Trump baselessly claims 'the damage has been done' to election as Biden nears victory

Donald Trump continued firing off tweets into the evening on Wednesday peddling in conspiracy theories and misinformation about ballot-counting as it appeared his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, was primed to pull away in the Electoral College.

“Our lawyers have asked for ‘meaningful access’, but what good does that do? The damage has already been done to the integrity of our system, and to the Presidential Election itself. This is what should be discussed!” the president tweeted shortly after the Associated Press called Michigan in Mr Biden’s favour.

Mr Biden, at 253 Electoral College votes,  was just 17 shy of victory when Mr Trump sent that tweet.

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The Democratic former vice president had multiple paths to victory as Wednesday dragged on, leading in both Nevada and Arizona. If he won both, that would net him exactly 270 electoral votes, cinching the victory.

Mr Biden was also making up ground in Pennsylvania and Georgia, and he could still win North Carolina depending on late-arriving ballots in each of those states.

Several of the president’s tweets on Wednesday claiming victory in states that are too close to call — and even ones that have been called in Mr Biden’s favour — have been flagged as content that is “disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”

Mr Trump’s tweets are part of a broader effort by his campaign to stop election officials from counting legally cast ballots in states where he is still ahead such as Pennsylvania and Georgia.

“We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead,” the president tweeted earlier Wednesday, defying state officials who have explicitly said they have not finished counting ballots.

“Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact, there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!” Mr Trump tweeted.

There have been no substantiated reports of voter fraud or “dumped ballots” in Michigan.

As the Trump campaign continued threatening legal challenges to states that were still counting legally cast ballots on Wednesday, Mr Biden, once again pitched himself as a unifier who would govern as a “president for all Americans.”

The former Democratic vice president expressed confidence on Wednesday that he would end up with enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Paying tribute to his supporters and the 150m people who cast votes, the former vice president declared: “Yesterday proved democracy is the heartbeat of this nation.”

In a brief but notably determined statement on Wednesday, delivered alongside running mate Kamala Harris, Mr Biden made clear he was not yet claiming victory.

“I'm not here to declare that we've won. But I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”