joe biden the democratic challenger has
appeared in public and told his
supporters that he has no doubt
that he will be the next president
counting continues in just
a handful of key states and the margins
are incredibly tight
but joe biden appears to be edging ever
closer to the white house and has called
for calm
and patience while the counting
continues
he is currently projected to have 253
electoral college votes and donald trump
214.
they need 270 to win the white house
the key remaining states are arizona
georgia
nevada pennsylvania and north carolina
the bbc in line with several other news
organizations is now projecting that joe
biden is the winner in wisconsin
and there's no sign of president donald
trump conceding quite the opposite he's
launched a set of legal challenges
well let's join our north america editor
john soppel in washington for the very
latest john
yes sophie as you say donald trump has
launched a raft of legal actions in all
these states
that where the the votes are being
counted but i am sensing that there is
growing frustration within the white
house
that the president isn't getting the
support that he wanted from the
republican party and his lawyer has
tweeted about it
donald trump's son has tweeted about it
so there is frustration there
but also they're saying there is going
to be no concession because the votes
are being stolen
and you have joe biden's camp saying
we're going to win
we're absolutely certain of it so to
misquote the trump
slogan the territory we're now in is
make america wait again
[Music]
as america waits so impatience groans
and protests are cropping up in all the
states where counting is still going on
they're mainly trump supporters but last
night what they were chanting
depended on where they were this is
detroit michigan where donald trump
had a narrowing lead and his fans are
shouting
stop the count
[Music]
but go west to arizona where donald
trump is trailing
and what's the cry count those votes
the charge from trump surrogates is that
the democrats are trying to steal the
election
we are filing this federal lawsuit to
protect
legal voters it is
unacceptable in this country to have
illegal
votes counted
after this news conference rick grinnell
donald trump's former director of
national intelligence
was chased by a reporter to explain what
the fraud
as things stand we're waiting for
counting to finish in arizona
nevada where joe biden holds narrow
leads and in pennsylvania
in the northeast and georgia in the
south where the president is just about
ahead
in georgia we had this update on the
pressures facing the counting staff
fast is great and we appreciate fast
we more appreciate accuracy accuracy
is going to be the bedrock upon which
people will believe the outcomes of this
election
be there on the winning side or the
losing side
donald trump hasn't spoken publicly
since he made this statement on election
night
but his campaign have launched multiple
lawsuits since then demanding a recount
in wisconsin
calling for counting to be stopped in
other states alleging fraud in nevada
and he's tweeted this all of the recent
biden claimed states
will be legally challenged by us for
voter fraud
and state election fraud plenty of proof
just check out the media we will win
america first the tweet has been flagged
by twitter
for being misleading the democrats are
watching all of this wearily
and have an army of lawyers ready to go
into battle if that's what this election
comes down to
we have no doubt that when the count is
finished senator harris and i will be
declared the winners
so i ask everyone to stay calm all the
people to stay calm
the process is working the count is
being completed
and we'll know very soon neither side is
giving an inch
neither side is giving up there's
defiance from the trump camp
determination from biden who's going to
prevail
watch this space john sopel bbc news
washington well our north america
correspondent nick bryant is at joe
biden's campaign headquarters in
wilmington
delaware and we saw joe biden in the
past hour a very brief appearance but
he's certainly sounding very confident
sophie they are super confident they
think they're going to win arizona they
think they're going to win nevada just
those two states alone will get them to
that magic number of 270.
increasingly they think they are going
to win pennsylvania such a big prize
donald trump was 500 000 votes ahead on
election night in pennsylvania
now that lead has dipped below a hundred
thousand when you read the headlines on
the news tonight it was ninety seven
thousand
now it's ninety thousand the biden
campaign chipping away at that
they know there are still votes to be
counted in places like philadelphia
philadelphia of course
a democratic stronghold they're pretty
confident as well of what is happening
right now
in georgia they're happy on multiple
fronts legally
some of those legal challenges from the
trump campaign have been rejected
by courts in georgia and michigan the
trump campaign has called for a recount
in wisconsin but they've got a 20 000
lead
in wisconsin and recounts generally only
shift
about a couple of hundred votes it's
significant maybe
that on this stage behind me in the past
hour
they've been checking the microphones
just adjusting a few things we haven't
seen activity on that stage
since election night maybe they're
preparing for a victory party
nick brown thank you well it certainly
has been one of the most divisive u.s
elections anyone can remember our
correspondent ali mabul has been
speaking to people
in wisconsin one of the most fiercely
contested states to find out how the
bitter battle
has affected the public mood there she's
really healthy
even in quaint suburban america right
now in these fractious times
it's them and us but there are those
trying to come together
when tim had his biden signs stolen his
trump supporting neighbor josh surprised
him with a replacement
i know josh is a member of the
republican party
and so you know uh for him to come and
and do something like that was uh was
pretty outstanding
and so and then in the course of our
conversation i
i realized that that josh is uh you know
a regular person first in a republican
second
but the situation nationally is causing
tension
i think people's uh wicks are just a
little bit shorter than they used to be
i think people are afraid
they're afraid of what the economy looks
like
they're afraid of the unknown and so
that fear becomes
anger
even outside the white house on election
night we saw radical elements on the
left make an appearance
in recent months far-right militia have
also made their presence felt
in many parts of the country and we all
remember moments over the last year
where american cities have quickly
descended into
chaos anti-fascist activist vaughn mayes
has been arrested
several times for alleged violence but
now predicts trouble from the other side
i live in a state where we saw armed
protesters
trump supporters storm the capitol
because they did not want to follow mass
mandates and they did not want their
businesses shut down they wanted to be
able to get
in their words haircuts um and so if
they would do go to those heights and
those levels
for mass mandates um it's definitely
concerning what they would do if their
president
is not re-elected especially when he's
been putting it out there that if he
doesn't win is rigged or
some sort of conspiracy against him um
and
that they should fight back there's
little doubt that the angry rhetoric and
political discourse
at the top has led to more animosity
among some elements at least
on the ground and the theory is because
this has already been a contentious
election
and promises to be into the days and
weeks to come
that'll only lead to greater divisions
in american society
helene mcball bbc news in milwaukee
wisconsin