US Election: Biden lead in key states, Trump ramps unfounded fraud claims

USA

Joe Biden has taken the lead in a key state in the fight for the White House, as Donald Trump doubled down on unsubstantiated claims his political opponents are trying to rig and steal the US election.

As votes continue to be counted in Georgia, Mr Biden is now leading in the normally-Republican state by 917 votes.

He has 253 Electoral College votes and needs 270 to win – Georgia would hand him 16 votes taking him to 269.

The development comes after Mr Trump made his first public appearance for 36 hours.

The president said “we can’t allow anyone to silence our voters and manufacture results” – but declined to offer any evidence for his allegations of corruption and wide-scale ballot tampering.

He insisted during a White House speech that “if you count the legal votes, I easily win”, despite no victor having been announced yet and Joe Biden leading in both the Electoral College and the popular vote.

Several US news networks stopped broadcasting the president’s address after he shared unfounded claims of fraud in states where Mr Biden is eating into his lead.

ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS and USA Today were among the broadcasters who cut away from the event before it finished.

Earlier, Mr Biden declared “each ballot must be counted” and urged people to “stay calm” because “the process is working”.

He said he felt “very good about where we stand”, adding he had “no doubt” he will be declared the winner.