US election: President Trump threatens legal action and protesters take to the streets as Biden inches closer to victory

With Biden winning Michigan and Wisconsin, President Trump’s campaign threatened legal challenges after its path to victory narrowed, while protesters on both sides have taken to the streets across America.

Trump campaign officials and Republican lawyers last night began a legal challenge to Democratic votes in key swing states. They announced they were suing to stop the counting of Michigan’s mail-in ballots, as they described the process as lacking transparency.

The Trump campaign had already said it would demand a recount in Wisconsin, even before results showed that Joe Biden had won it by more than 20,000 votes and that it was also suing to stop the counting of votes in Pennsylvania.

Earlier in the day, the President had claimed that counting should stop on Election day, as early results showed him in the lead, but mail-in ballots favoured Biden, causing many states to flip to him.

In Georgia, where many votes still had not been counted, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit on Wednesday morning to challenge the validity of 53 mail-in ballots, despite the fact that about 46,000 votes separated the candidates in the state.

Trump campaign officials also said they were considering lawsuits in Arizona and in Nevada.

This contentious atmosphere has caused protesters to take to the streets across the US, both in support of and in protest against Trump’s aggressive efforts to challenge the vote.

As counting of ballots continues inside this Phoenix building, Trump supporters protest what they believe is suppression. They assert Republican ballots have been discarded. Some are armed, which is legal in Arizona. Biden has led the state, but with a narrow margin. @CBCNews pic.twitter.com/xMNOwX3HpL

— David Common (@davidcommon) November 5, 2020

A crowd of more than 150 gathered in Phoenix, Arizona to protest Fox News calling Arizona for Biden, although not all votes have been counted there yet. Many had Trump signs, while others held guns. They chanted “down with Fox” and “count my vote”, while other Trump supporters in other states have gathered outside polling centres chanting “stop the vote”.

In Portland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Chicago, protests over racial justice continued, while in Minneapolis, several hundred protesters marched onto a motorway, angered by the president’s declarations that vote counting should stop.

A peaceful protest in New York called for every vote to be counted, and for racial equality, however things got more heated when police shut down traffic in the West Village, and pushed protesters to the footpaths. 20 people were arrested.

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