it's. this is deja vu new supply for lead too close to call in the u.s. but the sitting president claims victory anyway we were getting ready to win this election frankly we didn't win this election proud to be pretty sure i'm sure you are the hard work of talent voters really already know virtual records brokers count every problem is down. joe biden offering words of encouragement to supporters while president trump claims voter fraud the election now comes down to

a handful of states. you're watching d.w. news in our live coverage of the 2020 u.s. election i'm sorry kelly and one of the most consequential votes in u.s. history the results may not be known for hours even days what we do know is that the swing states like texas and florida they have stayed with president donald trump while democratic rival joe biden has claimed arizona and may pennsylvania and michigan are 2 important states which are still at play but a short while ago trump spoke to supporters and stopped just short of claiming victory alleging that there was a voting fraud underway and that his team was prepared to launch a legal challenge. the stage is set for the u.s. presidential election results. counting of votes is still underway but the

president has already claimed to be tree. we were getting ready to win this election frankly we did win this election. is a major fraud in our nation we want the law to be used in a proper manner so we'll be going to the u.s. supreme court trump was referring to mailing votes that will be accepted after election day in several states his reaction comes after biden arched notice to be patient. we believe we're on track to win a selection are. we really are because or they are pressured our early vote in a maryland vote is going to take a while we're going to have to be pretty sure until the hard work of talent votes

is finished. the 2 candidates a locked in a tight race trump on the battlegrounds of florida ohio and texas but biden also won suffolk states where trump sought to compete including new hampshire and minnesota. this election is expected to have one of the highest voting turnout in recent history even during a pandemic indicating just how important today's vote is for the american people i voted for the greatest president in history gone ok. chump is doing nothing for us now that he's going to have everything more in the control than what. both contenders have presented the battle for the white house as a struggle for the country's soul leaving many in the united states. it's preparing more for a storm then for an election party. and for more let's bring in. who

has the view from washington with an election too close to call now doubt being thrown over the process what is the mood in america right now well it certainly is a moment of uncertainty here everybody had hoped for having a clear on the night in fact donald trump over recent days in those last round he stressed that he wanted a result in this election night and we're hearing a lot of criticism both from where you are in europe but also here in the united states donald trump effectively declaring victory with the governor of pennsylvania and he's a democrat saying that that was really and the attack on the process at the same time arizona which was declared for biden a little so by the conservative folks net worth that's has a republican governor and he too actually insists that every vote must be counted

and that's exactly what still continues to be done particularly in those battleground states. we have on the one hand joe biden in the statement saying earlier that he was on track to win the election trump countering that saying frankly we did win this election just you know what goes through the messaging and what it means for this race right now what does it say about the state of the race . well it's interesting that joe biden went out and spoke to the networks 1st and then donald trump took a very long time to respond clearly phrasing very carefully what he was asking for he said he wants for the voting to stop while the voting how to really stop the counting is still going on and he says frankly and he presents it as his own opinion he has won but i haven't seen any new network puts him in the lead in terms of electoral college votes safe votes already in the box or to say at any point in

time this evening we're just still waiting for those results to come out in battleground states and that we expect georgia wisconsin and pennsylvania to be key and if we don't get any kind of clear result or if there's a very narrow margin that means that we might see 4 in the case of wisconsin for instance if it's within a one percent margin google seemed recounts and that could take yet more time donald trump said very early on that was his playbook that he didn't want votes to be counted past election day and that he had lawyers ready now we have from him that he wants to take the whole issue to the constitutional court that's not possible straight away but that of course he installed 3 republican judges who are expected to really shape the country of the decades to come and this could be the very 1st vital decision that they make in this new set up it will

indeed be interesting to see if this goes to that court what that conservative slant on the court might need for any ruling that they might put down to hear the cliff now with a view from washington thank you so much. well trump's claims of fraud have drawn strong condemnations from both sides of the political aisle democratic congressman adam schiff who prosecuted donald trump in the impeachment trial blasted the president for quote acting like a would be death pot and added we will count every vote and ignore the noise democrat ralph nad lawyer who headed the impeachment process tweeted the following every vote will be counted that is the american way plain and simple in arizona and in pennsylvania and in all the remaining states no stunts or lies or cheap political theater are going to change that now criticism is also coming in from trump's own party for example from republican congressman adam kinzinger who easily

won reelection on tuesday he criticized the president in a sharply worded tweet saying stop full stop the votes will be counted and you will either win or lose and america will accept that patience is a virtue and justin amash a former republican who left the party over trump mincing no words that was one of the most dishonest and despotic speeches i have ever heard by a president of the united states. let's get more now we're joined here in the studio by chief international editor richard walker we also have standing by philip associate professor at occidental college in the united states specializing in diplomacy and world affairs welcome to both of you richard i'll turn to you 1st and perhaps you can pick up a little bit on what mckayla was saying in terms of where this race stands right now especially in these key battleground states yeah i mean we face a period of uncertainty i mean we can probably expect some of these states to announce results within the next day perhaps was the end of the week but that's not

necessarily the end of the story they could be pushes for recounts from the republican side particularly if they. if if the results in any given states a very close and also we have this track of legal challenges to the process is the way the votes have been performed this year joe biden pulling ahead in the popular vote does it even matter well yeah i mean it's interesting to kind of pull back from because we have very rightly focused on the electoral college is this very unusual structure of the united states has for electing its presidents but we should pull back from that for a moment and look at the popular vote does have a 2000000 illegals 6866000000 approximately. and that was of course reflected back in $26.00 to me what we could have this year if trump does pull through if he wins he's very unlikely to win the popular vote so

this would cost another poll over this electoral see color system which happened 4 years ago when hillary clinton i think from memory about 2 and a half 1000000 votes ahead. so that will kind of fuel calls for changes to the electoral college system but if biden wins well what we've seen from donald trump today is an attempt to deal with just my eyes the result and so if a president biden did come in you would have substantial proportion of the pie. elation believing that he's not legitimate tell us a little bit about the process fill if you will because you know we mentioned the electoral college we mention the fact that you can win the popular vote and you could lose the electoral college you could lose the election that happened with clinton that also happened with gore back in 2000 as well there have been calls to reform that system what are the main problems well so the idea behind the electoral college originally was that it would compel a presidential candidate to speak to the whole country so you would have to go to low urban low population states and you couldn't just campaign in new york in

california or texas 2 to win a popular vote and you have to move you have to battle for those what's what's in your country what is in each state what has happened however in recent years i mean you know richard pointed this out which if you think about the last 20 years. a republican president has held office for 12 of those 20 years and they've only won the popular vote one time which was george w. bush in 2004 and so this is raising serious questions about the electoral college and what it means for democracy of course it has an important purpose which you know which i outlined but this is becoming a consistent pattern given that the republican and democratic parties which used to have strong urban and rural bases have shifted in recent years and the electoral college is clearly benefiting the republican candidate over and over again and to the point where even if you're winning with one or 2 percent most forecasts show

a democratic challenger of losing the election electrical phil richards stand by we're going to discuss more about this but 1st i'd just like to highlight that president trump's claim that he has won the election and has vowed to contest the counting of votes has raised the specter of a disputed election he simply so misconduct reports. donald trump versus joe biden both were determined to win the election but neither of them has them. merged as a clear winner the u.s. could be in for days even weeks of uncertainty the record number of ballots sent by mail will now become the focus of a bitter fight. absentee ballots made it easier for americans to vote amid the $1000.00 pandemic but absentee ballots are also more likely to be delayed slowed down by mistakes or even rejected something that is now dictating abends across the u.s. . we will 1st see fights oh over whether certain absentee ballots should be counted

or not be counted with the election administrators in those states it won't be surprising if whichever side loses those battles runs to court to try to get a court to overturn it with election day over the clock is ticking there are a couple of dates to keep in mind december 8th is safe harbor day that is the deadline for states to declare a result if they want to guarantee that their decision will count towards the national outcome. the next deadline on december 14th the electoral college has to vote that is the body that actually elects the president the state select either republican or democratic electors depending on the results. if there is still a dispute at that point it could get really complicated both sides might claim victory that means states could end up with opposing groups of electors one for biden another for trump congress would be forced to decide between them but if we

get to that point we're already in a dark and dangerous place and if the process drags out over some significant period of time even though the media is preaching patience to the public i think in our social media toxic political culture that could become a more explosive situation. fairly quickly some americans worry that a more explosive situation could look like this the president's supporters and opponents fighting on the streets if there was no clear result for several days or even weeks law enforcement and even the military could be called in to bring things under control and what about another scenario that democrats fear and that president trump himself has refused to rule out that the ballots show the president losing but he refuses to accept the result and tries to hang on to the presidency.

well the current president's term ends on january 20th by virtue of the constitution period i would assume that any officials who might need to be involved in making sure that transition happens will follow the commands of the newly elected president biden because he would be the president the legal fight started months ago the democrats and the republicans have amassed an army of lawyers who have already been clashing in court over how and when ballots should be counted now they will push that legal battle as far as it takes to decide the outcome of the election. and back now with richard walker and phil are you joining us here at the studio for some analysis on that phil what could we be looking at now you think within the next weeks i mean i assume the lawyers are already on the ground they are in place it seems as if we're setting up for a real battle here you know i mean you know this is really impressive and i don't

think there's a really clear answer to that yet it also depends a lot on how members of the president's own party respond to the kind of statements he's made lately i think you know from my perspective as because scientists the votes need to be counted there are there are that's just normal process of how it works that you have time after the election there's no rule that says as the count and that night in these states and this is. and this could you know how that plays out depends on that i think what's really troubling to me also is the rhetoric coming from the president which is really in terms of democracy. is really troubling and also in terms of what that could mean in terms of unrest in the country with different parties bases let's talk more about that richard the potential for unrest in the united states because i mean there are these images coming in from you know major capitals the shops boarded up you know big big landmarks such as you know the empire state building macy's in new york with its

windows boarded i mean that's really shocking. i think for somebody to see who knows america and who knows the country how tense is the situation right now i think it's very hard to stand they've done that even when the white house itself is also barricaded where they started with a fence and they then brought in these enormous concrete barricades you can't get anywhere near the white house but. that's no surprise really i mean this you we have seen violence on the streets already we have seen people killed in the streets already in the united states. so i think it's not a tool beyond the scope of our imagination to think you know this situation could rest and when you mention what we're potentially setting up it is in one all multiple states legal challenges taking pot taking place there's bound to spot protests from supposes of the sides who are on the streets outside

the courthouse it's like you have all sorts of potential flash points for how this could could flare up. so that means that donald trump and joe biden of both in positions of huge responsibility to guide the nation through this phase of musical uncertainty in a responsible manner and not to inflame violence and i wonder phil if you can perhaps you know compare and contrast what we're seeing right now for example with what we saw back in 2000 and bush v gore for example i mean that went all the way up to the supreme court to talk with us about you know gore's reaction as the one who lost that case for example and you know how high are your hopes that right now in the united states that the democratic process itself will indeed prevail in the end well what i mean my hopes are high that the institutions can prevail but that

depends you know right now i mean the difference 2000 is quite clear you didn't have either candidate tweeting you know with their opinions about how the process should go and you had a candidate al gore that accepted the decision by the supreme court and backed down and allowed for peaceful transfer of power that is different and as richard pointed out you know with unrest it's not just that we can expect unrest we have had unrest for the law. months i mean for the last years but especially from last month's if you think of the democratic governor. of michigan where militia were planning to kidnap her and were egged on by the president in a way in in tweets that came after that so these are you know this idea of unrest in swing now is very very different than the expectation of that in 2000 which was not there richard what do you think the world is making of this right now i mean you know they're looking on on at america right now a time of deep uncertainty

a time of deep polarization i mean you know how are people looking on the situation how our international leaders potentially positioning themselves. for his some comments obviously the in the many leads is being very cautious about what they say they don't want to be seen as interfering in the u.s. political process. but i think here in europe you're going to see that lead to sort of dismay is effectively that the political system in the united states which is for all of the difficulties in the transatlantic relationship the united states is still the world's oldest democracy is still you know a model of of the values that western europe also stands full and there's dismay that the this is potentially being chipped away or of sense the slipping into a serious crisis and also worry about well what could that be the future in europe too you know it's always seen as you know a trailblazer states but also in the rest of the non-democratic world if you think

of china and china presents its model. of wealth or its hereon kind of state directed capsule is of as the superior model and china can very easily point to what's going on the united states and say. right is that what you want is that really the best way and indeed i mean that you know certainly the democratic ticket has has been framing this as the battle for the soul of a nation. they have said that donald trump's politics is not representative of the broader american public and feel i just like to get your reaction to that you know and ask you you know the fact that that this race is so close at this point the democrats were hoping for a statement election they're not getting that you know that it's very clear it seems as if they were really setting themselves up now for a battle which might go to the courts. what does that say about america right now at the level of divisiveness you know i mean this is where joe biden is wrong he ran a campaign where he said that the character is on the ballot that this is not who

we are that these last 4 years were mistaken aberration in a way and i think that's wrong now no matter what happens tonight this is who we are i mean there is the fact that we have massive turnout and we have you know one of the country really fired up by a president that has entertained theories from q. and and that has you know. told the crowd boys to stand back and stand by i think that this is this is a problem you know that we have to stay with us for a while. richard walker thank you so much both of you well the u.s. presidential election remains too close to call as we have been highlighting with a vote counting continuing in key states that will decide who wins the white house so far neither president onil trump nor his democratic challenger joe biden have clinched the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the southwestern state of

arizona is the latest battleground state that has been called it is 11 votes that are going to go to joe biden making it the only states to have flipped party since the 2016 election votes they're still being counted in the decisive midwestern industrial states including michigan with its 16 electoral votes which trump won the last time around. and and as we can see 80 percent of the vote now there counted donald trump in the lead and in wisconsin with 10 electoral votes at stake we can see right now who is pulling ahead in that state and it is indeed joe biden but just by a very very very slim margin there with 95 percent of the vote counted the biggest prize still remaining and this is a state that you have been hearing about all week pennsylvania 20 electoral college votes this is joe biden's home state this is where he was born in scranton

pennsylvania trump one it handily and 2016 and now with 64 percent of the vote being counted in pennsylvania donald trump pulling ahead with 55 percent of the vote but in pennsylvania still early days there so right now the race to win the electoral college is open with democrat joe biden at 238 votes president donald trump at 213 as you heard donald trump declared war on mail in voting which he claims without evidence has led to a massive fraud we've seen the number of absentee ballots break records this year in part because of the coronavirus pandemic but how secure is a vote by mail w. sumi so misconduct reports. it's been one of the president's chief concerns and a favorite target mail in voting universal mail it is

a very dangerous this broad we're growing every year the things that have been. in person and on twitter the president spent months sowing confusion and doubt over the integrity of the election they're trying it again with this whole 80000000 mail in ballots that they're working on. sending him out to people that didn't ask for so what is actually happening while the pandemic has changed the way americans have voted this year a record number of people have voted by mail but president trump's claims of rampant voter fraud that's huge numbers of people who don't have the right to vote are trying to cast ballots or that others are trying to vote twice while there's no history of that happening just to be clear and trust nobody we've been doing a very very long time in the united states. and it's extremely rare in the united states the rules for mail and voting depend on where you live in the u.s. this year 9 states and washington d.c.

sent ballots to voters automatically this is what the president has railed against . in more than 30 states voters could apply for a ballot to send in by mail in these 5 states in order to vote by mail if you have to give a reason why you couldn't vote in person and the pandemic alone was not reason enough. mail and voting can be complicated for anyone doing it for the 1st time some forget to sign a ballot others don't seal it exactly right this year around 30 states have allowed voters to curate their ballots they contacted voters letting them know there was a mistake and allow them to correct it. you've been watching special coverage of the u.s. elections i'm sorry kelly in berlin thank you so much for joining us on d w news coming up next monica jones has a wrap up of what is happening in the business world how they are reacting to all of this uncertainty and what is a race which is simply at this hour too close to call from all of us here at g.w.

from the team thank you so much for watching take care and stay safe.

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does the latest research say. information and context. the coronavirus update the code of special monday to friday on w. it's still too close to call despite well over 100000000 votes counted there is no clear winner of the u.s. presidential election meanwhile as the world waits for an indication on the cool wrong the world's largest economy people the next 4 years we look at the economic implications of this one for each elect.