Joe Biden urged people to “stay calm” on Thursday, saying the results of the election will be known “very soon.”
Biden spoke briefly at the Queen Theatre in Wilmington, Del., flanked by Sen. Kamala Harris, as the outcome in Pennsylvania and a few other states remained too close to call.
“The senator and I continue to feel very good about where things stand,” Biden said. “We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Sen. Harris and I will be declared the winners.”
Biden said he had received a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic. He also said that democracy is sometimes “messy” and requires “patience.”
“I ask everyone to stay calm,” he said. “The process is working. The count is being completed, and we’ll know very soon.”
President Trump has taken a different tone on Twitter, writing “STOP THE FRAUD!” and “STOP THE COUNT!”
“All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud,” he wrote, in one of several tweets flagged by Twitter for being possibly misleading. “Plenty of proof — just check out the Media. WE WILL WIN! America First!”
Trump has not spoken publicly since his appearance early Wednesday morning at the White House, in which he claimed that he had won and alleged election fraud.
Media tallies have given Biden either 253 electoral votes or 264 votes, depending on whether the media outlet has called Arizona for Biden. He would need 270 votes to win.
Biden leads in Arizona by 68,000 votes, but that lead is expected to narrow as more ballots are counted Thursday and Friday.
Biden’s lead in Nevada expanded to about 11,000 votes early Thursday when ballots from Clark County were added to the tally. Meanwhile, Trump’s lead in Georgia narrowed to less than 13,000 votes.
Pennsylvania could report enough ballots by the end of the day for a call there. Trump’s lead in that state shrunk to less than 100,000, with about 340,000 mail ballots left to count. The Biden campaign has said it expects to prevail there once all ballots are counted.