Trump vs. Biden: Live Updates - The New York Times
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Nov. 5, 2020, 5:46 p.m. ET
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DETROIT — Kameron Fisher, 28, normally doesn’t keep cable news shows on in the background, but it has been the soundtrack for the past three days at his home in St. Clair Shores, Mich.
“I actually stayed up the whole night and was watching the results come in, and some things concern me a little bit,” he said as he walked through downtown Detroit on Thursday. “It felt like, if we’re counting ballots, then data should be flowing in, but it wasn’t.”
Mr. Fisher, an Army veteran, said gun rights were a big factor for him. He is worried that his guns and his ammunition will be taxed if former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. wins the election. But Mr. Fisher didn’t think President Trump was a good candidate, either; he voted for the Libertarian Jo Jorgenson.
Mr. Fisher, who works in information technology, said he was heartened that there was a more conservative majority on the Supreme Court that he expected would protect the Second Amendment, regardless of who won the presidency.
The unseasonably warm afternoon prompted Michael Ivory, 39, of Southgate, to take a break from his finance job in Detroit. He said he wished he could take a break from the bombardment of news as well.
“I had to stop looking at CNN for just one day,” Mr. Ivory said. “You’re looking at the numbers, and you’re just wondering what’s going on in different counties in different states, but you’ve just got to sit back and just let it let it happen.”
If Mr. Trump came out on top, Mr. Ivory said, he hoped the president would gain a little “gracious character and hope that we see a kind of difference in leadership.”
If Mr. Biden won, “I would like that he would just go ahead and really unite the country, because that’s what he’s been really talking about,” Mr. Ivory said.
He added that the anxiety of the exhausting election cycle was now mixed with relief that the campaign ads and constant bickering were nearly over.
“No more phone calls or getting texted every day and every hour asking if I’ve voted,” Mr. Ivory said, “so it’s kind of a relief.”
Stephanie Saul in New York
In Georgia’s ongoing presidential vote tally, Biden continues to gain on Trump, narrowing the lead to fewer than 10,000 votes for the first time today.
Michigan senate candidate John James appeared during a campaign rally with President Trump at in Traverse City, Mich., on Monday.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
John James, a Republican who ran against Senator Gary Peters of Michigan in a contest that ended up being much closer than most public polling showed, is refusing to concede, citing vague and unsupported claims of cheating.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Mr. James said nothing of the presidential contest in Michigan, which President Trump lost and attempted to throw into doubt with a lawsuit that was promptly dismissed by a state judge.
But Mr. James did call for an investigation and expressed “deep concerns that millions of Michiganders may have been disenfranchised by a dishonest few who cheat.” He did not specify which government entity he hoped would investigate or offer an specifics about what kind of cheating he was referring to.
Jim Rutenberg in New York
The Trump campaign filed suit in federal court seeking to stop the counting in Philadelphia, arguing that its observers were denied proper access. A hearing was set for 5:30 p.m.
Michael Gold in New York
Nevada has about 190,000 ballots still to be counted, the secretary of state said. Ninety percent of them are from Clark County, where Biden currently leads by 8 percentage points.
At a news conference on Thursday, Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee for president, said he felt confident about his chances, but stopped short of declaring himself the winner of the election.CreditCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
WILMINGTON, Del. — Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Thursday urged Americans to be patient as votes were counted and said he and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, had “no doubt” that they would ultimately prevail.
“It is the will of the voters, no one, not anything else, that chooses the president of the United States of America,” he said. “So, each ballot must be counted, and that’s what we’re going to see going through now. And that’s how it should be.”
In brief remarks to reporters in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Biden continued: “Democracy is sometimes messy. It sometimes requires a little patience as well. But that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years with a system of governance that’s been the envy of the world.”
Mr. Biden spoke after he and Ms. Harris received briefings on the coronavirus pandemic and the economy at a theater in Wilmington. Earlier in the day, Mr. Biden’s campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, expressed confidence that Mr. Biden would win the election, and during his remarks, Mr. Biden also predicted a victory.
“We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners,” he said. “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.”
Nov. 5, 2020, 4:15 p.m. ET
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James Baker in 2000. He led the legal and political team that secured the presidency for George W. Bush during the Florida recount battle.Credit...Vincent Laforet/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The White House says it wants a “James Baker-like” figure to lead its postelection battle to somehow find a way to win a second term. But the real James Baker says the White House should stop trying to stop the votes from being counted.
Mr. Baker, the former secretary of state who led the legal and political team during the Florida recount battle in 2000 that secured the presidency for George W. Bush, said in an interview on Thursday that President Trump may have legitimate issues to pursue but they should not be used to justify a halt to the initial tabulation of ballots.
“There are huge differences,” Mr. Baker said of the Florida battle and the brewing fights over this week’s election. “For one thing, our whole argument was that the votes have been counted and they’ve been counted and they’ve been counted and it’s time to end the process. That’s not exactly the message that I heard on election night. And so I think it’s pretty hard to be against counting the votes.”
“We never said don’t count the votes,” Mr. Baker added. “That’s a very hard decision to defend in a democracy.”
As an example, he disapproved of the Republican effort to throw out 127,000 votes in his hometown, Houston, because they were cast through a drive-by system that the party objected to. “I didn’t think that was a particularly wise thing to do and as it turns out it wasn’t wise legally because they’ve lost in state court and in federal court,” he said.
Mr. Baker, who has not publicly endorsed Mr. Trump and has been sharply critical at times but personally voted for him, said the president had every right to challenge results after they have been counted if there are legitimate grounds to question their validity.
Mr. Baker does agree that Mr. Trump should find someone like Mr. Baker to serve as a field marshal. “Message discipline,” he said, “is particularly important in something like this.” But at age 90, he is ready for it to be someone else.
Michael Gold in New York
Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania has fallen below 100,000 votes after additional results from Philadelphia and Erie counties. The secretary of state has promised an update this evening.
From Hong Kong to London to Mexico City, the drawn out election in the United States is being watched closely around the world.
Nov. 5, 2020, 3:28 p.m. ET
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Raphael Warnock, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, during a rally on Tuesday in Atlanta.Credit...Pool photo by Brynn Anderson
Democrat Raphael Warnock, running for the U.S. Senate and headed to a January runoff against Republican Kelly Loeffler in Georgia, is bracing himself for an onslaught of attack ads — by preemptively releasing a video in which he eats pizza with a knife and pretends to hate puppies.
Mr. Warnock, the pastor who now occupies Martin Luther King Jr.’s pulpit at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, offered a bit of comic relief at a moment when both parties were sweating out the presidential race.
“Raphael Warnock eats pizza with a fork and knife,” says a voice-over as the pastor, wearing a chin napkin, fastidiously consumes a pie (à la Bill de Blasio) in a 30-second video posted on his Twitter page. “Raphael Warnock once stepped on a crack in the sidewalk. Raphael Warnock even hates puppies.”
The message has a serious political purpose in a state that could be host to two Senate runoffs that may determine the balance of power in the upper chamber. As of late Thursday, incumbent Sen. David Perdue, a Republican was below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff against a strong Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, in Georgia’s other Senate race.
As of late Thursday, Mr. Warnock had garnered 32.7 percent of the vote to Ms. Loeffler’s 26 percent. Ms. Loeffler, who was appointed to her seat last year, made it to the runoff by getting more votes than Rep. Doug Collins, a conservative Republican, in the multicandidate special election.
“Get ready Georgia. The negative ads against us are coming,” tweeted Mr. Warnock, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. “But that won’t stop us from fighting for a better future for Georgians and focusing on the issues that matter.”
Ms. Loeffler, by contrast, went the NFL Films route in her celebratory “Let’s Do This, Georgia” video on Twitter, posting a two-minute video in which she strides, in triumphant slow-motion, to a variety of campaign events — including a rally with Mr. Trump where he called her “a terrific person.”
Nov. 5, 2020, 3:20 p.m. ET
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Stacks of pro-Trump signs at a protest at Phoenix City Hall on Thursday.Credit...Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times
PHOENIX — As election officials continue counting ballots in Maricopa County, protesters showed up again in downtown Phoenix on Thursday to express support for President Trump, who was still trailing in the results.
About 50 demonstrators gathered in front of City Hall, hoisting Trump signs and chanting “Stop the Steal.” Several in the crowd were openly carrying rifles and handguns.
Dale Williams, 70, a retired real estate broker, said he showed up to voice opposition to what he described as a Democratic attempt to steal the election, echoing claims the president has made, without citing evidence. “I absolutely believe Donald Trump won Arizona and won the country,” said Mr. Williams, who was carrying a concealed handgun that he showed to a reporter. “We cannot let Democrats get away with fraud.”
The protest on Thursday came after another demonstration Wednesday night convened by Mike Cernovich, a far-right blogger and YouTube personality. At that protest, right-wing gunmen repeatedly threatened journalists, and sheriff’s deputies moved television crews inside the Maricopa County Elections Center because of safety concerns.
The protest on Thursday seemed to be less contentious, though it was also just getting underway.
Around noon more protesters, some holding military-style rifles, began arriving, with a handful of police officers positioned nearby.
“I’m here to tell the left there’s no way in hell they’re taking my guns,” said Josh Dawl, 35, who showed up with both a .22 caliber rifle and a Winchester Model 1894 rifle. “Trump supports our constitutional rights. Biden does not.”
Michael Gold in New York
“We can’t know how long the process will take,” said Gabriel Sterling, a Georgia election official. “We hope to have clarity on the outcomes of these elections as soon as possible.”
Michael Gold in New York
Georgia still has 47,277 ballots remaining to be counted, an official with the secretary of state’s office said.
A “vote” sign at the entrance of the El Tianguis Mercado polling station in Guadalupe, Ariz., on Election Day. Arizona was on pace to have a “good indicator” of its final election results on Friday.Credit...Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times
Arizona, where former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has maintained a steady but slightly narrowing lead, was on pace to have a “good indicator” of its final election results on Friday, the state’s top elections official said in a television interview on Thursday morning.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said on “CBS This Morning” that Arizona had just under 450,000 votes waiting to be counted on Thursday morning. The majority of them, about 300,000, were Maricopa County, the state’s most populous region, she said.
Election officials in the county, home to Phoenix, have said they expect to give their next elections update at 9 p.m. Eastern.
As of Thursday afternoon, Mr. Biden led President Trump in Arizona by about 68,500 votes, or 2.4 percentage points. So far, Mr. Biden leads in Maricopa County by 4 percentage points.
The state, which has 11 electoral votes, has been a contested battleground in this election, and tension in the state has risen as the gap between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump has narrowed.
In Phoenix on Wednesday night, a group of pro-Trump protesters, some of them armed, gathered outside a county office where a vote count was being conducted.
Adding to the anxiety, Fox News and The Associated Press have called Arizona for Joe Biden, while other outlets, including The New York Times, have not.
Ms. Hobbs disputed claims that votes were not being properly counted in the state, saying the process was transparent.
“Every tabulation room has cameras,” she said. “Anyone can go online to the election office in any county and view the proceedings while they’re happening.”
Ms. Hobbs also said that the bulk of Arizona’s remaining votes came from mail-in ballots received by county elections officials on Monday or Tuesday. Those ballots were in the process of having their signatures verified so they could be tabulated.
Nov. 5, 2020, 3:04 p.m. ET
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Vote counting in Atlanta on Thursday.Credit...Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times
ATLANTA — After days of counting votes, Fulton County elections workers at State Farm Arena burst into applause on Thursday afternoon, as they finished processing their last trays of absentee ballots.
As of Thursday, Fulton County, which contains most of Atlanta and is Georgia’s most populous county, had counted 145,748 mail-in ballots, according to Richard L. Barron, the county’s election director.
Credit...The New York Times
The county’s vote total is expected to rise slightly with more than 3,600 provisional ballots to be processed and the arrival of any outstanding military and overseas ballots, which Mr. Barron said must be received by Friday at 5 p.m.
He also said that approximately 1,200 ballots that had been flagged for signature mismatches during the count were expected to be adjudicated, or assessed for the voter’s intent, by a bipartisan panel on Thursday afternoon.
Robb Pitts, the chairman of Fulton County’s board of commissioners, said that he was pleased with how the count had proceeded.
“Our goal early on was to ensure that the voters in Fulton County had a pleasing, pleasant, easy voting experience on Nov. 3,” Mr. Pitts said. “We rose to the occasion and accomplished what we wanted to accomplish.”
As of 12:45 p.m., Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, said the state had 50,401 ballots left to be counted.
Supporters of President Donald Trump gather outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia to protest the ongoing ballot counting inside on Thursday.Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
President Trump notched a minor victory in Pennsylvania on Thursday when a state appellate court acceded to his campaign’s request to force Philadelphia election officials to grant its election observers better access to areas where workers are counting ballots. The request is part of a last ditch Trump campaign effort to slow vote counting through lawsuits and procedural challenges.
Under the new orders, Republican observers will be allowed to watch the process from six feet away; previously, they were kept at a distance of roughly 20 feet away from workers at the main Philadelphia canvassing area, at the downtown convention center.
In a tweet, Jason Miller, a senior campaign aide, declared the decision a “major legal victory,’’ though Twitter quickly flagged his post as potentially misleading.
Mr. Biden’s campaign disputed the significance of the decision in Philadelphia.
“We don’t care if your observers are 18 feet away or 15 feet away or 6 feet away,’’ a Biden spokesman, Bill Russo, wrote on Twitter. “As long as election officials can do their job.”
The decision on Philadelphia came on a second day of legal wrangling, as Mr. Trump and Republican allies pressed cases seeking to delay counting, dispute ballots, or win better access for observers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada, with threats of more.
In a press briefing on Thursday, a senior adviser to the Biden campaign, Bob Bauer, said the charges and the lawsuits were without merit.
“They’re intended to give the Trump campaign the opportunity to argue that the vote count should stop; it’s not going to stop,’’ Mr. Bauer said, adding that the purpose of the suits was to “create an opportunity for them to message falsely about what’s taking place in the electoral process.”
In Michigan, the Trump campaign lost a separate legal bid to gain more access to the vote counting, while in Georgia its lawsuit alleging mishandled absentee was dismissed. Michigan was called for Mr. Biden on Wednesday by many news organizations, while Georgia remains too close to call.
Nov. 5, 2020, 2:44 p.m. ET
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Demonstrators outside Clark County Election Department in Las Vegas on Thursday.Credit...Bridget Bennett for The New York Times
LAS VEGAS — As Nevada election workers count votes and the nation watches to see if the state will tip the presidential election to Joseph R. Biden Jr., tensions are building outside the nondescript warehouse where most of the uncounted votes remain.
Dozens of flag-waving supporters of President Trump gathered at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas on Thursday morning to protest that the election was being stolen, though there has been no evidence of fraud. Trucks with Trump flags circled the block, some gunning their engines and honking their horns.
Broadcasting on a hastily announced livestream, local Republican leaders set up a podium in the street and announced they were filing a lawsuit to stop the counting of what they claimed were “illegal votes.”
In a surreal performance in front of a throng of national and international news crews that have turned their attention to this desert corner of the country, the former Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt said Republicans had discovered evidence of dead people and out-of-state voters illegally casting ballots in Nevada — but he did not provide any specifics to support those claims.
“We’re asking the judge to, due to all of these irregularities, to stop the counting of improper votes,” he said.
Mr. Laxalt was joined by Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, and Ric Grenell, former acting director of national intelligence. Mr. Grenell refused to answer questions, telling reporters, “Listen, you are here to take in information.”
“What’s going on in Nevada impacts what’s going on all across this country,” Mr. Schlapp said.
As reporters shouted questions, the speakers got into a van and drove away. In a turn fitting for 2020, many of the Trump supporters left decrying Fox, the president’s onetime favorite news organization, which has been the focus of fury by Republicans since it called the race in Arizona for Mr. Biden on Wednesday.
Thomas Kaplan in Wilmington, Del.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are receiving a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic and an economic briefing at a theater in Wilmington. Both tested negative for the virus today.
Nov. 5, 2020, 2:34 p.m. ET
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Kathy Boockvar, Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, said that most of the state’s outstanding ballots were from denser population centers.Credit...Julio Cortez/Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — With much of the presidential race hinging on the outcome in Pennsylvania, the state’s top election official said that she expected the “overwhelming majority” of the state’s 550,000 remaining votes to be tallied by Thursday and that a state winner “definitely could” be announced by the end of the day.
President Trump’s lead in the state over Joseph R. Biden Jr. has dwindled since Wednesday from more than 10 percentage points to less than two points, with fewer than 115,000 votes now separating the candidates. If Mr. Biden wins the state, he wins the presidency.
“Counties are furiously at work, and it is looking like we’re ahead of schedule,” Kathy Boockvar, Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, told CNN.
Ms. Boockvar said that most of the state’s outstanding ballots were from denser population centers, including Philadelphia and its suburban counties, and Allegheny County, which is home to Pittsburgh.
Ms. Boockvar said that though Philadelphia temporarily paused its counting on Thursday because of some legal filings, it was quickly resumed. Officials in the city convention center are continuing to work on the roughly 100,000 ballots left to count in the city.
The Trump campaign has filed multiple lawsuits in Pennsylvania, including one seeking to allow election observers closer access to election workers in Philadelphia, which a judge granted on Thursday morning. The Trump campaign also filed a motion to intervene in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging a rule in the state that allows ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive up to three days later to still be counted.
But Ms. Boockvar said that election officials were not seeing a large influx of late-arriving ballots, and did not anticipate they would have an impact on the final tally.
“Counties are reporting anywhere, from some smaller counties are reporting anywhere from 0 to some of the larger counties have reported about 500 received the day after Election Day,” said Ms. Boockvar.
“Unless it is super close,” she added, “I don’t see them making this or breaking this one way or another. But in the meantime, we are going to be counting every ballot.”
Nov. 5, 2020, 2:31 p.m. ET
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Would-be observers waited to be let in at the Detroit Department of Elections on Wednesday.Credit...Brittany Greeson for The New York Times
DETROIT — A Michigan judge denied a request from the Trump campaign to halt the counting of ballots in the state, pointing out that the tallying of absentee ballots was already completed.
The Trump campaign filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, asking for its observers to be given “meaningful access” to vote-counting locations in the state.
The campaign also requested access to review video surveillance tapes at ballot drop boxes. In Michigan, there were about 1,000 such boxes across the state; any that were installed after Oct. 1 were supposed to be under video surveillance.
In a hearing on Thursday, Judge Cynthia Stephens of the Michigan Court of Claims noted that the lawsuit was filed not long before the counting of absentee ballots had been finished. “The essence of the count is completed,” she said.
Challengers from both parties were allowed to observe vote counting throughout Michigan, but much of the dispute over their access has focused on the TCF Center in Detroit, a convention center where more than 170,000 absentee ballots were tallied.
A maximum of 134 challengers from each party were allowed at the convention center. More tried to gain access on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Detroit election officials limited the number to comply with social distancing guidelines. Some poll challengers were also removed for refusing to wear masks properly or becoming disruptive.
One man cited in the Trump campaign’s lawsuit said he was removed from an absentee counting board in Roscommon County, but he did not include the circumstances of why or when he was removed.
Another person relayed a conversation she had with an unnamed poll worker, who allegedly said she was asked to change the date of when an absentee ballot was received — a claim that Judge Stephens dismissed.
“Tell me how that’s not hearsay,” she told an attorney for the Trump campaign. “Come on now.”
Nov. 5, 2020, 2:26 p.m. ET
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Trump supporters protested at Phoenix City Hall on Thursday.Credit...Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times
Republicans on Capitol Hill, including the party’s top leaders, remained largely silent on Thursday as President Trump and his campaign continued to baselessly claim that Democrats were trying to “steal” the election, and urged officials around the country to stop counting legally cast ballots.
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, sought on Wednesday to sidestep questions about whether he agreed with Mr. Trump that election officials should halt their tabulations. “What the president wants to make sure is that every legal vote is counted,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters. “That people vote up until Election Day — not the days after as others would have. That’s what the president refers to.”
With former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. gaining ground in Georgia and Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump has escalated his protestations, seething on Twitter to “STOP THE FRAUD” as workers in key states continued to process ballots in accordance with the law, and he issued a written statement through his campaign Thursday afternoon in which he warned without evidence that there could be fraud afoot.
One Republican offered a rare rebuke of the president for his statements. Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, took exception early Wednesday morning to a false assertion by Mr. Trump that Democrats were attempting to steal the election.
“Stop. Full stop,” Mr. Kinzinger wrote on Twitter. “The votes will be counted and you will either win or lose. And America will accept that. Patience is a virtue.”
In a mildly worded statement congratulating Mr. Trump on winning his home state, Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, also called for the vote-counting process to be allowed to proceed, saying: “We should respect that process and ensure that all ballots cast in accordance with state laws are counted. It’s that simple.”
But most of their Republican colleagues in Congress, who have stood by Mr. Trump through four years of norm-shattering behavior and statements, ignored the president’s comments. Even some of his most vocal critics, who broke sharply with the president in the days before the balloting — such as Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska — stayed mum as the president publicly sought to undermine the nation’s democratic process.
Alicia Parlapiano in Washington
The registrar in Clark County (Las Vegas) said the county would release the next batch of votes around noon ET on Friday. Remaining votes include mail and provisional ballots.
Americans continued to voice frustration over the election process on Thursday, taking to the streets in mostly peaceful marches in cities across the country.
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