” tweeted Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL). “The votes will be counted and you will either win or lose.”
“Trump wants to illegally stop votes from being counted where he is ahead,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). “That’s not how it works and that’s not going to happen.”
Stop. Full stop. The votes will be counted and you will either win or lose. And America will accept that. Patience is a virtue. https://t.co/iZr78QoPIH
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) November 4, 2020
While Mr. Trump was leading in Georgia, there were a number of votes not counted yet in metro Atlanta, which presumably would be more in the favor of Democrats.
Meanwhile, a number of absentee and mail ballots in Pennsylvania and Michigan were remaining, as well as many votes in Wisconsin.
If the President is able to prevail in Georgia, then the winner of the race would be the candidate who carries two of the three of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.