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Biden overtakes Trump in Georgia race as count nears completion
Democratic nominee Joe Biden pulled ahead of President Trump early Friday in the race for Georgia’s 16 electoral votes.
The latest figures in Georgia, as of 4:45 a.m. ET, showed Biden leading 2,449,371 votes, or 49.39% of the ballots cast, and Trump with 2,448,454 votes, or 49.37% of ballots cast.
Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen was a distant third in the Peach State, with 61,380 votes, or 1.24%.
The numbers represented 99 percent of the total votes cast in Georgia.
The shift in leadership in the Southern state were a good sign for Biden that he may soon reach the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency and deny President Trump a second term.
The Fox News Decision Desk had Biden needing just six more electoral votes to reach the magic number of 270, and winning Georgia – if Biden maintains his newfound lead – would put the former vice president 10 points over the mark.
Meanwhile, other battleground fights remained in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada – with President Trump still very much in the overall race if he can manage to win those fights and make a comeback in Georgia. CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON OUR TOP STORY.
In other developments:
- Nevada GOP cites voter-fraud claims in criminal referral to AG Barr
- More than 150,000 ballots processed but undelivered before Election Day: report
- Trump's Pennsylvania lead dwindles as legal fight heats up over Philadelphia poll watchers
- Nevada deadline for accepting ballots now Nov. 10, nearly 200k ballots remain to be counted: officials
Trump claims Dems trying to 'steal' election, says he'll win if 'legal votes' counted
A defiant President Trump on Thursday, during a White House news conference, said he and his campaign would “not allow corruption to steal” the 2020 presidential election.
The president maintained he would defeat Democratic nominee Joe Biden and win a second term -- despite a dwindling path toward reelection as votes continued to come in.
The president said his goal was to “defend the integrity of the election.”
“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” the president said. “We will not allow corruption to steal such an important election — or any election, for that matter. We can’t allow anyone to silence our voters or manufacture results.”
The president warned that Democrats were trying to unfairly deprive him of a second term.
“But we think there’ll be a lot of litigation because we can't have an election stolen like this,” Trump said, suggesting that he could take his election fight to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
Biden, for his part, said he expects to win the election, but called for patience, saying, “Each ballot must be counted.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
In other developments:
- ABC, CBS, NBC all cut away from Trump's news conference on the election
- Trump's voter-fraud remarks draw criticism from some Republicans
- Biden says he has ‘no doubt’ he will defeat Trump when vote count is finished
Pollsters 'have never been as wrong' as they were in 2020 election: Frank Luntz:
The polling industry and the mainstream media has "never been as wrong as it was" in the 2020 presidential election, pollster and political consultant Frank Luntz told "Bill Hemmer Reports" on Thursday.
“The Washington Post got Wisconsin wrong by sixteen points," Luntz told host Bill Hemmer. "CNN, your competitive network, declared last weekend that Joe Biden was going to win by 12 points. It looks like he’ll get about a 3.5% advantage over Donald Trump when all of the votes are counted."
“They should’ve known better because they got it wrong four years ago,” Luntz said.
On Oct. 22, with post polls indicating a comfortable victory for Biden, Luntz tweeted: "If pollsters get it wrong again, then the polling industry is done. You can get it wrong once. But if they get it wrong a second time and Trump does win, it's going to be the end of public polling in politics."
Even though Trump might still lose the presidency, there was no "blue wave," no overwhelming anti-Trump surge of results favoring Democrats.
“The media were wrong because it was a mixture of wishful thinking and propaganda designed to influence the result. The people they most influenced were themselves and their leftist allies,” Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor told Fox News. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
In other developments:
- What the polls and pundits got wrong: Trump outperforms predictions again
- 'Trump agenda won up and down the ballot' as pundits and polls missed the mark again: Kellyanne Conway
- No clear winner in presidential race as vote counting continues, election hangs in balance
- Hanson: Elite media and pollsters 'culpable' for erosion of trust in institutions
Postal Service worker allegedly had undelivered mail, including ballots, at US-Canada border
A U.S. Postal Service worker was arrested in New York state at the Canadian border, allegedly caught with undelivered mail in his trunk, including three absentee ballots mailed by the Erie County Board of Elections, according to a report.
On Tuesday night, border agents reportedly found 800 pieces of undelivered mail, including 106 political mailings, 220 first-class mailings and 484 standard mailings, in the trunk of suspect Brandon Wilson's car.
Wilson, 27, who has been employed by the Postal Service since 2019, was charged with delaying or destroying mail.
"This office is committed not only to ensuring the integrity of the mails, but also of individuals' rights to vote in a free and fair election," U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy Jr. said in a written statement.
Authorities said Wilson was caught after a wrong turn led him to the Peace Bridge at a border crossing with Canada. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
In other developments:
- Military ballots still arriving in swing states where vote count is unfinished
- Trump campaign files vote-counting lawsuit in Georgia as margin narrows
- 2 Florida men allegedly used device to fish out mail, mail-in ballots: report
- Millions of mail ballots not yet returned in key states
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TODAY'S MUST-READS:
- Tucker Carlson: Media must take a step back from the election and let our system work
- Graham announces $500G donation to Trump campaign legal efforts, calls Philly elections 'crooked as a snake'
- Anderson Cooper: Trump's like an 'obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun realizing his time is over'
- Gov. Cuomo blames de Blasio for Democratic losses on Election Day
- Aaron Rodgers leads Packers past undermanned 49ers, 34-17
THE LATEST FROM FOX BUSINESS:
- Wall Street ‘euphoric’ as blue wave seen as unlikely, making progressive change more difficult
- Ultra-wealthy turn to trusts to plan for potential tax hikes
- Social Security taxes will increase for wealthy Americans regardless of Trump, Biden electoral victory
- Vatican's financial scandal prompts Pope to move investments
- Trump leading Biden in Amazon product searches despite tight election
#The Flashback: CLICK HERE to find out what happened on "This Day in History.”
SOME PARTING WORDS
Sean Hannity discussed reports of voting irregularities and fraud in the 2020 election on “Hannity” Thursday, saying the big media and tech companies, who cut away from a news conference by President Trump, “don’t want you to decide for yourself what news articles you are seeing and making decisions on.”
“What have I been saying about big, Orwellian news institutions failing 'we the people' at levels, I could not imagine,” he said, adding they’re the same “idiots, same networks, same people that lied to you for years about Russia, Russia -- collusion that never existed.”
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Fox News First was compiled by Fox News' Jack Durschlag. Thank you for making us your first choice in the morning! Have a good weekend, stay safe and we’ll see you in your inbox first thing Monday.
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