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Trump, Biden campaign lawyers scramble to battleground states for ballot-counting standoffs
As the sun rose the morning after the election, it became apparent the winner of the 2020 presidential campaign might be decided only after a long legal battle involving lawsuits and other demands by both presidential campaigns.
While Democratic nominee Joe Biden took wins in two crucial swing states, Michigan and Wisconsin, President Trump's team demanded a recount in Wisconsin and filed lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia to stop ballots from being counted.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, the Fox News Decision Desk put Biden at 264 electoral votes -- six shy of the 270 votes needed to win -- meaning any change could be critical in determining who wins the presidency.
Meanwhile, the Biden campaign launched a "fight fund" designed to ensure votes are properly counted.
Pennsylvania, another hotly contested state, also faced a lawsuit from the Trump 2020 Campaign, with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani joining the president's legal team in Philadelphia and citing claims of "massive cheating."
Pennsylvania and North Carolina had last-minute Supreme Court decisions that allowed each to extend the deadline for when officials received ballots. That could mean that official tallies for those states won't be known until Friday for Pennsylvania and Nov. 12 for North Carolina.
The campaign is suing to overturn the 4-4 decision allowing Pennsylvania to maintain its ballot extension. CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON OUR TOP STORY.
In other developments:
- Biden's 72M votes pass Obama 2008 mark; Trump's count close behind
- McEnany: Trump 'path' to 270 electoral votes runs through Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia
- Ben Shapiro: 2020 election's one big message -- voters refuse to accept woke media's narrative on race
- Biden predicts victory, says he will govern as an 'American president'
- Biden's 1 electoral vote from Nebraska district could prove pivotal to his White House bid
- When will we know who won the election?
Portland protest declared a riot; nine arrests reported
At least nine arrests were made in Portland, Ore., on Wednesday night after authorities declared that a downtown protest had become a riot.
The wave of destruction included rioters smashing windows of local businesses.
Two different groups rallied in separate locations Wednesday, before marching into downtown Portland. One group blocked traffic as protesters crossed the Morrison Bridge.
According to Fox 12 Oregon's Brenna Kelly, protesters threw a Molotov cocktail and glass bottles. One person arrested was found to be in possession of a rifle.
Police also shared photos of items that had been allegedly seized from protesters, which include commercial-grade fireworks, hammers, and spray paint. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
In other developments:
- NYC demonstrators set fires, clash with police in election protest; arrests reported
- Philadelphia, Minneapolis among cities seeing post-election unrest
- Protesters in Minneapolis carry ‘America is Over’ banner; 14 arrested after setting off fireworks, police say
- NC protesters arrested after fireworks thrown in Raleigh on Election Night
Ingraham: GOP outperformed expectations on Election Night while pollsters 'crashed spectacularly'
Republicans were on track to retain key Senate seats Wednesday night, outperforming the projections of the "fat-cat consultants and pollsters who cashed in, yet crashed spectacularly," Laura Ingraham told viewers.
"They should go into another line of work and we should not give most of them the time of day ever again," the "Ingraham Angle" host said.
Defying all odds, GOP senators swatted down well-funded challengers in Texas, Iowa, South Carolina, Kansas, Montana, and Maine on Tuesday night, narrowing Democrats' path to flip the Senate and dashing any hopes for a blue wave.
In one major victory, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., fended off a serious scare from Democrat Jaime Harrison, who raised a record-breaking $107.6 million to challenge the powerful Judiciary Committee chairman. During his victory speech, Graham took aim at all the liberal donors from out of state who were banking on a GOP defeat. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
In other developments:
- Gutfeld on the media and pollsters getting it wrong
- Ben Shapiro: 2020 election's one big message: Voters refuse to accept woke media's narrative on race
- Judith Miller: Trump vs. Biden – the saddest, most outrageous moment of the president's 2020 campaign
- Matt Gorman: Whether it's Trump or Biden, Democrats face a reckoning unlike any they've had in a generation
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TODAY'S MUST-READS:
- House of cards? Pelosi to have a hard time becoming speaker, GOP officials say
- Locked-out Detroit Republican vote challengers furious over lack of access
- Colorado passes resolution to throw state's electoral votes to popular-vote winner
- Oregon becomes first state to decriminalize hard drugs like heroin and cocaine
- Ballots taken from mailboxes in Arizona found by farm worker, officials say
- Hollywood starts to get excited as Biden picks up battleground states; expresses disappointment over Senate
#The Flashback: CLICK HERE to find out what happened on "This Day in History.”
SOME PARTING WORDS
Tucker Carlson discussed Tuesday night’s election on Wednesday’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” saying “in a lot of ways, what happened in last night’s election could not have been worse for this country.”
The outcome of the election “was seized from the hands of voters, where it rightfully belongs,” Carlson said, “and now it resides in the control of lawyers and courts and highly partisan, clearly corrupt politicians and big city bureaucrats, so no matter what happens next, that is clearly a tragedy.”
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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! We’ll see you in your inbox first thing Friday.