President Donald Trump has said his campaign would begin challenging US election results in court next week after media outlets called the race for Democrat Joe Biden, saying “this election is far from over.”
“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed,” he said in a statement. “The simple fact is this election is far from over.”
“Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated”, in a reference to legal challenges that have already been filed – and many rejected – in several states.
“So what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”
Election observers and officials overseeing vote counts have repeatedly said that no widespread irregularities have been seen in the process.
Trump was reportedly playing golf at the Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, Virginia when news of Biden’s win broke.
Meanwhile, his lawyers will start posing legal challenges to the election results on Monday, claiming that dead Philadelphia residents voted this year.
Attorney Rudy Giuliani repeated allegations — without evidence — of widespread fraud and misconduct in the Pennsylvania vote count.
“These lawsuits will be brought starting on Monday,” Giuliani said.
“As you know, from the very beginning, the mail-in ballots were the source of some degree of skepticism, if not a lot of skepticism, as being innately prone to fraud.”
“You just don’t lose a lead like that without corruption,” he said of Trump’s initial lead that disappeared as postal ballots began to be counted.
He said that people standing beside him were 50 to 60 poll watchers who were “uniformly deprived of their right to inspect any single part of the mail-in ballots”.
Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots. Biden crossed 270 Electoral College votes with a win in Pennsylvania.