In a nail biting election, Biden takes key states as votes are still being counted.
Four years ago, Trump won Michigan and Wisconsin, but for this year’s presidential election, Biden wins the key battleground states. According to the Associated Press, the latest count places him as being just 6 electoral votes away from garnering the 270 needed to nab the presidency.
“I’m not here to declare that we won, but I am here to report that when the count is finished we believe that we’ll be the winners,” said Biden in a press conference on Wednesday.
Other key votes still being counted are in Pennsylvania and Georgia, two more swing states that will decide the election.
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Before Biden’s press conference, President Donald Trump made a campaign speech early Wednesday morning. He called himself the winner, but also accused the voting process as “a fraud on the American public.”
Also, Trump alleged that the voting process is flawed.
“We won states, and all of sudden it’s off,” said Trump in his claims that the Democrats cheated in casting ballots. “We’ll be going to the Supreme Court . . . we want all voting to stop.”
Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon, responded saying Trump’s threat “to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect.”
Since, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit to stop tabulations as they neared completion. Claims in the suit say the campaign was not given full access at several polling sites to observe voting.
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Later in the day, Trump supporters attempted to force entry into the TCF Center in Detroit to halt the counting of ballots chanting, “stop the count.” Demonstrators were kept out by police officers in a tense clash between protesters and poll workers.
Republican poll workers said that they were keeping an eye on ballots cast in Detroit, but were overwhelmed by Democrats. The contrast of the demonstration showed the split in the country—an all-white band in a predominantly city, attempting to stop Black votes.
Months ago, Michigan was another type of battleground. During the Covid-19 shutdowns, anti-quarantine protests were held against the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Several months later, the FBI and DOJ arrested a group of white males belonging to a domestic terrorist group planning to kidnap and kill Gov. Whitmer. Intelligence also disclosed that the extremists plotted to disrupt elections with violence.
Gov. Whitmer said that it was Trump’s recent statements that “emboldened” white terrorist groups. If there was a strong response against Trump, it happened at the ballot box by 20,000 votes. Ironically, the same that flipped the Democratic stronghold in 2016.
Regardless of the lawsuit and impediments, Biden holds firm to Michigan’s electoral votes.
