US: Democrat Joe Biden pulled ahead of President Donald Trump in the potentially decisive state of Pennsylvania on Friday, putting him on the brink of victory in an increasingly tense White House race.
Pennsylvania, and its 20 electoral votes, would be enough to put the 77-year-old Biden past the magic number of 270 votes in the Electoral College, which determines the presidency.
With tens of thousands of votes remaining to be counted, many of them from heavily Democratic areas, Biden opened up a 5,500-vote lead over the Republican incumbent, real-time state election results showed.
Biden currently has at least 253 electoral votes and is leading in three other states -- Arizona, Georgia and Nevada -- where votes from Tuesday’s bitterly contested election continue to be counted. With a Biden victory looking increasingly likely, the US Secret Service increased its protective bubble around the former vice president, The Washington Post reported Friday.
The Secret Service sent an extra squad of agents to Biden’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, the newspaper said. Mail-in ballots have tilted heavily to Democrats.
In Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign moved to stop the counting of votes, which authorities were forbidden from processing before Election Day.
Several major US television networks cut away from live coverage of Trump’s White House event over concerns that he was spreading disinformation, and there were signs of cracks in support within his Republican Party.
Biden, who has promised to heal a country bruised by Trump’s polarizing four years in power, has appealed for “people to stay calm.”
Besides Pennsylvania, Biden also pulled ahead of Trump overnight in the once reliably Republican state of Georgia, taking a lead of about 1,000 votes.
In Arizona and Nevada, Biden was holding on to slim leads.
Wins in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania would give Biden 306 of the 538 Electoral College votes -- the exact number won by Trump in his 2016 upset victory over Hillary Clinton.
The Trump campaign has filed a slew of lawsuits in battleground states challenging the results and the president’s supporters have staged protests outside several vote-counting centers.
Outside an election office in Arizona’s capital Phoenix, far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones roused a heavily armed crowd, shouting on a megaphone about Trump’s supposed enemies: “They will be destroyed because America is rising.”
Bob Bauer, a lawyer for the Biden campaign, has dismissed the slew of Trump campaign lawsuits as “meritless.”- AFP areas, Biden opened up a 5,500-vote lead over the Republican incumbent, real-time state election results showed.
Biden currently has at least 253 electoral votes and is leading in three other states -- Arizona, Georgia and Nevada -- where votes from Tuesday’s bitterly contested election continue to be counted. Mail-in ballots have tilted heavily to Democrats.Besides Pennsylvania, Biden also pulled ahead of Trump overnight in the once reliably Republican state of Georgia, taking a lead of about 1,000 votes. - AFP
