On the eve of the 2020 presidential election, Michael Moore — who famously foresaw a Donald Trump victory in 2016 — was not making any predictions about how the race between Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden would go. “I don’t think people are complacent this time, and I think most people are not taking a victory for granted until the deal is actually sealed,” he told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday night.
Tuesday night’s historic voter turnout proved the first part of his prediction and, by Wednesday morning, the latter was also ringing true.
The morning after the election — as had been cautioned going into Election Day — still had not declared a winner in the presidential race. The Democrats had what is shaping up to be a disappointing night in seeking Senate control. But the tightly contested face-off between Trump and Biden, revealed overnight to be much closer than had been predicted by the polls, was hanging in the balance as millions of mail-in ballots remained to be counted among the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — as well as North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada — which had all yet to be declared.
On Wednesday afternoon, the first of those key states would be declared for Biden: Wisconsin, with the Democratic nominee flipping the state after Trump’s narrow 2016 win.
Neither candidate has secured the 270 electoral college votes needed to secure a victory, as has been reported by the Associated Press. But the Wisconsin win brings Biden to 248 electoral votes, while Trump currently has 214.
Despite the uncertain results, President Trump falsely and prematurely declared victory in a Tuesday night speech, where he also threatened court action over what he called “a fraud on the American republic.” He said, “We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court, we want all voting to stop, we don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list. It’s a very sad moment.”
Trump’s claims resulted in a swift response from the Biden campaign — calling Trump’s words about trying to shut down the counting of ballots as “outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect” — and sparked social media outcry from Hollywood stars and figures, many whom had taken to Twitter to voice a collective unease after polls closed.
On Wednesday afternoon, Biden and his vice presidential nominee, Sen. Kamala Harris, spoke in a brief press conference where they offered a message of unity. “Yesterday once again proved that democracy is the heartbeat of this nation,” Biden began. “Our government of, by, and for the people is very much alive, very much alive in America.”
Biden stressed, likely in response to Trump’s earlier declaration of victory, that “power can’t be taken or asserted, it flows from the people. It is their will that determines who will be the president of the United States and their will alone.”
Biden did not declare victory. But, in a show of confidence, said, “I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter