WASHINGTON — President Trump accused Joe Biden of trying to wrongfully claim the presidency on Friday as the Democratic nominee looks poised to take the White House with razor-thin leads in states where counting continues.
“Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the President. I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!” Trump tweeted on Friday evening after Decision Desk HQ called the race for the Democratic nominee.
The president again showed a willingness to counter the fact that his lead shrunk in some states because legitimate mail-in votes, which Democratic voters favored during the pandemic, were still being counted while his supporters tended to vote in person.
“I had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by. Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward!” he wrote.
The former veep now leads in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania after overtaking the president’s once-sizeable lead, but the final count may take days as officials tabulate remaining ballots.
Trump’s re-election campaign have pushed back on Biden’s claim that he has “no doubt” he will be the next elected president and lawyers for the commander-in-chief are preparing for costly legal challenges around the country.
“The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from over,” campaign general counsel Matt Morgan said in a statement Friday.
“Georgia is headed for a recount, where we are confident we will find ballots improperly harvested, and where President Trump will ultimately prevail,” Morgan continued without providing any factual evidence that voter fraud had actually happened.
Biden is poised to make a speech with running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D. Calif) on Friday evening although the race has still not been called.
In a White House briefing on Thursday night, Trump claimed that political foes were trying to “steal” the election from him and claimed he would “easily win” if “illegal votes” went uncounted.
“This is a case where they’re trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen,” the commander-in-chief said, vowing to take the matter to the Supreme Court.