US officials: “No evidence” of fraud in the election results

Biden consolidates his victory by snatching Arizona and Trump keeps the transition process in hibernation

Biden, by winning in Arizona, will have obtained 290 electoral votes.

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US President-elect Joe Biden cemented his electoral victory by seizing the crucial state of Arizona, but the process of transferring powers to his administration is still in a state of political hibernation, as outgoing President Donald Trump refuses to accept defeat.

While American officials stressed that there was no evidence of any ballot fraud or the vote counting system in the elections, a prominent Democratic member of the Senate accused Republicans refusing to acknowledge Biden's victory of "poisoning democracy."

In detail, the Edison Research Center said late Thursday evening, that Biden managed to win Arizona after a count that took more than a week, and thus Biden becomes the second Democratic presidential candidate to win the state, which usually supports Republicans, in seven decades.

Biden's victory in Arizona gives him 290 votes in the electoral college that determines the winner, surpassing the 270 votes required to win.

Biden leads the popular vote as well, with more than 5.3 million votes, equivalent to 3.4 percentage points.

With the end of the count in the vast majority of states, the chances of Trump, the Republican, who claimed without evidence that the elections were marred by widespread fraud, diminish.

To snatch victory from Biden, Trump must lead him in at least three of the crucial states.

Trump's refusal to accept the outcome of the November 3 election is a stumbling block to the transfer of powers to a new administration, and Biden has not yet been recognized by the federal agency that normally provides funding for the next president-elect, the General Services Administration.

Ron Klein, who was nominated by Biden as a senior White House employee, told MSNBC television Thursday that receiving the necessary funds for the transition process is necessary, as the US administration will launch a vaccination campaign against the Corona virus early next year.

He added, "The faster our transition experts meet with those involved in planning a vaccination campaign, the smoother the transition from Trump's presidency to Biden's presidency."

Most Republicans expressed support for Trump's right to file legal appeals, and declined to recognize Biden as a winner, but on Thursday he began showing more signs of taking a different line.

Prominent figures in the party, such as Ohio Governor Mike Dwyane, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sunono and Karl Rove, who was a senior adviser to former President George W. Bush, said Biden should be treated as the elected president.

On the other hand, a number of Republican members of the Senate said that the Trump administration should allow the submission of classified intelligence statements to Biden, even if they did not publicly call him the winner.

Usually, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is informed of such matters to avoid breaching national security during the transition period.

"I don't see this as a high-stakes proposal," Senator John Cornyn told reporters. "I think it's part of the transition process."

And if he wins in the end, I think they will need to start working. ”

The idea was opposed by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, indicating that Trump could win.

Of Biden, he said, "He is not president now ... I do not know if he will become president on January 20."

While Republicans defended Trump, Democrats attacked him, saying he was undermining the institutions of the state.

In an interview with "60 Minutes" to be broadcast on CBS channel on Sunday, former President Barack Obama said that Republicans were taking a "dangerous path" by accepting unfounded allegations of fraud.

Meanwhile, US officials stressed that there is no evidence of any fraud for ballot papers, or of the vote counting system in the US elections.

The assurances came the day before yesterday, hours after US President Donald Trump had re-published tweets in which he insisted that the vote counting system "delete" 2.7 million votes that was in his favor nationwide.

While most Republican lawmakers still refused to acknowledge Biden's victory, the leader of the Democratic Senate, Chuck Schumer, accused them Thursday of "denying reality."

"Instead of working to reunify the country so that we can confront our common enemy, Covid-19, Republicans in Congress are spreading conspiracy theories, denying reality, and poisoning our democracy," he said.

Meanwhile, election officials - both federal and state - rejected in a statement Trump's talk of fraud, saying: "The November 3rd elections were the safest in American history."

The statement was issued by the "Governmental Elections Infrastructure Coordination Council", a group affiliated with the main Federal Election Security Authority: "The Electronic Security and Infrastructure Security Agency."

The statement said: "There is no evidence that the voting system deleted, lost votes, changed them, or was undermined in any way."

He added, "While we are aware that there are many baseless allegations and misinformation about our electoral process, we can confirm that we have the highest confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should be too."

The statement was signed by the heads of the "National Association of State Election Directors", the "National Association of Ministers of Foreign State Affairs" - the officials who administer elections at the state level - in addition to the head of the "American Election Assistance Committee."

In turn, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on the Republicans to stop what she described as "the absurd circus" and to pay attention to fighting the epidemic.

Meanwhile, 161 former national security officials, some of whom have worked with Trump, have warned that the current administration's continued delay in recognizing Biden's victory poses a "serious national security risk."

The group, which includes former Defense Secretary Chuck Heigl and former Trump National Security Council director Javed Ali, urged Public Services Department official Emily Murphy to recognize Biden as the president-elect.

Unless the General Services Administration recognizes the president-elect, Biden and his team cannot obtain the funding that would allow the transfer of power and other resources including access to intelligence leave, but Murphy has so far refused to change her position.

China congratulates Biden on winning the elections

China offered its congratulations yesterday to US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, becoming one of the last countries to congratulate them on their victory in the US presidential elections.

"We have been following the reactions to these US presidential elections from within the United States and the international community," Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Weinbin said at a press conference in Beijing.

"We respect the choice of the American people, and we extend our congratulations to Mr. Biden and Mrs. Harris," Wang told reporters.

Earlier this week, Wang avoided questions about the president-elect, noting that Beijing "noticed that Mr. Biden had declared his victory in the elections, and that the results of the US presidential elections would be determined according to US laws and procedures."

It is noteworthy that other countries have adopted the "wait-and-see" stance.

Not many countries have yet offered congratulations, including Brazil, Mexico and Russia.

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