Trump, as lead narrows in counts in Pa., Ga., repeats baseless claims of fraud

The battle for control of the Senate headed into a two-month overtime as Georgia prepares to host two runoff elections Jan. 5 that are likely to determine which party controls the chamber, with the potential to dramatically alter the arc of a new Democratic administration if Joe Biden wins the presidency.

As the dust settled on almost every race, Republicans have secured 48 seats in next year’s Senate and hold steady leads in two other contests but need to win at least one of the two races in Georgia to land a clear majority of 51 seats.

That leaves Democrats, with a caucus of 48 senators so far, one last chance to reclaim the majority by trying to secure a double victory in what used to be a conservative Republican stronghold. If successful, and if Biden secures the White House, the 50-50 Senate would tilt to the Democrats once Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) is sworn in as vice president.

After Trump’s sons and others in the president’s immediate orbit complained that not enough Republicans were speaking out in defense of the president’s unsubstantiated claims of election corruption, several prominent Republicans publicly echoed Trump’s rhetoric.

When Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who won reelection, was mentioned on Twitter by name for staying silent about the results, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted back, “No one is surprised.”

Several hours later, Graham was on Fox News with Sean Hannity, where he falsely claimed that the election had been rigged. The senator, one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, said he would be donating $500,000 to Trump’s legal fund, prompting Eric Trump to tweet: “Thank you for having a spine! Fight this fraud!”

Graham also told Hannity that he was open to the idea of the GOP-controlled Pennsylvania legislature choosing its own electors, overriding the will of the voters.

After Graham’s segment, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) appeared with Hannity and accused the Democrats of trying to steal the election from Trump.

Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville, who defeated incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), made similar allegations, tweeting the same conspiracy theory that the legal counting of mail-in ballots for Biden is proof of corruption.

“The election results are out of control. It’s like the whistle has blown, the game is over and the players have gone home, but the referees are suddenly adding touchdowns to the other team’s side of the scoreboard,” the former football coach said.

Earlier in the day, Trump’s sons began tweeting about the lack of Republican support, specifically warning anyone who might consider running for president in 2024 that Trump voters wouldn’t forget their silence.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (D) said that ballot-counting is running ahead of schedule and that almost all votes would be tallied by Friday.

“I think what I’ve said all along is that the overwhelming majority of ballots will be counted by Friday,” Boockvar said. “I still think that we’re ahead of schedule, and we actually already have counted the overwhelming majority of ballots. But because it’s a close race, it’s not quite clear yet who the winner is.”

As of 11 p.m., there were about 175,000 mail ballots outstanding in the state. By 11:30, Trump’s lead had dropped to under 25,000 votes. According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, there were more than 55,000 mail ballots remaining in Philadelphia County and nearly 36,000 in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh — both Democratic-leaning areas.

These figures do not include any mail ballots that were postmarked by Nov. 3 but arrived after Election Day, as well as provisional ballots. Boockvar could not say how many of those types of ballots are expected but said it wouldn’t be a “significant amount.”

An angry dispute erupted among House Democrats on Thursday, with centrist members criticizing their liberal colleagues during a private conference call for pushing far-left views that cost the party seats in Tuesday’s election that they had worked hard to win two years ago.

The bitter exchange, which lasted more than three hours as members sniped back and forth over tactics and ideology, reflected the extent to which the 2020 campaign exposed simmering tensions in the party even as its presidential nominee, Joe Biden, stands on the brink of achieving their biggest goal of the year — unseating President Trump.

Party leaders had expressed certainty that Trump’s divisiveness and mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic would help them expand their majority with wins in GOP-held districts — and yet they lost at least a half-dozen seats and failed to retake the Senate. The explanation laid out by centrists, according to multiple people who were on the call and spoke on the condition of anonymity, is that Republicans were easily able to paint them all as socialists and radical leftists who endorse far-left positions such as defunding the police.

The Nevada Republican Party on Thursday evening announced that it had sent a criminal referral to U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr alleging that at least 3,062 people voted in Nevada after moving out of state.

The move came after a news conference earlier in the day at which party and Trump campaign officials claimed widespread fraud in Nevada without providing evidence. And it came just minutes after President Trump, speaking publicly for the first time since election night, baselessly attacked mail ballots as fraud-ridden.

The party’s lawyers sent to Barr a list of voters identified by cross-checking voter registration names and addresses with the National Change of Address database.

Nevada law allows residents to vote after moving out of state if they are serving in the military, married to someone in the military or going to school. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada noted in a tweet Thursday that voters in the state do not lose their eligibility to vote when they leave the state temporarily.

A spokesman for Clark County did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier in the day, Joe Gloria, the county’s registrar of voters, said in response to questions about potential voter fraud that he would investigate any incident reported to him. “We’re firm in our commitment to making sure that we’re processing ballots with high integrity,” he said.

A Justice Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a move that could produce an investigation, confirmed that the department had received the referral and that officials were “looking into it.” The official declined to provide further details.

A 2017 guide on the prosecution of election offenses says it is “the general policy of the Department not to conduct overt investigations, including interviews with individual voters, until after the outcome of the election allegedly affected by the fraud is certified.” The department, though, recently issued guidance offering more leeway and raising fears among some legal observers about a possible effort to bolster Trump’s exaggerated claims of fraud via mail-in voting.

On Thursday, the Trump campaign also threatened to file a federal lawsuit to stop the counting of “improper” votes. The campaign and the GOP have already filed multiple unsuccessful legal challenges in Nevada, first to the voting rules and then to vote-counting procedures in Democratic-leaning Clark County.

PHOENIX — Biden’s lead over Trump in Arizona dwindled further Thursday night, to about 46,000 votes, as Maricopa County tallied more ballots.

The county, Arizona’s largest, still has about 300,000 early ballots left to count, officials say. There are more than 90,000 other ballots yet to be counted elsewhere in the state, according to the Arizona secretary of state’s website.

Statewide, as of about 7 p.m. on Thursday, Biden had 50.06 percent of the vote, and Trump had 48.54 percent, the secretary of state said. Biden’s lead — which stood at nearly 75,000 votes Thursday morning — has been shrinking, and the Trump campaign insists it can still win the race.

Maricopa County will update its numbers at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Friday.

Various groups across the country pledged to continue protests outside ballot-counting locations in Phoenix, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Detroit on Thursday, as the final tallying of ballots continued in key states.

Many of the demonstrations were spurred by conspiracy theories that centered on unfounded fears of fraud, including suggestions that Democrats are creating forged ballots for presidential candidate Joe Biden. The rumors have rapidly proliferated among right-wing social media users, fueled in part by baseless allegations from President Trump and his high-profile associates.

“STOP THE COUNT,” Trump tweeted on Thursday, as the growing tally of ballots narrowed his lead over Biden in some states.

Votes cast by military personnel could assume greater importance as the race between Trump and Biden narrowed to a handful of battleground states that accept service members’ ballots after Election Day.

Authorities in Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Alaska continued to count ballots and wait for others yet to arrive, including those cast by uniformed troops and their families stationed away from their homes.