Published 13:12 IST, November 20th 2020
'Demonstrated irresponsibility': Biden says Trump's denial sends 'horrible message'
Biden denounced Trump’s Republican Party for launching the massive ‘Stop The Steal’ movement, saying, President is sending “incredibly damaging messages."
US President-elect Joe Biden on November 19 condemned President Donald Trump for not conceding the election and conveying “a horrible message about who we are as a country”. Indicating at the several lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign questioning the electoral integrity and democracy by alleging “fraud” and attempting to halt the counting, the former Vice President said that the US president demonstrated “incredible irresponsibility”. Speaking at a press conference, Biden further denounced Trump’s Republican Party for launching the massive ‘Stop The Steal’ movement, saying, that the President is sending “incredibly damaging messages to the world about how US democracy functions.”
Alleging that the US president, perhaps, must have been aware that the hand recounting and the lawsuits wouldn’t overturn the results, Biden took a pause and said, “I don’t know what his motive was, but it was increasingly irresponsible.” Biden’s remarks made during a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors in Wilmington came following his projected win in the state of Georgia. The president-elect now stands at a margin of more than 5.9 million votes with a projected 306 to 232 lead that depicts a clear cut victory for the presidency.
On November 19, Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, declared that the risk-limiting audit of the paper ballots in Georgia only tracked minor discrepancies such as missing memory cards, which were uploaded in several counties. Error rates of up to 2 percent were noted, and the Dem. Presidential candidate Joe Biden still managed to flip the state to Blue. Georgia hadn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton’s presidency as the 42nd president of the United States between 1996 to 2001.
“The vast majority of the American people, they have already--all the polling data has indicated all the Republicans who worry about it is higher, but you know, over 78 percent of the American people believe it is without question, it is legitimate,” Biden said, addressing the press.
'Historic' first statewide audit
Trump’s Republican Party had filed a lawsuit with Georgia’s chief elections officer asking ballots to be “fully hand-counted” to ensure election integrity and rule out “major election fraud”. The request was made after the Associated Press declared Biden the projected winner who was leading in the state with a razor-thin margin. As the recounting concluded earlier today with Biden’s projected win, Raffensberger confirmed the victory, saying, ”Georgia’s historic first statewide audit reaffirmed that the state's new secure paper ballot voting system accurately counted and reported results.”
Updated 13:11 IST, November 20th 2020