Biden confident of a win but calls for patience and calm

Democratic candidate Joe Biden is confident he will win the race for presidency and has once again urged Americans to be patient and stay calm as ballot-counting continues in a few states. 

In an address from Wilmington, Delaware late Friday night, Biden said: “We do not have a final declaration of victory yet, but the numbers are clear we will win this race.”

“Look at the national numbers we are going to win this race with a clear majority and the nation is behind us. We’ve gotten over 74 million votes,” he said.

Biden took the lead on Friday in Pennsylvania and Georgia, two states that are still counting ballots, and edged closer to a victory in the closely contested presidential contest against President Donald Trump, Al Jazeera reported.

The Associated Press news agency says both states, as well as Nevada, North Carolina and Alaska, are still too close to call.

But Biden appears confident the final numbers will be in his favor.

“We’re going to be the first Democrats to win in Arizona in 24 years. We’re going to be the first democrats to win Georgia in 28 years,” he said.

Biden also stated he wanted all ballots to be counted.

“We are on track to over 300 Electoral College votes,” Biden said, in his brief address. He said he and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris were not just waiting for vote results, but were meeting with health and economic experts, and have a plan to handle the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout for when they take office.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump addressed the nation on Thursday from the White House, where he repeated baseless claims that widespread voter fraud has taken place in the election.

On Friday, Trump – who falsely claimed he had won the election in the early hours of Wednesday – tweeted that Biden “should not wrongfully claim the office of the president” because legal proceedings were just beginning.

The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in several states demanding the vote count be suspended, while also signaling its intention to demand a recount in Wisconsin, which AP projected Biden to have won.

Courts have already rejected some of those legal challenges, and experts have said they do not believe the lawsuits would significantly affect the outcome of the vote.