Joe Biden announces 'fight fund' for vote count battle

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday announced the formation of what he's calling the “Biden Fight Fund,” touting it as the “largest election protection effort ever assembled” as he and President Trump compete for key battleground states in the 2020 presidential race.

“To make sure every vote is counted, we’re setting up the largest election protection effort ever assembled,” Biden tweeted. “Because Donald Trump doesn’t get to decide the outcome of this election—the American people do.”

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“The fight is not over,” the website states, saying the new effort is "absolutely critical to electing Joe, Kamala, and Democrats across the country, and we’re counting on a surge of donations to fund all that we need to accomplish.”

Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon also sent an email to supporters, urging them to participate.

“While the counts are still continuing, our position remains the same as it was last night: we feel good about what we are seeing,” Dillon said. “We will win Wisconsin and Michigan. We feel confident about Pennsylvania.

“The president threatened to go to court to prevent the proper tabulation of votes,” Dillon said, referring to statements made by Trump early Wednesday. “We are standing up the biggest and most comprehensive legal effort ever assembled.”

Dillon said the work “could stretch on for weeks” and said it “will fund election protection efforts for Joe Biden and Democrats up and down the ballot.”

“If he makes good on this threat, our legal team is standing by,” Dillon said. “And they will prevail.”

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A person familiar with the campaign’s thinking told Fox News that it made this move to be ready to fight all of the Trump campaign’s “meritless legal challenges and shenanigans.”

The person told Fox News that this was not a signal that the Biden campaign believed the race would necessarily drag out for a long period of time, but instead, that they will be prepared for anything.

Dillon was referring to Trump’s comments from the White House early Wednesday, when he said he and his campaign would push the U.S. Supreme Court to rule over disputed ballots, warning that a “very sad group of people” was trying to “disenfranchise” voters.

Trump said that he predicted a legal battle, and said he has “been saying this since the day I heard there would be tens of millions of ballots sent,” referring to the unprecedented scale of mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment on our country,” Trump said, referring to the votes not being called in key states.

“We were getting ready to win the election, frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said, adding that he wanted to “ensure the integrity” of the vote, and ensure the law is “used in a proper manner.”

“We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Trump said. “We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning and add them to the list.”

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He added: “It’s a very sad moment. To me, this is a very sad moment, and we will win this.”

“As far as I’m concerned, we already have won it,” Trump said.

Biden, speaking just after midnight Wednesday, in Wilmington, Del., said that he was “on track to win this election.”

Election night ended Tuesday without a presidential race call as the results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Alaska hung in limbo.

By mid-day Wednesday, the Trump campaign had vowed to attempt a recount in Wisconsin.

As of Wednesday mid-day, Biden had 238 electoral votes to Trump's 213. A candidate needs to meet or surpass 270 electoral votes to be elected president.