Democratic leader Joe Biden appeared to be a step away from winning the US presidential election as the latest count of votes from a handful of battleground states indicated that the re-election chances of incumbent Republican President Donald Trump are getting slim by the hour.
By late Thursday night, Biden -- who bagged 253 seats as against Trump's 213 -- appeared to be nearing the magical figure of 270 out of the 538 electoral college votes.
In Georgia, which has 16 electoral college votes, Trump's lead has reduced to 1,902 votes. In Pennsylvania, having 20 electoral college votes, Trump's lead dropped down to 42,142 votes.
With 213 electoral college votes, Trump is far away from the magical figure of 270.
"We continue to feel very good about where things stand. And we have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator (Kamala) Harris and I will be the winners," Biden, told reporters in Delaware. While the counting process was going on, he urged fellow Americans to stay calm.
"I ask people to stay calm. The process is working. The count is being completed," the 77-year-old former US vice president said.
At a White House news conference, Trump said he will go to court against electoral malpractice. The Trump Campaign has already filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. He has demanded recounting of votes in Wisconsin.
"Donald Trump is going to court to stop votes from being counted. We have assembled the largest election protection effort in history to fight back and need your help," Biden tweeted after Trump's news conference at the White House.
Trump alleged that the Democrats are stealing democracy.
"Our goal is to defend the integrity of the election. We will not allow the corruption to steal such an important election or in the election for that matter and we can't allow anybody to silence our voters and manufacture results," Trump told reporters at the White House.
"There is tremendous litigation going on and this is a case where they are trying to steal an election," the 74-year-old president said.
Biden dismissed the charges.
"No one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever. America has come too far, fought too many battles, and endured too much to let that happen," he said in another tweet.
According to The New York Times, major news channels ABC, CBS and NBC all cut away as Trump's "false" statements mounted.
"Biden's path becomes clearer as vote count continues in decisive states," The Washington Post said.
In an editorial, the daily said, "There is zero, zero evidence of fraud or corruption."
"What Mr Trump sees as nefarious is something more mundane though undoubtedly painful for him: He is losing. On election night in some states, he held a lead in partial counts. Then, as mail-in ballots were counted, his lead was 'whittled away', as he said. The explanation is obvious to everyone except, apparently, the president," it said.
The editorial further noted that Trump railed so much against mail-in voting before the election that few Republicans voted that way.
"Most of the mailed ballots, therefore, favour Democrat Joe Biden. Now officials are counting the votes with observers watching, contrary to another Trump lie; with both Republican and Democratic election officials participating, contrary to another Trump lie; and in accordance with the rules, contrary to yet another Trump lie," it said.
