Welcome to today’s US election briefing for Australia.
Donald Trump again falsely asserted his claim on the presidency today. In doing so, he ramped up pressure on the rest of the country: how should they respond to a leader attempting to hold on to power by bending reality to his will?
Much of the American media, it should be said, dealt with that challenge well.
“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” the president said from behind a podium in the White House.
“If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”
As the speech continued, TV network after network cut away, realising the live broadcast was rapidly becoming an explosive source of misinformation. News anchors fact-checked the president in real-time. No, there was no evidence of “illegal votes”. No, the winner of the election was not yet known. (You can see the latest live results here and a full report on Trump’s speech here).
From senior Republicans however, there were few profiles in courage. Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz – both men publicly ridiculed by Trump in the past but who have long since bent the knee – backed up the president’s false narrative that the election is being stolen from him.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a Trump ally who landed in ICU after being part of the White House coronavirus cluster in October, offered an oblique rebuke to the president. “Show us the evidence,” he said on the American ABC News. “We heard nothing today about evidence.”
In pockets of the US, tense scenes played out on the street. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones joined a protest in Arizona, screaming “burn in hell Joe Biden”. The chairman of the Proud Boys revved up the crowd at a “Stop the Biden steal” rally in Florida.
The count offered no conclusion today. Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina remain too close to call, while counting continues in Arizona.
The election rolls into the weekend, and so too does the stress test for American democracy.
The big stories
Democratic hopes of wrenching control of the Senate from Republicans received an unexpected boost as it seems likely that two key races Georgia may be headed to runoff races.
Pro-Trump supporters, organised by the powerful conservative group FreedomWorks, faced off with counter-protesters outside a voting centre in Philadelphia as counting continued in the potentially critical state of Pennsylvania.
South Florida’s Latino voters were a crucial building block to Trump’s victory in Florida. Here’s a close look at how Republicans made inroads with this group in 2020.
Facebook removed a viral group falsely claiming that “Democrats are scheming to disenfranchise and nullify Republican votes” after it gained more than 350,000 members in a single day.
Cori Bush, a progressive Democrat, became the first black woman from Missouri elected to Congress this week. Here is her electrifying victory speech.
Fox News has become the focus of the Trump campaign’s anger after it made an early call on Tuesday night that the state of Arizona was going to Biden.
Quote of the day
Lie after lie after lie.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper after Trump’s White House speech.
Election views
“The tyrant spiraling down calls for an end to testing, to counting, to science and even to electoral law, to all those inconvenient methods of verifying what is and is not true in order to spin his truth one more time.” An excellent piece from Judith Butler on Trump’s apparent downfall.
“A Biden administration would face an uphill political battle,” says Adam Tooze. “Its formidable foes are the GOP in Congress, led by Mitch McConnell, the sulphurous boss of the Senate Republicans.”
Though it appears Biden could squeak his way into the White House, it should not have been this close, writes Nathan Robinson. “Biden didn’t offer a clear and compelling alternative … It is time for a whole new approach.”
Video of the day
Here’s how one US TV network dealt with Trump’s speech in real-time.
Around the web
“More than 150,000 ballots were caught in US Postal Service processing facilities and not delivered by election day, agency data shows, including more than 12,000 in five of the states that have yet to be called,” reports the Washington Post.
“Nothing short of reinventing American democracy, spiritually and institutionally, can protect us,” writes Masha Gessen in the New Yorker, on the task ahead, even if Trump loses.
With all eyes on the result of the presidential race, it would be easy to miss some of the history-making candidates elected to Congress this week. NPR has this story on some groundbreaking new faces in American politics.
What the numbers say: 4 million
The rough lead Biden has over Trump in the popular vote as of today.
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