周五晚上，前副总统乔·拜登在特拉华州威尔明顿登上舞台，领先总统唐纳德·特朗普生长在战场州决定选举。
由于独立媒体尚未宣布胜利，拜登敦促美国人保持冷静，对系统有信心，并保持耐心每一张选票都被计算在内就像他从选举日以来的每一天一样。
拜登说:“我知道在电视上看这些投票统计进展非常缓慢，尽管进展缓慢，但可能会令人麻木。”。“但永远不要忘记，统计数字不仅仅是数字。他们代表选票和选民。行使其表达意见的基本权利的男女。”
拜登没有宣布胜利，但他说“数字告诉我们这是明确的。”
“我们将赢得这场比赛，”他说。
截至周五下午，拜登在所需的270人中有253人，而特朗普以214人落后。拜登的数数包括威斯康星州，美国广播公司新闻称他是明显的赢家，因为投票非常接近，还没有得到认证。
安吉拉·维斯/法新社，通过盖蒂图像
为了让拜登获得决定性的胜利，他需要宾夕法尼亚州的20张选举人票或以下两个州的选票:亚利桑那州、内华达州、佐治亚州和北卡罗来纳州。特朗普要想获胜，他需要赢得宾夕法尼亚州和上述三个战场——这是一个渺茫的前景，因为除了北卡罗来纳州，他目前在所有战场上都落后于拜登。
周五，在白宫外，示威者聚集在一起等待最终结果，特朗普闭门不出，全国笼罩着一片不确定性，抗议者聚集在关键州的计票中心外。
尽管发了几条推文，特朗普没有在新闻摄像机前用关于获胜和选票欺诈的虚假声明来收回这段叙述就像他一样星期三和星期四从白宫。
拜登周五晚上没有回应特朗普毫无根据的欺诈指控，但他确实表示，全国需要团结起来。
“我们肯定不会在很多问题上达成一致，”他说。“但至少我们可以同意彼此保持礼貌。我们必须把愤怒和妖魔化抛在脑后。现在是我们作为一个国家团结起来疗伤的时候了。这并不容易。但我们必须努力。”
他的竞选团队提交了一份接二连三的诉讼在一些关键的州，包括向最高法院提交的请愿书，反对宾夕法尼亚州选举过程的可信度，并呼吁在此期间停止计票。
埃里克巴拉达特/法新社通过盖蒂图像
“如果算上法定票数，我轻松获胜。特朗普周四表示:“如果你算上非法选票，他们就会试图从我们这里偷走选举。”他没有引用任何选民欺诈的证据。
在宾夕法尼亚州、密歇根州、佐治亚州和内华达州提起的一系列诉讼中，特朗普团队提出了一系列投诉，主要集中在他们的观点上，即竞选观察员被剥夺了观看邮寄选票打开的充分机会。与此同时，总统、他的家人和代理人暗示说，选票被扔在了计票地点，他的领先优势在选举之夜“神奇地”消失了。
但审查这些诉讼的法律专家表示，他们没有看到欺诈的证据。许多人告诉美国广播公司新闻，他们对最终目标感到困惑因为他们似乎注定不会为总统赢得大量选票，也不会改变选举结果。
佐治亚州和密歇根州的法官已经驳回了特朗普因缺乏确凿证据而提起的竞选诉讼。
埃文·武奇/美联社
消息人士称，如果他输了，美国人不太可能看到传统的让步演讲。他们认为特朗普永远不会承认他在这次选举中失败了，而是会坚持使用“操纵”、“欺诈”或“窃取”等字眼。
消息人士对美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)的约翰·桑图奇(John Santucci)和凯瑟琳·福尔德斯(Katherine Faulders)表示，特朗普阵营一直在讨论谁可以告诉总统他可能无法赢得连任的现实。
但是到目前为止，这些对话都没有发生，他们说，短名单包括贾里德·库什纳,伊万卡·特朗普，南卡罗来纳州森。林赛·格雷厄姆甚至参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔。
周五上午在国会山被问及时，麦康奈尔拒绝对特朗普周四晚上发表的毫无根据的声明发表评论，而是指记者在周五上午发布的一条推特上回应特朗普的语言，没有批评。
卡洛斯·巴里亚/路透社
“在我们伟大的国家，这必须是这样的:每一张合法的选票都应该被计算在内。任何非法提交的选票不得。各方都必须观察这个过程。法院是来适用法律和解决争端的自录音再现装置发出的高音。“美国人的投票就是这样决定结果的。"
麦康奈尔驳回了重复的问题，他说，“今天早上我在推特上发了一份声明，我认为你们都明白了，除此之外，我对这个特定的问题没有什么要说的。”
但是麦康奈尔对总统的辩护并没有得到他所有共和党同事的认同。
“我认为总统应该把这个讨论交给他的律师，”布朗特说。
J.斯科特·阿普尔怀特/美联社
当被问及特朗普是否需要承认拜登是否显然赢得了总统大选时，随着网络进行种族预测，布朗特说拜登担任当选总统是合适的。
“无论从非官方对所发生事情的看法到官方对所发生事情的判断，它都会很快发生。那会很快发生的，”布朗特说。“我不认为让总统等待这个数字出现是不合理的。我也不认为副总统拜登接受非官方的结果，做他认为他应该做的任何事情是不合理的。”
Biden says 'we're going to win' as Trump falls behind in key states
Former Vice President Joe Biden took to the stage in Wilmington, Delaware, Friday night as his lead over PresidentDonald Trumpgrew in battleground states that could thedecide the election.
With independent outlets yet to declare victory, Biden urged Americans to keep calm, have faith in the system and stay patientwhile every vote is countedas he has each day since Election Day.
"I know watching these vote tallies on TV moves very slow, and as slow as it goes, it can be numbing," Biden said. "But never forget, the tallies aren’t just numbers. They represent votes and voters. Men and women who exercised their fundamental right to have their voice heard."
Biden stopped short of claiming victory, but did say "the numbers tell us it's clear."
"We’re going to win this race," he said.
As of Friday afternoon, Biden had 253 of the 270 needed while Trump trailed with 214. Biden'scountincludes Wisconsin, where ABC News is characterizing him as the apparent winner because the vote is very close and has not yet been certified.
For Biden to obtain a decisive win, he would need Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes or two of the following states: Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina. For Trump to win, he would need to win Pennsylvania and three of the aforementioned battlegrounds -- a long-shot scenario as he's currently behind Biden in all of them but North Carolina.
Outside the White House, demonstrators gathered Friday to await the final results as Trump stayed behind closed doors and a cloud of uncertainty hung over the country as protesters gathered outside vote-counting centers in key states.
Despite sending a few tweets, Trump did not come before news cameras to reclaim the narrative with false claims about winning and ballot fraudas he didfrom the White House on Wednesday and Thursday.
Biden didn't address Trump's baseless claims of fraud Friday night, but did say the nation would need to come together.
"We're certainly not going to agree on a lot of issues," he said. "But at least we can agree to be civil with one another. We have to put the anger and the demonization behind us. It's time for us to come together as a nation to heal. It's not going to be easy. But we have to try."
His campaign has filed abarrage of lawsuitsin a handful of key states -- including a petition filed with the Supreme Court arguing against the credibility of Pennsylvania's election processes and calling for vote-counting to stop in the meantime.
"If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us," Trump said Thursday, without citing any evidence of voter fraud.
In a series of suits filed in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada, the Trump team argued a range of complaints, mostly focused on their view that campaign observers were being denied sufficient access to watch mail-in ballots opened. That was paired with the president, his family and surrogates suggesting that there were ballots dumped at counting locations and that his lead "magically" disappeared on election night.
But legal experts who reviewed the lawsuits said they saw no evidence of fraud. And many told ABC News theypuzzled over the ultimate objectiveof cases because they did not seem destined to find the president significant numbers of votes or change the election's outcome.
Judges in Georgia and Michigan have already dismissed Trump campaign lawsuits for lacking solid evidence.
It's unlikely Americans will see a traditional concession speech should he lose, sources said. They believe Trump will never admit he lost this election should he lose but instead will stick with the words "rigged," "fraud" or "stolen."
There have been discussions in the Trump orbit about who might tell the president the reality that he may not win reelection, sources told ABC News' John Santucci and Katherine Faulders.
But so far, none of those conversations have happened, they said, saying the short list includeJared Kushner,Ivanka Trump, South Carolina Sen.Lindsey Grahamor even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Questioned on Capitol Hill Friday morning, McConnell refused to comment on the baseless claims Trump made Thursday evening, referring reporters instead to a tweet he posted Friday morning echoing Trump's language with no criticism.
"Here's how this must work in our great country: Every legal vote should be counted. Any illegally-submitted ballots must not. All sides must get to observe the process. And the courts are here to apply the laws & resolve disputes," McConnell said in thetweet. "That's how Americans' votes decide the result."
McConnell dismissed repeated questions, saying, "I sent out a statement on Twitter this morning that I think that you've all gotten and beyond that I don't have anything to say on that particular subject."
But McConnell's defense of the president wasn't shared by all of his Republican colleagues.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of GOP leadership and a former secretary of state for Missouri, was asked by ABC News' Trish Turner if the language Trump used in his speech might call into question the basis of American democracy.
"I think the president should turn this discussion over to his lawyers," Blunt said.
Asked if Trump needs to concede if it's apparent Biden has won the presidency, as networks make race projections, Blunt said it's appropriate for Biden to act as president-elect.
"It will happen quickly from whatever the unofficial view of what happened is to the official determination of what happened. That'll happen quick enough," Blunt said. "I don't think it's unreasonable to allow the president to wait for that number to be apparent. I also don't think it's unreasonable for the Vice President Biden to accept the unofficial result and do whatever he thinks he should do."
