WILMINGTON, Del./WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. presidential election hung in the balance on Wednesday, with a handful of states set to decide the outcome in the coming hours or days, even as Donald Trump falsely claimed victory and made unfounded allegations of electoral fraud.
President Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden both still have possible paths to reach the needed 270 Electoral College votes to win the White House, as states keep counting mail-in ballots that surged amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Shortly after Biden said he was confident of winning the contest once the votes are counted, Trump appeared at the White House in the early hours to declare victory and said his lawyers would be taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, without specifying what they would claim.
“We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said, in an extraordinary attack on the electoral process by a sitting president. “This is a major fraud on 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.” He provided no evidence to back up his claim of fraud.
