US elections 2020

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      Joe Biden poised to inherit Disunited States of America

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      “Tomorrow is the beginning of a new day,” Joe Biden said in his final campaign rally in Pittsburgh on the eve of the US election. “There’s one more day to show who we are as a country: looking out for each other, the thousand acts of kindness, the decency that people used to show one another – and still do.”
      Three days later, Donald Trump appeared in the press briefing room of the White House and let the world know what he thinks of kindness and decency. With votes still being counted, he laid out a paranoid fantasy of a vast leftwing conspiracy stealing the election from him, one fraudulent ballot at a time.
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      For the media networks who cut away from Trump’s speech after just a few minutes, it was all too easy to dismiss his lie-infested rant as the death rattle of a man whose political lifeblood was being drained from him in real time. You could almost say his speech was irrelevant, given that no one is above the law and he doesn’t get to choose, no matter how charismatic he looks on TV.
      Except for three inconvenient truths: Trump will continue to be head of state of the most powerful nation on Earth until at least 20 January; 70 million Americans voted for him, of whom a portion is likely to be susceptible to his falsehoods; some 17m guns have been bought so far this year – the largest number in US history. More

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      Why Democrats lost Latino voters along Texas border: 'They relied on loyalty'

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      While Democrats aggressively pushed to turn Texas blue this election cycle, they were banking on help from people like Barbara Ocañas, a highly educated, 37-year-old Latina voter from the Rio Grande valley.
      But, after Donald Trump faced backlash for using the word “coyote” to describe human smugglers, Ocañas was turned off by liberals focused more on semantics than the actual realities of the migrant crisis affecting her home. As the daughter of a Mexican émigré, she believes that undocumented immigrants are “just people, like you and me”.
      However, when it comes to earning US citizenship, “there is a right way and a wrong way to do it”, she said.
      She also fears what Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s administration could mean for people she knows who rely on jobs in refineries or hauling crude oil. So, faced with a ballot and a choice, Ocañas decided she preferred four more years with Donald Trump in the White House.
      “Not all of us take it to heart when we’re called rapists and bad hombres,” she said. “We have tough skin.”
      In Texas border towns with chronically low voter participation, residents did actually show up to the polls this election, exceeding county turnouts from 2016. But when results rolled in Tuesday night, Biden’s overall success was nowhere near Hillary Clinton’s slam dunk four years earlier, revealing Democratic vulnerabilities among a key bloc whose votes had largely been taken for granted.
      “Democrats have just assumed and relied on this historical loyalty by people in the valley to the Democratic party,” said Natasha Altema McNeely, an associate professor of political science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “And that assumption, I think, is very dangerous for the Democrats if they expect to continue to help the valley remain blue.”
      Biden still won Ocañas’s Hidalgo county, but with a fraction of the margin. In Starr county, which Clinton had dominated in a 60-point landslide, voters swung for Biden by just five points. And, after Democrats squandered a nearly 33-point advantage from four years ago, Zapata county flipped to deliver Trump a stunning victory.
      That erosion of Democratic support took place even after high-profile Biden surrogates descended on the US-Mexico border ahead of election day. Jill Biden, Joe’s wife, campaigned in El Paso on the first day of early voting, when – amid buzz that Texas might be in play – she told her audience that a win in the state would mean that “we are unstoppable”. More

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      The vanishing 'red mirage': how Trump's election week soured

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      For Democrats, the familiar sinking feeling began in the early hours of Wednesday morning when Florida came out for Donald Trump. The state is a critical battleground. Up until that point a Democratic victory in Tuesday’s US presidential election had seemed likely. Joe Biden, the former vice-president, was going to win, the polls said. Probably by a landslide. The only question was the giddy margin.
      But the humiliating rout predicted by the pundits wasn’t happening. Trump’s support was holding up remarkably well. This wasn’t just true of diehard fans who had packed into his election rallies in the tumultuous closing days of an extraordinary campaign. Others were backing him as well. This, despite a health pandemic and a divisive presidency like no other.
      The Florida results suggested a more complex picture was emerging. For the Biden camp, it was an alarming one. With 96% of ballots counted, Trump was 375,000 votes ahead. Biden, it turned out, had underperformed in the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County. The president had increased his vote among white, working class and Latino people. And among African Americans.
      Trump, it seemed, had defied his critics yet again. He comfortably won Texas, crushing Democratic hopes of flipping the state. In the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania – visited repeatedly by both candidates in recent months – Trump was more than half a million votes ahead. There were other notable wins, including Ohio and Iowa. Much of the electoral map was going red. More

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      'We're going to win this race': Biden addresses the nation as his lead grows

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      Former vice-president Joe Biden didn’t declare victory on Friday night, but he did tell voters across the United States he believes he has the upper hand as the vote count continues.
      “We don’t have a final declaration of victory yet but the numbers tell us a clear and convincing story. We’re going to win this race,” Biden said from the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware.
      Biden stood on stage flanked by California senator Kamala Harris, his running mate. “Just look at what has happened since yesterday. Twenty-four hours [ago] we were behind in Georgia now we’re ahead, and we’re going to win that state. Twenty-four hours ago we were behind in Pennsylvania, and we are going to win Pennsylvania. Now we’re ahead, but we’re winning in Arizona, we’re winning in Nevada. In fact our lead just doubled in Nevada.”
      The former vice-president spoke as Americans anxiously await counting to conclude in a handful of states. Biden is ahead in the key swing states, with his lead widening as more votes get counted.
      On Friday, Biden took the lead in Pennsylvania, whose 20 electoral votes alone are enough to carry him over the threshold. He remained ahead in Nevada, and took the lead in Georgia, where the margin was so slim that the state declared there would be a recount. Trump has a narrow lead in North Carolina, and is expected to win the state of Alaska. Biden’s lead in Arizona, which the Associated Press has called for Biden while other media organizations say it remains too close to call, has slightly shrunk.
      As Biden’s inches closer to the presidency, however, Trump reportedly was not ready to concede. After the lead slipped in Pennsylvania, the White House put out a statement insisting “this election is not over”.
      “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.
      Those legal challenges from the Trump campaign and the larger Republican apparatus have slowed down the counting process. The campaign has taken legal action in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. But legal experts have noted that the lawsuits appear to be long shots and even if successful, they would not change the outcome of the race.
      The president and some allied groups have argued, paradoxically, that vote counting in some states should stop and in other places (where Trump might benefit)should continue.
      Biden is increasingly favored to emerge as the president-elect when all the counting is over however, and on Friday evening said he was confident of a victory. “And look at the national numbers. We’re going to win this race with a clear majority of the nation behind us,” Biden said.
      The Biden campaign had originally planned to formally declare victory on Friday evening, appearing to believe news outlets would have called the race by then.The campaign had said vice-presidential nominee Harris would introduce Biden, long time supporters and top Democrats, including senior Biden campaign staffers, Democratic national committee chairman Tom Perez, and Louisiana congressman Cedric Richmond, as well as longtime local supporters, had gathered at the Chase Center in anticipation.
      Biden himself, three days out from election night, was visibly upbeat, smiling through his short speech.
      “We’re going to be the first Democrat to win Arizona in 24 years,” Biden said, smiling. “We’re going to be the first Democrat to win Georgia in 28 years, and we’ve rebuilt the blue wall in the middle of the country that crumbled just four years ago. Michigan, Wisconsin, the heartland of this nation.”
      Biden stressed patience.
      “I know watching these tallies on TV moves very slowly and as slow as it goes it can be numbing,” he said.
      And he looked ahead. “While we’re waiting for the final results I want people to know we’re not waiting to get the work done,” Biden said, adding that on Thursday, he and Harris met with experts on the economy and the coronavirus.
      “We have serious problems to deal with – from Covid to our economy to racial justice to the climate change,” Biden said. “We don’t have any more time to waste on partisan warfare.”
      “I’ve said many, many times, I’ve never been more optimistic about the future of our nation,” he added.
      Meanwhile, Trump and his campaign looked increasingly desperate as reports of internal finger-pointing grew and long-shot legal challenges became more unlikely.
      In the months leading up to 3 November, Trump had vowed to wage a serious legal defense if re-election appeared to be slipping away. But the campaign’s response in recent days has been a clumsy set of lawsuits that in reality could only slow the count. Aides and staffers have told national news outlets that there’s no set of competent leaders helming the legal defense strategy.
      At the Chase center, Biden ally and Delaware senator Chris Coons appeared unimpressed by the Trump campaign’s approach. “I’ve seen nothing in these lawsuits that have any chance of affecting the outcome” , he told the Guardian. “I’ve been really struck by the incoherence of the arguments made by the president. Principally, ‘I want the counting to stop’ at a moment when, if it stops, Joe Biden’s the winner. He’s arguing at the same time that there’s some vast conspiracy that has somehow worked to his disadvantage when at the same moment in many states the Democratic challengers didn’t win for Senate or Democratic challengers were unsuccessful in taking House seats.”
      Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have offered only a half-hearted front of support for Trump. Some have echoed Trump’s unfounded accusations that the election results are rife with fraud. But others have gently said that while every vote should be counted, both Trump and Biden should accept the ultimate results.
      “I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the president to wait for that number to be apparent,” said Missouri Senator Roy Blunt at the Capitol, according to Politico. “I also don’t think it’s unreasonable for Vice-president Biden to accept the unofficial result and do whatever he thinks he should do. Part of the obligation of leadership is you should always have in your mind: ‘How do I leave?’”
      Comment’s such as Blunts have lead even some Republican staffers to conclude privately that calls by Trump’s allies to drop his efforts to fight the election results might have to end soon.
      On Friday evening, another challenge emerged for the Trump administration with reports that Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, had tested positive for Covid-19. More

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      Biden says 'we're going to win this race' as election count puts him on the cusp of victory – video

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      Presidential hopeful Joe Biden has said ‘we’re going to win this race’ as crucial states trend in his favour as vote counting in the US election continues. Biden, who stands on the cusp of victory, said late on Friday he was on track to claim 300 electoral votes. The former vice-president has already urged unity during the count after Donald Trump moved to sow doubt about the election process without presenting any evidence. ‘We may be opponents, but we’re not enemies,’ Biden said. ‘We’re Americans’
      ‘We’re going to win this race’: Biden addresses the nation as his lead grows More

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      Cindy McCain confident Joe Biden will claim Arizona on way to election win – video

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      Cindy McCain, the widow of late Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, has backed Joe Biden to win the state of Arizona on his way to sealing the 2020 US election. Arizona, a Republican stronghold, was called in Joe Biden’s favour by a number of news organisations on election night. McCain, despite her links to the Republican party, had previously campaigned for Biden in her home state
      US election 2020 live: Biden edges toward victory with leads over Trump in Pennsylvania and Nevada More

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      in Elections

      Armed Trump supporters gather outside vote count centre in Arizona – video

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      Supporters of Donald Trump, some of whom are armed, have continued to mass outside an election counting centre in Phoenix on Friday, as Joe Biden’s lead narrows slightly in the state of Arizona. The Trump campaign is angry that the state was called for Biden by media organisations including Fox News and Associated Press, despite thousands of ballots still to be counted. Biden led by around 29,000 on Friday night, down from 47,000, but is still expected by most observers to win.
      US election live updates: Joe Biden edges toward victory with leads over Donald Trump in Pennsylvania and Nevada More