battleground america the democrats put one foot in the door of the white house after 3 tense days joe biden looks set to become the 46th u.s. president as key states in the vote edge closer to announcing their results meanwhile. if you count the legal votes i easily won and the recount is truly shown to her and i would be declared the winner. it could still be a bumpy road ahead as both candidates clash over ballot results with some in the republican camp claiming the counter has been fraudulent. and the delay in announcing the president raises big questions about the vote itself especially mail in ballots amid a record turnout we hear from commentators on the key issues. so if they want to

stop the counting over $61.00 if you think you tell me it's a joke every night after night if it had a sister and i watched the big board our system moves what is the worst we also say that in the united states constitution voting is never mentioned at all. you're watching r t international's u.s. presidential election coverage my name is donald quarter and i'll be joining you for the program it's certainly a nail biter as vote counting has resumed in key states to decide the u.s. presidential election. now the contest for the white house could be over in the coming hours with democrat joe biden looking more and more likely to be declared the winner increasing his vote margins in key states however a recount has been announced in the state of georgia leaving americans hanging on the edge of their seats attention is focused on a handful of states and we're still waiting for crucial results in nevada and

pennsylvania too where the democrats hold a tightly. as it stands this is how it looks joe biden has $264.00 electors if you include arizona which some do say it's too early to call but if you've assumed he's won by then only needs 6 more electoral votes to achieve the 270 required for victory donald trump on the other hand currently stands at 214 with that said it remains of very tight race gaps closed in different battleground states on saturday the former vice president is leading in nevada and is less than one percent ahead in pennsylvania but in georgia biden has taken the lead by 0 point one percent with 99 percent of the ballots counted as i mentioned the margins are so tight there that a recount is already set to happen a democrat hasn't won that state in decades while in north carolina the race is also too close to call while democrats may feel quite confident of the vote results are already coming under legal scrutiny the u.s. supreme court justice a u.s.

supreme court justice has ordered pennsylvania to keep separate any mail in ballots coming in after election day and tells us the latest things look good for biden right now at this point in arizona in georgia and pennsylvania and in nevada biden has a narrow lead we're hearing quite a bit of optimism coming from the democratic side this is nancy pelosi the speaker of the u.s. house of representatives i wish we weren't wearing mattia we could see how exciting it is to come before you today with joe biden having the tremendous mandate that he has and that. pretty soon the hyphen will be gone from vice president to president elect joe biden now donald trump does not share these sentiments that biden is on the road to victory he's spoken up on social media reiterating some of the concerns he expressed regarding the fact that he thinks that there is fraud

going on around the country this is some of what donald trump has said on social media. joe biden should not wrongfully claim the office of president i could make that claim also legal proceedings are just now beginning i had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward already some of these legal challenges seem to be in motion u.s. supreme court justice samuel alito granted a motion to have votes that are being counted segregated so that votes received after november 3rd would be counted separately however a judge in nevada did not give any credence to donald trump's concerns and ruled against efforts to stop vote counting in nevada now at this point the republicans are raising the concern that they feel that the way the votes are being counted is

not proper there's not proper transparency republican observers are not able to watch the vote counting process donald trump has also raised a concern about the fact that in georgia he is not sure what happened with over 9000 ballots cast by members of the u.s. military these are absentee ballots by members of the u.s. military that were sent to georgia he's concerned about whether or not those votes are being counted or not now it's also important to note that legal challenges it appears are going to be filed in response to an announcement of election results when such an announcement comes the republican national committee has made clear they are with trump when it comes to filing these legal concerns we intend to ensure that every little fool votes and has their vote counted and it cooled ins with the law that observers are granted the access they had you on the state law and that any irregularities that have occurred with the by malicious intent or incompetence fully investigated to the fullest extent allowed to under the law the

biden campaign has not declared victory however at this point. they are using some rather spicy language describing fears that donald trump may not leave office in a friendly manner this is what the biden camp had to say the american people will decide this election and the united states government is specifically capable of school bus passes ounce of the white house the us presidential election was on tuesday we still do not know the results however we do have a mayor in philadelphia who says that the vote counting was carried out in a very transparent manner and everything was fine we have a secretary of state and arizona who says that the way donald trump is characterizing the counting is completely wrong and that only legal votes are being counted but when results are declared though they look very good for biden and biden is expected to declare victory when results are declared they're going to be a challenge they're going to be in court so at this point there's

a lot of frustration among americans because it is still not clear who won the 2020 presidential election and who will be leading the country for the next 4 years we discussed the potential outcome of the contested vote counts with republican election lawyer terry compo and peter koos nick professor of history at american university. but there always is some fraud and a usually happens in the major cities and it's usually where there's one political party control of her political machine and people have quotas to meet about how many votes they're supposed to produce to keep their jobs in the local government or their contracts and so that's kind of what happens it becomes very difficult once those ballots are in the box to to invalidate them and so why it's what poll watchers are for and why we try to have poll watchers everywhere to prevent those improper ballots from being counted the problem this year is so many ballots being cast by mail were done in private without any witnesses there is always when these

recounts that happen there will be challenges about what legal standard was applied to keep out of count those votes and those issues probably will be taken up by the supreme court in the mail in ballots that were received after election day were in the less than 5000 and from what i saw. biden is going to win the state of pennsylvania by over 50000 maybe even over 100000 votes so the fact that that 5000 votes might be challenge is not going to be says to simply significant and the courts won't even hear it unless it's enough to make a difference in the election is about 99.2 percent if not more clear that biden has won this election he's going to probably win 306 electoral votes coming so he's not going to just win it by a little bit it's going to win it by probably 5000000 popular votes and 8 percent

or 4 percent in the lead and in terms of the percentage of the vote. what you're seeing on your screen right now is the scene in washington d.c. where anti trump demonstrators are taking a stand next to the white house they're calling for the vote counting to be done legally and fairly other peaceful demonstrations in support of both candidates are also taking place in a number of cities. the battle over whether or not the results are being rigged started even before the election with both parties stressing the vote had to be legal 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. 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 is a corrupt system and it makes people corrupt even if they aren't. senior correspondent morag discuss the tension around the country with nikki aaron. the u.s. really does pride itself on its democratic system does for now appear to have glitches with everything that's going on i would say it's 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 year in particular they seem to have outdone themselves democracy sometimes messy sometimes requires

a little patience as world 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 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 vote it is always and sunday ever would free everyone who vote in the united states sundays the jewish holiday and they would make it

a national holiday voting day so you have to go to wednesday for example now there's a pandemic it is dangerous it is literally dangerous to do and stand in huge lines of people with the very little social distancing suit 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 sue far lost in this election and they're still counting there this potentially tens and tens of thousands more in an election as clues as this. every vote matters they've lost so many already 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 ballots they refused to include any requirement to verify signatures it is usually even determine whether

they're eligible or if it was a vote of 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 take the extra step to understand the other side everybody wants things down their way and and this is being repeated across the country protests violence political violence to level to get beaten stabbed because of the color of the had that you're wearing the slogan a new t. shirt and this is this is being seen worldwide this is new but he's envious of these in europe they're saying look we simply can't afford in content out europe to become as divided and as polarized as the united states the polarization 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. what's happening in america does not quite correspond to the democratic culture we know from the united states it's important that the result is the accepted by everyone is easy to be a winner but sometimes it is hoped to be a loser at the end of the day the how close this election is how close the vote is well that both candidates a lot of leeway both are claiming that they are on the path to victory that their winning bird will be contested little shoots of being fired off like firecrackers but by trump especially the this election will be condensed and drawn them self's said that you know this a loony and in the supreme court. despite the warning of legal action several action commissions in america have insisted that every valid vote was counted and accurately reported international observers have also said the ballot proceeded lawfully they slammed donald trump's allegations of fraud saying

it damages public trust in democratic institutions. this this vote has brought many contentious issues to the fore from the reliability of the media to the fairness of the u.s. election system itself or to america discussed some of them. 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 well as a after show be 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 we cover republicans are fighting against that since they like these and they would i would say 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 joe 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 we 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 ready you know it's a choice you want over a broken 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's no power. 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're 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 that's what 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 we won 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 votes of come in in this state

more votes have come in in that state and guess what biden picked up close trumps lead is evaporating we're out of surprise this is really a travesty what you guys say is the actual role of the press in these elections i mean are 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 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. defeated and yet finds themselves very sympathetic to the president when he complains about

the media because steve is right my friend steve is 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 don't trust but a particular good president but we hate it that we have to defend the guy against an unfair media. well 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 spent large sums of money campaigning in a bid to win more influence in the house and senate that though has not happened the house is expected to stay in the hands of the democrats with results still coming in however some experts calculate the blue majority will actually be thinner this year and so far they're down by at least 6 incumbents 208 and 18 seats are needed to win a majority and so far the democrats are on 208 with the republicans on 193 they're also battling for the senate democrats need to gain 4 seats to flip control of congress as upper chamber although that's unlikely as the republicans already have

48 seats and have been leading in 3 of the 4 remaining races to get to that magic number of 50 so that's the race for the seats in congress meanwhile in the presidential contest the blue wave that many were predicting has failed to materialize even though joe biden is on course for victory at this stage the contest has been much closer than polls forecast election integrity activist and independent journalist nico house told us why. that stage was set unfortunately prior to the general election because well the candies that i thought could be trumped which would include gabbert bernie sanders and i would even argue andrew yang those aren't the ones who are allowed to go up against trump in 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 tracking 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 will go will have to pull in support base awful party lines because that seemingly where at least the democrats are demanding we vote on and by that it's by extension you want to have republicans of course staying loyal in most cases to donald trump. now let's take a look at some of vents outside the united states russia has sent a 5th request to germany for data on the alleged poisoning of alex a new volley that comes as a spokesperson for russia's top judge claims that the german side has so far failed to give any meaningful response the opposition figure was allegedly poisoned back in august in siberia in artie's to try and go reports. on the one hand if we look back at how the most senior e.u. officials treated the alike saying of ali case perhaps we shouldn't 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 light saying a 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 hospitalisation of alexina valmy however not a single question from the russian side has been on sort of taken this into account it is clear that to date all requests by the russian prosecutor's office have not been met such a delay by our foreign colleagues is regrettable and leaves russian authorities with no opportunity to establish the circumstances of the incident. now to some

other key points of that statement by the russian police they're saying that none of the members of the blogger's 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 in the blogger's body and also that courting to the doctors in 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 something that was also echoed and that keeps being echoed by the statements from the russian foreign

ministry. 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 state amateur performance was his main aim is yet another show of sanctions. which stands firm against impose truce at the expense of national sovereignty international law and simple common sense. 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 and if we look back at what angola merkel once said that russia pretty much wouldn't get anything unless it is willing to clear up the issue in the meantime anti-crime all 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 were fighting for a like scene of all these live he was then moved up on 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 political analyst martin mccauley says russian investigators are walking blind into the evolving case unless germany shares its findings. the key question of course is. there you know

most of you would like. to know the joke agent which allegedly you know would go lead will not give it up until the sentence marred with a russian response and we're in a situation now where the russians say we contemplate proceed because we don't have enough inclusion upon very. well not willing. to step forward and be viewed by the russian glee's and the russian course you could have general's office. from a russian point of view or dread to go because if they count. those who are with about and you have to find what he was allegedly poisoned it's very difficult to see how the russians work is complete. now a quick look at where the candidates stand in the presidential race democratic

nominee joe biden has 264 electoral votes leaving him just 6 short of the presidency donald trump on the other hand has 214 biden currently has a narrow lead in the traditionally red state of georgia and he's also slightly ahead in nevada and has just gone out in front in pennsylvania as well stay with our teeth throughout the coming hours and days as we continue tracking the 2020 u.s. election. financial . aid i'm honest. assessment of the future.

little while the way they will go down with the white house one on one being the outcome. so i don't know how although i don't think it's the fault of the clothes amid all of that and only a week on in the. top that god wanted. all men and women thing enough when we wanted. start 6 6 2. welcome to visionaries me sophie shevardnadze in times of uncertainty and the our

moral compass and altruism.