US election: TV networks cut Trump off as he repeats ‘unfounded’ fraud claims

Democratic candidate Joe Biden is currently holding on to his lead in the US presidential election 2020 while President Donald Trump again resorted to ‘unfounded’ claims of electoral fraud as the votes continue to be counted in key states.

Delivering a statement from the White House on Thursday night, the Republican presidential candidate made unsupported accusations about the integrity of the election results:

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. If you count the votes that came in late. We’re looking at them very strongly, but a lot of votes came in late.”

Foreign media reported that three major broadcasting networks – ABC, CBS and NBC – have cut away from Trump’s speech before he finished, with the anchors breaking in after a few minutes to clarify some of his ‘baseless claims’.

In a series of tweets, the US president made further allegations regarding electoral misconduct and insisted that ongoing vote count of ballots submitted before and on election day must stop.

“STOP THE COUNT!” he proclaimed, however, the president has no authority over vote counting.

“ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!” he later went on to tweet, but the Twitter has since flagged the post as it ‘is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.’

Many Republicans have avoided commenting on President Trump’s false claims to victory and assertion that votes should not be counted, but a few have urged that every vote must be counted.

A federal judge has meanwhile denied the Trump campaign’s motion to stop ballot counting in Philadelphia. This is the third campaign legal challenge to the vote count that has been dismissed. His campaign has launched a series of lawsuits, however, according to reports they are unlikely to have any bearing on the final result of the presidential race.

Biden, in the meantime, responded to Trump’s claims by tweeting: “No one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever. America has come too far, fought too many battles, and endured too much to let that happen.”

Making a statement earlier today, the Democratic candidate urged the citizens to stay calm. “In America, the vote is sacred. Each ballot must be counted.”

Trump currently has 213 electoral votes while Joe Biden, who has taken the lead in the race, has 253 electoral votes.

-with inputs from agencies