Democrat Joe Biden took the lead in key battleground state Pennsylvania on Friday, where a victory for the former vice president would push him past the threshold of electoral votes needed to win the White House, official data showed.
More ballots are yet to be counted, but shortly before 1400 GMT, Biden had moved ahead of incumbent President Donald Trump by more than 5,500 votes, according to official provisional results from the state government.
Biden currently has at least 253 electoral votes. The magic number is 270. If he wins Pennsylvania — a state won by Trump in 2016 — and its 20 electoral votes, he would pass that threshold.
US networks have said so far the race is still too close to call.
Biden is also currently in the lead in key states Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. Fox News and the Associated Press have already called Arizona in Biden’s favor, but other US media have said the race is still too close to call.
Here’s why this matters: Trump cannot find a route to 270 electoral votes without Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, so his chances of securing reelection will hinge on developments in the states.
Right now, Biden has 253 electoral votes. If he wins Pennsylvania, he’s over the 270 electoral vote threshold.
And remember: Five more states — Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina – are still yet to be projected. Trump has leads in Alaska and North Carolina, while Biden has leads in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada.
Trump has told people he has no plans to concede
In conversations with allies in recent days, President Trump has said he has no intention to concede the election to Joe Biden, even if his path to a second term in office is effectively blocked by losses in places like Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Aides, including his chief of staff Mark Meadows, have not attempted to bring Trump to terms of what’s happening and have instead fed his baseless claim that the election is being stolen from him.
Trump’s allies have grown concerned that someone is going to have to reckon with the President that his time in office is potentially coming to an end, though they have not decided who should be the one to do it. There has been talk of potentially Jared Kushner or Ivanka Trump doing so, sources said.
The Trump campaign released a statement Friday morning making clear they will contest the election, calling any projections of Joe Biden as the winner “false” and the race “far from final.”
“This election is not over. The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final,” Trump campaign general counsel Matt Morgan said in a statement.
Remember: CNN has not yet projected a winner in the presidential election. Joe Biden currently has 253 electoral votes, while Trump has 213. It takes 270 electoral votes to win.
Morgan’s statement continued:
“Georgia is headed for a recount, where we are confident we will find ballots improperly harvested, and where President Trump will ultimately prevail. There were many irregularities in Pennsylvania, including having election officials prevent our volunteer legal observers from having meaningful access to vote counting locations. We prevailed in court on our challenge, but were deprived of valuable time and denied the transparency we are entitled to under state law. In Nevada, there appear to be thousands of individuals who improperly cast mail ballots. Finally, the President is on course to win Arizona outright, despite the irresponsible and erroneous ‘calling’ of the state for Biden by Fox News and the Associated Press.”
The statement makes clear, as CNN has reported, the President has no intention of conceding as of now.
“Biden is relying on these states for his phony claim on the White House, but once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected,” Morgan concluded.
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is responding to reports that President Donald Trump has no plans to concede the race.
“As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House,” campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.
Additional reporting from CNN’s Kevin Bohn
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