WTF Just Happened Today

Friday, November 6, 2020

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Today in one sentence: Biden is on the verge of winning the presidency after taking the lead in the vote count in Pennsylvania and Georgia; Trump – citing no evidence – continued to question the integrity of the election and promised legal action; and the U.S. recorded at least 121,000 new coronavirus cases a day after hitting 100,000 for the first time since the pandemic began.

1/ Biden is on the verge of winning the presidency after taking the lead in the vote count in Pennsylvania and Georgia. While a recount is expected in Georgia due to the narrow margin, Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes alone would put Biden over the 270 threshold needed to win the presidency. In the past 50 years, few recounts have led to changes in the winners. In Nevada, Biden’s lead doubled to about 22,000 votes by Friday morning, while his lead in Arizona shrank to about 43,800 votes with more than 200,000 ballots left to be counted. Trump needs to win at least four of the five outstanding states — Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania – all of which are too close to call. Biden and Harris, meanwhile, are expected to address the nation in a primetime speech Friday evening. In July, Trump declined to say whether he would accept the results of the election if he lost, saying “I’m not a good loser. I don’t like to lose.” (Washington Post / New York Times / Politico / NPR / USA Today / The Guardian / NBC News)

• Latest Results: Decision Desk HQ / New York Times / ABC News

• Live Blogs: FiveThirtyEight / New York Times / Washington Post / CNN / NBC News / ABC News / USA Today /