Biden takes lead in battleground Pennsylvania, Trump campaign says ‘election is not over’

Biden overtook Trump in the Keystone State on Friday morning, and is currently more than 5,500 votes ahead of Donald Trump. Though counting is still in progress, Decision Desk HQ, whose statistics are used by a number of news organizations, called the race to the White House for Biden, with Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College votes bumping the former vice president above the 270 needed to win.

Biden also inched ahead of Trump by just over 1,000 votes in Georgia, another vital battleground state. As counting resumed on Wednesday, Trump’s lead was a comfortable 400,000 votes. Dumps of mail-in ballots in Philadelphia since whittled that lead away.

Trump has vowed to challenge the results of the election all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. As counting continued in Philadelphia on Thursday, his campaign filed a lawsuit alleging that their poll watchers were being excluded from a counting center. The president’s campaign filed similar suits in Georgia and Michigan, and said it would demand a recount in Wisconsin.

Trump has vowed to challenge the results of the election all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. As counting continued in Philadelphia on Thursday, his campaign filed a lawsuit alleging that their poll watchers were being excluded from a counting center. The president’s campaign filed similar suits in Georgia and Michigan, and said it would demand a recount in Wisconsin.

Trump has claimed that Biden’s apparent win was the result of a widespread vote fraud operation, with late-arriving ballots in multiple swing states leaning heavily toward Biden.

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. If you count the votes that came in late, we’re looking at them very strongly,” he told reporters on Thursday evening.

The Trump campaign reacted to Biden’s lead by declaring “this election is not over.” Criticizing the “many irregularities in Pennsylvania,” the campaign called Biden’s apparent victory “phony,” and said that “once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected.”

Though Biden is on the cusp of taking the White House, more than 135,000 votes remain outstanding in Pennsylvania, according to election officials there.

Once Pennsylvania is officially called for Biden, Trump’s path to reelection all but closes. The president would need to win Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina, and rely on a recount or court intervention elsewhere.

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