US Elections 2020: Trump declares "victory" while millions of votes remain uncounted

The race for the White House between Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden was poised for a photo-finish, even as the incumbent Republican President on Wednesday claimed "fraud" in the counting of votes and said he would approach the Supreme Court to stop it. At his surprising "victory" speech at around 2 am, his family joined him at the White House. President Trump called the election "a fraud on the American public" and said, "Frankly, we did win this election."

'We already have won it'

"All of a sudden everything just stopped. This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election," Trump said, without citing any evidence of fraud in the electoral process. "We will win this, and as far as I'm concerned, we already have won it," Trump added. His wife Melania Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Jr, daughters Ivanka and Tiffany were all smiles as Trump made the announcement.

According to media reports, Donald Trump had also thanked his wife, his family and his Vice President Mike Pence and his wife for their support amid loud cheers from the upbeat crowd at the East Room of the White House.

Biden's campaign reacts to Trump's statement

Reacting sharply, Biden's campaign manager called Trump's statement as "outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect." "If the President makes good on his threat to go to court to try to prevent the proper tabulation of votes, we have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort. And they will prevail," Jen O'Malley Dillon said.

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"The President's statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect. It was outrageous because it is a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens," Dillon said in a statement.

With millions of votes still being counted, the outcome of the race between Trump and Biden remained in flux, with the possibility that the winner would not be known for days, The Washington Post reported. CNN had projected Biden to have garnered 253 electoral votes, leading Trump by 40. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the U.S. Presidential Election.

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(With agency inputs)