one of the most divisive battles in the
history of u.s
presidential elections has yet to
produce a winner
the results from several states are
still too close to call
so american voters don't know whether it
will be donald trump or joe biden
occupying the white house for the next
four years president trump has been
widely criticized for claiming victory
at an
early stage and for questioning the
validity of postal votes
without producing any evidence joe
biden's team
say they're confident and that they'll
claim victory
when the votes have been counted well so
far
43 of the 50 states have declared their
results with the democratic candidate
joe biden on 243 votes
in the electoral college and the
republican donald trump on 214.
the number needed to win overall and to
occupy the white house
is 270. so we'll have the story of a
dramatic and rather volatile 24 hours
we'll be looking at the results to come
and we'll be asking what this election
says about the state of u s democracy
we're going to start in washington with
our north america editor
john sopel
hugh thank you yes the democratic party
was hoping to win
so decisively last night that it would
prove that donald trump's victory in
2016 was an
aberration a foolish holiday romance
with the american people
that had come to an end that didn't
happen donald trump got more votes last
night than he did in 2016.
but that said joe biden has won more
votes than any presidential candidate
in history and at the moment as things
stand
the momentum is shifting towards joe
biden
[Music]
the hoopla of election night in the u.s
and as the polls close
the democrats are talking bullishly joe
biden's on a smooth path to victory
smooth what a fantasy that's turned out
to be
donald trump was performing way better
than the polls had predicted
nowhere more so than florida the
sunshine state
that was once again a black cloud for
democrats
cbs news projects
president trump has won florida what is
this happening here
but then fox made a big call for joe
biden out west
the fox news decision desk is calling
arizona for joe biden
that is a big get
maybe the 77 year old could still win
it was clear he thought so and at just
after midnight
he came out and told his supporters this
i'm here to tell you tonight
we believe we're on track to win this
election
[Applause]
we knew because of the unprecedented
early vote in the mail-in vote
that's going to take a while we're going
to have to be patient
until we uh the hard work of tallying
the votes is finished
and it ain't over until every vote is
counted every ballot is counted
that brought an immediate and furious
response from the president
tweeting that the democrats were trying
to steal the election
and then just before 2 30 this morning a
night that had been simmering
exploded donald trump entering the east
room of the white house
to make this statement this is a fraud
on the american public this is an
embarrassment to our country
we were getting ready to win this
election
frankly we did win this election
there's no evidence of fraud at all and
the votes that remain to be counted were
cast
on or before polling day and the
president ratcheted up the tension still
further
saying he wanted the supreme court which
now has a decisive conservative majority
to order a halt to counting for the good
of this nation this is a very big moment
this is a major fraud in our nation we
want
the law to be used in a proper manner
so we'll be going to the u.s supreme
court
we want all voting to stop
we don't want them to find any ballots
at
four o'clock in the morning and add them
to the list okay
for the moment counting continues of
postal votes in these key swing states
which were always expected to give joe
biden an advantage
after he encouraged his supporters to
vote by mail and the president railed
against it
tension is still great and that was
palpable on the streets around the white
house last night
as black lives matter protesters
gathered
in the dawn light things are becoming
clearer yes there are still millions of
ballots to be processed
but joe biden has picked up wisconsin
and is projected to win michigan
no declaration of victory yet but it
wasn't far
short after a long night of counting
it's clear that we're winning enough
states
to reach 270 electoral votes needed to
win the presidency
i'm not here to declare that we've won
but i am here to report when the count
is finished
we believe we will be the winners
there is though still a fragile unease
with shops and offices boarded up
this could still get bumpy and americans
will need to show patience
trust and fortitude all commodities
in desperate short supply
it's been a day of really sharp
fluctuations
and as with the evening comes so joe
biden is looking good
with that declaration those declarations
of wisconsin and michigan
he is in within touching distance of
those 270 electoral college votes
he is ahead in nevada he is ahead in
arizona
they should declare tomorrow if that
doesn't change
then joe biden will cross the threshold
of 270 votes
and will claim the presidency hugh john
many thanks for now we'll talk again
later about some other aspects of the uh
of the night but thanks very much for
now john sobel there for us in
washington
and as we saw in john's report within
the past hour joe biden has emerged
to deliver his message to the american
people saying he's confident a victory
but not yet formally declaring that he's
won
he said people should be patient until
every vote had been counted
and as we said several battleground
states have yet to declare
so let's join our north america
correspondent nick bryant at the biden
campaign headquarters
in wilmington delaware and nick what did
you make of the tone
and the content of mr biden's address a
short while ago
it was a conventionally presidential
style speech from a man who now believes
he is going to be the next president the
tone
so starkly different from donald trump's
comments at the white house last night
and that was precisely the point
it's been the point of joe candace joe
biden's candidacy throughout this to
present himself
as the anti-trump now he set out his
case he's won more votes nationally
than donald trump that's true but it's
irrelevant in the u.s electoral system
he's won more votes than any
presidential candidate
in us history that is true as well but
again irrelevant but crucially
he believes now that he has the votes
where it matters
wisconsin michigan arizona and nevada
the four states that would get into that
magic number
of 270. now joe biden is surrounded by
veterans
of the florida recap and one of the
reasons they believe that george w bush
ended up as the president in 2000
was could because he created the
narrative early on
that he was the true winner that he was
the true
president-elect and that al gore did not
come up with a counter narrative
that was persuasive enough they are
determined
not to let that happen now this speech
was part of that
part of their post-election campaign
dick many thanks again nick brown there
at the biden headquarters in
wilmington