battleground america the democrats put one foot in the door of the white house after 3 tame stage joe biden looks set to become the 46 us president as key states in the vote edge closer to announcing their results. if you count the legal votes easily when the count is truly show me version i will be declared the winner. although listen to that it could still be a bumpy road ahead as both candidates clash over ballot results with some in the republican camp claiming that the kind has been through with you and the delay to announcing the president's huge question mark sorry but the vote itself especially made in ballots and made a record turnout we hear from commentators and analysts about the big talking

points so they want to stop the tell me all the states want to continue to tell me . every night tonight except when i watch the big board our system is the worst we also say that in the united states constitution is never mentioned at all and also to come russia's top judge claims that germany has failed to answer any questions like the. opposition think that's in the family moscow's investigation into the incident which happened back in august. hello that welcome to washington national this friday afternoon and our coverage of the u.s. election we're counting in key states continues to decide this. well

the contest for the white house could actually be over in the coming hours with all indicators do you say that joe biden will be the next president of america it has been 3 days since the election and attention is now on the states where the continue to be counted we're still waiting for crucial results in nevada and also pennsylvania this is how it looks as it stands joe biden has $264.00 electors if you include arizona which something you say is too early to call but if it does go blue he'll need just 6 more electoral college votes to reach the. required victory donald trump meanwhile currently stands 114 but that said it remains

a very tight race. close gaps in different battleground states over night in pennsylvania over biden has shrunk to barely $18000.00 votes while the former vice president is leading by less than one percent and in georgia biden has taken the lead by just over a 1000 votes there with 99 percent of the ballot counted incidentally democratic candidates won there in that state for decades and the race in north carolina looking at that see that is also too close to call so what does all of this mean while trump has more of an uphill fight if he wants to stay in the white house he has to win 4 of the battleground states excluding arizona which we mentioned earlier has been called. for biden however the former vice president needs to secure only one more swing state victory said there could be plenty. any battles to follow with by and of it's clashing on the results of comment so far. if you count

the legal votes i easily win if you count the illegal votes they can try to steal. the election from us in america voters sacred. it's how people of this nation express their will. and it is the will of the voters no one not anything else that chooses the president of united states of america this tremendous litigation going on and this is a case where they're trying to steal an election they're trying to rig an election each ballot must be counted. and that's what we're going to see going through now and that's how it should be our goal is to defend the integrity of the election and will not allow the corruption to steal such an important election or any election for that matter it's a corrupt system and it makes people corrupt even if they aren't. often seen correspondent but i guess they have discussed the tension in the country at the

moment with nikki. the u.s. really does pride itself on its democratic system does not now appear to have glitches with everything that's going on i would say at this point more of a spectacle i mean the elections in the united states the there are always something of a shoe for the entire nation but this this year in particular they seem to have outdone themselves you know it's turned into this. moonie is dirty slaw go to market see sometimes messy sometimes requires a little patience work but that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years in the system of government governance the envy of the world well the envy of the world perhaps in days long gone now with endless government shutdowns all the political violence the bureaucracy partisanship the polarization division and you

know a health care system and pandemic response that has frankly been a worldwide embarrassment i wouldn't say perhaps envy of the world is the right phrase if you're in the united states you just a citizen wanting to exercise your constitutional right to vote what you show up at the polling station and they'll turn you right around and tell you to go and register 1st except you have to register 2 to 4 weeks in advance depending on the state you know different procedures everywhere and to register you have a say you have to have a special id card which not everyone has so far ok you will well prepared you did it you you went and registered next you've you've got to get time off work either that because in the united states whereas in europe it is always on sunday everyone's free everyone who vote in the united states sunday is a jewish holiday and they would make it

a national holiday routing day so you have to go. in this day for example you have to ask your boss for some time off work which you may not hear now there's a pandemic it is dangerous it is literally dangerous to do in sound and huge lines of people with a very little social distancing you mail you a book you will you vote as democrats have been urging their supporters to do you mail your vote and it's lost 150000 votes have been confirmed soo far lost in this election and they're still counting the there's potentially tens and tens of thousands more in an election as clues as this where every vote matters they've lost so many already ok let let's just let's just presume everything's going fine you came prepared you registered early you got and lied when you said your vote didn't get lost and now your president is saying that you vote this potentially for dell and democrat officials never believe they could win this

election honestly i really believe that that's why they did the mail in ballots with this tremendous corruption and fraud going on that's why they mailed out tens of millions of unsolicited bella's they refused to include any requirement to verify signatures i get is or even determine whether they're eligible or if it was a voter it is a nation divided more now than it has been in living memory the level of polarize ation and division political division in the united states is is tearing the country apart and it isn't doing anyone any favors everybody understands what is happening in america but there is very little you know that nobody's willing to go to take the extra step to understand the other side everybody wants things done their way in and that this is being would repeated across the country protests violence political violence you labile to get beaten stabbed because the color of the had that you were wearing the slogan a new t.

shirt and this is this is being seen by. why this is nobody's envious of these in europe they're saying look we simply can't afford and can't allow europe to become as divided as polarized as the united states of america should be a warning for europe we are successful because we preach differences between countries and peoples so we benefit together if we lose the ability to compromise our democracies are in danger was opening in america does not quite correspond to the democratic culture we know from the united states it's important the result is the accepted by everyone it's easy to be a winner but sometimes it's hard to be a loser at the end of the day the how close this election is how close the vote is well the last both candidates a lot of leeway both are claiming that they are the part of victory that they're winning but will be contested lawsuits of fire being fired off like firecrackers by trump especially the this election will be condensed and drawn them self said that

you know this is a lonely and in the supreme court despite the warning then of legal action several election commissions in america have insisted that every valid vote was actually counted inaccurate accurately reported international observers have also said the ballot proceeded lawfully they have slammed on drums allegations of fraud saying it damages public trust in democratic institutions human rights lawyer eric sprott can believe the president will fight tooth and nail to stay in the oval office. i think it's there are advantages and disadvantages to a extended legal. battle if you will i think that yes if the matter is not resolved by inauguration day that seems to be to create a constitutional crisis in the united states however if the supreme court is quite aware of when in operation today they said they're briefing schedules they will

eventually irrigates that will. and will issue the appropriate orders but donald trump is fighting for his life he knows he's going to be prosecuted criminally when he's released from the presidency and if not he wants to stay on this is very personal to him however the supreme court can hear the matter and hear in a quick way but i wouldn't be surprised if they want to throw that kind of curveball into it and make everyone have to hold their breath and be plugged into the drama into january but i suspect that the matter will move much quicker and i believe that it will have the president elect. well the count has been particularly complicated in this contest the has been a sharp rise in postal voting driven by pandemic restrictions america's guess

discuss the main issues to take from this election. i. look at what the prison is doing legally the places they're trying to intercede and serve and so if they want to stop the county other states want to continue tell me to get a concrete standard for that and as one analyst said after shelby read holder in 2014 who had alluded voting rights we need to end this mystery for goertzel who the president is authorized to make things that the 5 border guards at the have national standards only legends cover republican we're fighting against that since they like these and that what i was saying that metastasized into this year's election now i don't know what about that why don't we have one uniform federal law that says when you're voting for president maybe put it on a separate take it i'm not sure how this will work but why don't we have one federal law for that the question is what you're asking is a great question there's a better question to which i think transcends this why is it in the year 2020 when

we can map of the genome we still have this archaic system which i think speaks to something which is which makes it right and right if for any kind of shenanigans we know so much about how the votes can be stolen we had terrible days of poll taxes and literacy tests and our system of voting is the worst but he also say that in the united states constitution voting is never mentioned at all there's hardly anything new selectors and that sort of thing they never got around to it so the question we have to ask is how is that right now that we see that we have something as archaic and as stupid as it. seems i think is really it's gotten him if this is not the donald trump that we're used to this is not the same fire and brimstone have bob how did you take it down to what degree. it will say it was embarrassing it was the sad final chapter to

a set chapter in american history that something you want here. on an internet war we're looking at it's a choice you want over broken to beat him cards that almost everything you said in that speech was a lot it's all those little moments you find yourself getting angry a bit of the. whole call understanding that there is no pair. would you want joe biden to drive you home from the airport let me just talk about something right now when you put all this is side to says this says either something about is good or bad when we have a man but i'm not even sure knows where he is and he is most probably what we see is correct going to be sworn in as the president and i further predict since since we are predicting he will serve my term shorter than william henry harrison of $31.00 days when kamel harris will be removed immediately something will happen

joel will maybe perhaps that aneurism god forbid something will pop up maybe coded maybe 8 maybe senescence but he will be moved because if you think of anybody thinks that joe biden is going to be if he is the he is the intended get it and you think that well my friends happy birthday cause you were born yesterday robert can you respond to that do you think that there is a likely i've heard from a lot of people on both sides who they all seem to believe that biden will not serve his entire 1st term and i hear from democrats who say that the time with me are from republicans who say it would be a scandal but i've heard very few people disagree with that idea do you disagree with. of course i disagree with that idea or still by the term i think it's important that he does because he's a throwback to the era oh thanks but we were not governing in a 51 to 49 country where we were we have bipartisan agreement would be a big thing to big big projects of that nature we put people on the moon $31.00

cold war 2 we liberated there were western civilization that's what america used to do when we worked across party lines. this is a sham the fix is in the fix he's been in from the beginning all these states so you know just going around the voter and changing the voting rules claiming that it's because of covert setting up the scenario where you think they can't finish counting the votes in georgia or north carolina or whatever they're just they're just waiting they're coordinating with the biden people and they're just waiting to see how they're going to do this we all know it's a joke every night after night after that i sit there and i watch the big boards you know whether it's on c.n.n. or wherever it is and guess why the numbers more folks have come in in this state more votes have come in in that state and guess what biden picked up folks trump's lead is evaporating without a surprise this is really a travesty what you guys say is the actual role of the press in these

elections i mean aren't we supposed to be be observers of the process because these days it does seem like the media wields so much power that it could actually steer perception steer the public's and ultimately steer the election itself through then . yeah absolutely you know we're supposed to be in the media the observer the impartial observer we're not supposed to be influenced or in this case we've moved even past that to become the decider in fact i were in the arena is full combatants this is something almost unique to the presidency i mean the uncomfortable position of being a member trump or somebody who thinks the president should be defeated hopes. used it for you did and yet find themselves very sympathetic to the president when he complains about the media because steve is right my friend c. was right the president has got an unfair shake from this media and i think it's all people out there like me who don't think good president but we hate it that we have to defend the guy against an unfair media. or wrangling over the election has

overshadowed another heated race in the country both parties are still grappling for seats in congress in the days ahead of the vote democrats did spend large sums of money campaigning in a bid to win more influence in the house and also the senate that hasn't happened it seems because the house is expected to stay in the hands of the democrats with the result still trickling in however some experts to calculate that the blue majority will actually be thinner this year so far they have they are down at the 6 incumbents $218.00 seats in need to win a majority and so far we can see the democrats are on the 208 and the republicans here on 193 now meanwhile there's also that tussle for the senate democrats need to gain 4 seats to flip control of the upper house it looks increasingly unlikely though as the republicans have already won 48 seats and have been leading in 3 of the remaining 4 races to get to the 50 so that's the race for seats in congress

meanwhile in the presidential race the blue wave that many were predicting has failed to materialize even though joe biden is on course a victory at this stage the contest has been much closer than forecast election integrity activist and independent you're listening to house told us why. that stage was set unfortunately prior to the general election because well the candidates that i thought could beat trump which would include bernie sanders and i would even argue andrew yang those aren't the ones who are allowed to go up against truong and the moment that they selected the one of the male democrat in joe biden who's basically been by our standards a republican who is pro fact fracking just like trump who can be a little bit more hawkish on foreign policy than trump then you are setting the stage for walk a fine we'll go wall half the vote in support base awful party lines because that

seemingly where at least the democrats are demanding we vote on and by that extension you want to have republicans of course staying loyal in most cases to donald trump so this is how the numbers look at the moment democratic nominee joe biden has not stopped 264 electoral votes leaving him just 6 shy of the presidency donald trump is 214 biden is currently holding a narrative in the traditionally red states and he's all safe slightly ahead in nevada meanwhile trump is making gangs in pennsylvania we are across the latest results as the counting continues.

join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics sport i'm sure i'll see you then. welcome back russia has sent a 5th request to germany. on the alleged poisoning of alexina valmy becomes a spokesperson for russia's top judge kind that the german side failed to give any meaningful response the political activists was allegedly poisoned back in august in siberia. is more. on the one hand if we look back at how the most senior e.u. officials treated the alexina volley case perhaps we should have expected much from

berlin's response to the official request from russia but then on the other hand if you think about what if surprise surprise that reply ended up containing details in abundance on all the tests that were undertaken with a like saying the volley well now the russian officials are saying that they do have that message from germany which literally contains 0 answers to all the questions that were put forward by the russian side which according to moscow is an indication that germany's still unwilling to cooperate on the matter that it's up to work to be german authorities wrote a response cohen on russia to provide additional information on the investigation over the hospitalization of alexina maumee however not a single question from the russian side has been concerts so you can be sent to account it is clear that to date requests by the russian prosecutor's office have not been mapped now to some other key points of that statement by the russian

police they are saying that none of the members of the bloggers team that were with the like seen a volley in siberia are willing to get in touch or meet the russian authorities plus in that statement it's being reminded that the russian doctors didn't find any traces of poisoning and the blogger's body and also that courting to the doctors and some chronic illnesses could have led to that charge aeration of his health in fact they are also reminding that the russian doctors found a like scene of ali in a state of aggravated pancreatitis in any case the bottom line from russia's law enforcement authorities is that they can't move on in their investigation without the details that they are requesting from berlin and this is some. thing that was also echoed and that keeps being echoed by the statements from the russian foreign

ministry actually there's the video it is clear that berlin and other european capitals forget international law when it comes to russia and megaphone diplomacy is preferred to mutually respectful dialogue said any objective analysis even without knowledge of applied chemistry and chemical nonproliferation issues quite naturally gives the conclusion of a station amateur performance was his main aim is yet another shot of sanctions so it looks like we're in for another deadlock with a vague response or as the russian police authorities put it a completely useless response from the german side in the meantime anti kremlin activists alexina vali has laughed off the statement by the russian authorities he pretty much said hey guys what else are you going to find in my body up until august 20th was absolutely healthy so just to remind you of the timeline of this very complicated story with a like scene of ali the opposition activist was traveling from siberia to moscow on a plane when he fell severely ill the pilots went for an emergency landing to save

his life then the doctors and square are fighting for a like scene of all these live he was then moved upon the request of his family to berlin for treatment and then we heard from european officials that alexei the volley was poisoned by a nerve agent of the novacek group russia once proof of that but as the officials in moscow are saying they're not getting any up until this point. you're trying to that well let's bring in brunei greece because he's professor and commentators also following the story very closely good afternoon she why do you think that isn't responding to russia's request you think. i think it's for political reason because on this issue is very it would be very funny if it would not be so serious because actually there is no no rational answer coming

from from germany and western countries it's just. day to day give something that looks like informations but it's not information to it's only based on belief we have to believe and. of course it's coming in a moment when we have political tension between russia and western powers and especially we have also tension inside the western alliance and inside germany between don't think there are. rational political and less rational politicians dort their attitude toward russia and i think that's the basic thing because objectively if. he would have been poisoned he would never have been. received the possibility to go to germany

he went to germany it means the russian knows he was not by didn't and and what the germans are telling us is just based on we have to believe what they say but we cannot have any any proof of what they say. they just want to convince people that are already comments that russia is the devil and western democracy are democrates bruno what point then do you think that chairman he would reveal in its information would show the world is evidence. i think they have no evidence i think they just used. about evidence but they don't show them they don't they don't have them and if they had evidence they could discuss with russia if they don't discuss with let's say the almost doctors. who cared about me it means that they don't want to do to show their true state just to use it as

a political tool how is this going to end them because looking at it it's just political stalemate russia says look we need your information to start an investigation germany is refusing today this saying that you know russia you need to give us information before we give you information and i know. it's not going to resolve itself you know of course it's not going to do is of the. the aim is. is not to resolve the problem to create tensions between germany western alliance nato and russia and that's the basic point i think that all that story is as i told you it. but it's. it's something strongly and in the same time it's very serious because it gets to create tensions between countries that should cooperate to work for peace and are.

opposed or for political reasons because we we serve now that the situation in the west is not clear politically the political situation and the basic reason i mean every doctor cannot accept this argument. obs doctor didn't find any poison and then discovered this poison in germany but in the same time russian doctor let. me leave russia germany it's pure nonsense. good to get your thoughts on this story that was pretty interesting professor at the paris nationals to princeton languages and civilizations thanks for coming on time has gone 430 here in moscow this friday afternoon the back again to the top.