Election 2020 results: ‘We’re going to win this race,’ Joe Biden says as count continues

Fiji's prime minister on Saturday appeared to become the first head of state to send a congratulatory message to Joe Biden — despite the absence of an official result and as vote-counting continues.

At present, Biden is projected to win 253 electoral votes, just 17 short of the 270 required to secure victory. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is seen with 214 electoral votes. NBC deems the five battleground states still counting votes as too close to call.

"Congratulations, @JoeBiden," Fiji's Frank Bainimarama said via Twitter.

"Now, more than ever, we need the USA at the helm of these multilateral efforts (and back in the #ParisAgreement — ASAP!)", the Pacific nation's leader added.

Fiji, an archipelago in the South Pacific that has been dramatically affected by the climate crisis, was the first country worldwide to formally ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2016.

Earlier this week, the U.S. became the first nation to formally withdraw from the Paris Agreement. If elected, Biden has pledged to rejoin the landmark accord as soon as possible.

— Sam Meredith

World media reacted to the long wait for an official verdict in the U.S. presidential race, as vote-counting continued in a number of outstanding states.

The Associated Press reported that the election outcome hovered in "suspended animation," attributing the ongoing delay to high turnout, a "massive" number of mail-in ballots, and a razor-thin margin between the two candidates in some states.

The Guardian newspaper's front page on Saturday simply read: "On the brink."

Meanwhile, The Japan Times led with a headline that queried whether media mogul Rupert Murdoch was "dumping" Trump.

— Sam Meredith

Joe Biden's transition team is not waiting on the official verdict of the presidential election to start work.

The former vice president said in a speech late Friday night that both he and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris had recently met with groups of public health experts and economic advisors.

It comes as vote-counting continues in a number of battleground states. The trend shows Biden ahead of incumbent President Donald Trump, with just 17 electoral votes required for Biden to secure the 270 needed to win the White House.

"While we are waiting for the final results, I want people to know we're not waiting to get the work done," Biden said.

"The pandemic, as you also know, is getting more worrisome all across the country. Daily cases are skyrocketing. It is now believed that we could see as many 200,000 cases in a single day. The death toll is approaching 240,000 lives lost to this virus."

"I want everyone to know on day one, we are going to put our plan to control this virus into action," Biden said.

The U.S. has now reported over 100,000 cases of the coronavirus for three consecutive days, according to a Reuters tally, with at least 129,606 recorded on Friday.

To date, the U.S. has recorded 9.7 million cases of the coronavirus, with 236,099 related deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

— Sam Meredith

Former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has shared a recording via Twitter to laud Joe Biden's "apparent election victory," thanking those that worked with progressive grassroots organizations nationwide.

"It was an election about whether we end pathological lying in the White House and retain democracy and the rule of law in our country. And thank God, it appears we have done that," Sanders said in a video message.

"But tonight, as we celebrate our apparent election victory, we understand that our struggle is not over. It has just begun," he said.

Joe Biden is currently projected to win 253 electoral votes, 17 short of the 270 needed to win. The former vice president appears to be ahead in key battleground states, but no final result has yet been announced.

— Sam Meredith

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has tested positive for Covid-19, NBC News confirmed late Friday.

Earlier this week, Meadows attended an election night gathering at the White House. On Tuesday, he also stood by when President Donald Trump spoke at a Republican Party office, but did not wear a mask.

NBC also confirmed that Trump campaign aide Nick Trainer has also tested positive for the coronavirus.

— Christine Wang

Democratic nominee Joe Biden gave a short but powerful speech Friday night in Wilmington, Delaware, calling on Americans to be patient while votes are counted, and prepare "to put the anger and the demonization" of the bitterly fought presidential race "behind us."

"I know watching these vote tallies on TV move slowly upward can be numbing," said Biden. "But never forget: the tallies aren't just numbers. They're votes, and they represent men and women who exercised their fundamental right to have their voice heard."

Biden spoke as the presidential vote counting process in key states dragged on into a fifth day Saturday with Biden in the lead over President Donald Trump in key states, but no clear indication of when news networks would deem that lead to be insurmountable, and "call the race" for Biden.

Having decided earlier in the day not to deliver a planned victory speech on Friday night, Biden allies initially said he would merely give an "update" on the race. But it quickly became clear when Biden began speaking that he had more to say than that.

"No matter who you voted for, I'm certain of one thing: The vast majority of you want to get the vitriol out of our politics. We're certainly not going to agree on a lot of the issues — but we can at least agree to be civil to one another," he said. "We may be opponents — but we are not enemies. We are Americans."

It was no accident that Biden's message was the opposite of Trump's. The former vice president has taken pains this week to present a contrast to the president's tirades and tantrums.

— Christina Wilkie

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons spoke to reporters in Wilmington Friday night ahead of Democratic nominee Joe Biden's remarks expected later on.

"I think you will likely hear an update on the race, in which he'll convey his confidence in the system, his optimism about the ultimate outcome, and his determination to lead a responsible path forward," Coons said, offering a preview of Biden's speech.

What people won't hear, he said, is "a pronouncement [of victory] that might make us feel all a little bit better, and go to sleep sooner."

Biden, he said, "is respecting the process and making sure it plays out thoroughly."

Coons also said he didn't expect any major networks to declare Biden the winner in the key state of Pennsylvania tonight, despite the fact that Biden's lead over President Donald Trump continues to grow with each new batch of votes.

At 10:00 p.m., Biden was ahead by 27,130 votes in Pennsylvania, with 96% of the count tallied. A win in the state would net Biden 20 additional electoral votes, and put him over the 270 vote threshold to win the presidency.

-- Christina Wilkie

President Donald Trump continued to chip away at Democrat Joe Biden's lead in Arizona on Friday night, when a new batch of votes from the populous Maricopa County netted Trump an additional 8,594 votes.

Before this latest report of around 73,000 votes, Biden's lead was 38,455, according to NBC News. After these votes were added to the count, Biden's lead shrank to 29,861.

Trump won 54.9% of the latest chunk of votes, slightly outperforming Biden with voters in a state that Trump won in 2016.

Across Arizona Friday night, around 170,000 votes remained to be counted, approximately 90,000 of which were in Maricopa County, with the other 80,000 scattered statewide.

Technically, there's a still a remote chance that Trump could come from behind and win the state. But given Biden's current lead, it will be very, very difficult for Trump to catch up.

NBC News' Vaughn Hillyard estimated that if Trump were to win 54.9% of the outstanding votes in Maricopa County, he would also need to win a much higher percentage of the non-Maricopa votes – around 63% of them – in order to overtake the former vice president.

– Christina Wilkie

A federal judge in Clark County, Nevada on Friday denied a request by two Republican congressional candidates for a temporary restraining order that would bar the county from using a particular brand of ballot signature matching software.

Judge Daniel Albregts also denied a separate motion in the same lawsuit, this one asking the court to issue an official directive to Clark County demanding that it "allow meaningful access to the ballot counting process."

Judge Albregts said there was "little to no evidence" that the Agilis software system had invalidated a ballot belonging to one of the individuals who was named in the suit.

He further ruled that the plaintiffs had not presented enough evidence that they were actually denied "meaningful access" to the ballot counting process to merit the injunction they sought.

"I should not usurp that proper law of state legislatures and re-write state election laws," the judge said, according to NBC News' Pete Williams.

The case was the latest in a string of election related lawsuits brought by Republicans this week in states where President Donald Trump is trailing Democrat Joe Biden. The suits aim to discredit aspects of the voting process, in order to sow doubts about the election outcome. Experts say nearly all the suits lack legal merit.

— Christina Wilkie

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito ordered Pennsylvania's county elections boards to segregate all ballots received by mail after 8 p.m. Tuesday and to count them separately from other ballots, as Republicans pursue an effort to invalidate those votes.

Alito's order effectively mandates guidance already issued by state Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar to the counties calling for them to segregate the ballots received after Election Day.

But Alito did not grant, for now, a request to him Friday by the Pennsylvania Republican Party to halt the ongoing counting of the later ballots.

Instead, he referred that question to a conference with his fellow court justices and directed that any response by the state be filed by 2 p.m. Saturday.

The order comes as former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania's ballot count by a margin that has continued to grow over Friday. Biden took over the lead because of the mail-in ballots, which have been counted after walk-in ballots were tallied.

If Biden wins Pennsylvania's popular vote, it would give him the state's 20 Electoral College votes, enough to push him over, by three such votes, the 270 need to win the White House.

Boockvar said Thursday that a relatively low number of ballots were received in the mail after Election Day, and that she does not expect them to provide the margin of victory in the race.

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court earlier this year extended to 5 p.m. Friday the deadline for the receipt of mail-in ballots for the current election. The ballots have to have been postmarked by Tuesday, Election Day.

The state GOP had sued to overturn that order, which it argues violated the legislative-determined deadline of 8 p.m. on Election Day.

The U.S. Supreme Court held off on ruling on that effort until after Election Day.

— Dan Mangan

Ding, Don ....

A Washington, D.C.-area landscape evocative of the film "The Wizard of Oz" is sporting a new bit of graffiti telling President Donald Trump that it's time to give up any hope of staying in the White House and to go back home.

"Surrender Donald," says the message painted on a CSX railroad bridge over the Washington Beltway in Kensington, Maryland.

In the background as motorists approach those words looms the soaring white and golden spires of the Washington, D.C., Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Mormon temple's Oz-like appearance routinely surprises drivers seeing it for the first time because it looks nothing like any other architecture in the nearby area.

Those drivers for years often also have seen another message saying "Surrender Dorothy" on the bridge.

Those are the same words written in smoke by the Wicked Witch of the West in the sky above the city of Oz as Judy Garland's character Dorthy Gale walks below with the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow in the 1939 film.

The Washington Post in 2011 reported that the Dorothy graffiti has been a "common sight for Beltway drivers" since the early 1980s, despite the repeated efforts of highway workers to remove it, only to have "Surrender Dorthy" reappear on the span.

"We've fought an uphill battle for years with people putting graffiti on that bridge," state highway spokesman told the Mormon News in 2001, the Post noted.

– Dan Mangan

With his Democratic opponent Joe Biden on the cusp of securing the presidency and poised to address the nation Friday night, President Donald Trump complained again that his early lead on Election Night had "miraculously disappeared," and he expressed hope that a slew of lawsuits his campaign has filed over election proceedings might cause his leads to "return."

"I had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by," Trump tweeted. "Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward!"

Shortly before this tweet, Trump wrote that Biden "should not wrongfully claim the office of the President."

"I could make that claim also," Trump wrote. "Legal proceedings are just now beginning!"

Trump has, in fact, made that claim repeatedly over the past three days, starting on Election Night, when he told supporters at the White House, "Frankly, we did win this election. We did win this election."

Yet Trump's leads did not disappear by virtue of a miracle, rather, they never existed to begin with. As more and more ballots were counted this week, it became clear that Biden had received more votes than Trump in key states, including Michigan and Wisconsin.

As of Friday evening, Biden had leads in several key states, including Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada, although counts were still underway.

— Christina Wilkie

Two Virginia men who were arrested Thursday night with weapons near a Philadelphia vote-counting location will be arraigned on gun charges and possibly election law violations, according to law enforcement officials.

The FBI's Norfolk, Virginia field office was alerted by a tipster that the two men were traveling to the region, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a press conference Friday.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's office has identified the men as Joshua Macias, 42 and Antonio Lamotta, 61. The men were arrested near the Philadelphia Convention Center where votes are being tallied.

The men were driving a silver Hummer that had stickers promoting "QAnon," the baseless pro-Trump internet-borne conspiracy theory claiming, among other things, that the president is fighting a secret war against Satan-worshipping "deep-state" pedophiles.

The men were both armed with handguns when officers approached and an AR-15 style gun was found in the hummer, Outlaw said. Officers found 160 rounds of ammo in the vehicle, according to the District Attorney.

"A third individual, a woman, who appears to be traveling with the pair was not arrested," Krasner said.

— Kevin Breuninger

There are still six states that remain uncalled by NBC News in the presidential race. Joe Biden's lead has grown in Pennsylvania and Georgia today, while it has shrunk in Arizona.

Here's where Biden and President Donald Trump stand in those states as they each seek 270 electoral votes to win, according to NBC News projections:

• Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes): Biden leads by 14,541 votes with 96% of the expected vote in
• Georgia (16 electoral votes): Biden leads by 4,179 votes with 99% of the expected vote in
• Arizona (11 electoral votes): Biden leads by 39,400 votes with 94% of the expected vote in
• Nevada (6 electoral votes): Biden leads by 20,137 votes with 92% of the expected vote in
• North Carolina (15 electoral votes): Trump leads by 76,709 votes with 98% of the expected vote in
• Alaska (3 electoral votes): Trump leads by 51,382 votes with 56% of the expected vote in

—Lauren Feiner

Joe Biden appears to be inching closer to victory in the 2020 presidential race. But the Trump campaign has called for a recount in Wisconsin and election officials in Georgia have said a recount is expected.

Requests for recounts could also be filed in other states, such as Arizona and possibly even Pennsylvania, a must-win battleground for President Donald Trump.

Here's how it would work in Georgia and Wisconsin:

Georgia

While a razor-thin race in Georgia cannot trigger an automatic recount, the losing candidate is allowed to request a recount if they lost an election by less than 0.5% of the total votes. That request can only be made to the secretary of state within two business days after the election results are certified, which must be done by Nov. 20.

Wisconsin

Under Wisconsin law, an "aggrieved" candidate can request a recount if they received within 1% of the winner's vote total. The loser can file a petition for a recount no later than 5 p.m. on the first business day after the state election commission has received final results from all counties. Those counties have until Nov. 17 to hand in their final tallies.

— Kevin Breuninger

Pennsylvania's Republican Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an order that would stop the counting of mail-in ballots received in the state after Election Day and have those votes segregated as the GOP seeks to overturn a deadline extension for such ballots.

But state Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar already has directed counties to segregate any mail-in ballots received between 8 p.m. ET Tuesday — the original deadline — and the extended deadline of 5 p.m. Friday.

And Boockvar has said that the number of such ballots received within that window is so small relative to the more than 6 million ballots cast in the state that they are unlikely to affect the outcome of the presidential race.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is leading President Donald Trump by more than 13,000 votes in the state. Biden took over the lead from Trump earlier Friday, as he won mail-in ballots around the state by wide margins.

— Dan Mangan

Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp released an official statement on the election Friday afternoon, echoing language shared by Republican leaders about counting only legal votes.

"Any allegations of intentional fraud or violations of election law must be taken seriously and investigated. We trust that our Secretary of State will ensure that the law is followed as written and that Georgia's election result includes all legally-cast ballots — and only legally-cast ballots," Kemp said in a joint statement with Republicans Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Georgia House Speaker David Ralston.

Earlier, Kemp's campaign put a call out for Republican lawyers. "There are ballots left to be counted and we must protect the integrity of Georgia elections," the email said. "Right now, the Georgia Republican Party is assembling a team of highly-qualified lawyers to ensure that the process is fair and transparent."

The Kemp campaign's email listed eight Georgia counties where they said they will dispatch attorneys — six of which are counties where Democrat Joe Biden is currently leading over President Donald Trump, according to NBC News projections.

Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office has maintained that there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

"We're not seeing widespread irregularities," Gabriel Sterling, the secretary of state's voting system implementation manager, said in a press conference Friday morning.

The presidential race for Georgia's 16 electoral votes remains too close to call, according to NBC News. Biden current leads Trump by just 1,593 votes with 99% of the expected vote in, NBC News projects. Raffensperger said the presidential race could move to a recount if the margin between the candidates remains below 0.5% in the official results.

—Hannah Miao

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris are expected to speak this evening during prime time, the campaign told NBC News.

No winner has been called in the presidential race yet. Biden has secured 253 electoral votes compared with Trump's 214 in the race to 270, according to NBC News projections. The former vice president currently leads in four of the six remaining uncalled states.

— Hannah Miao

One of President George W. Bush's top attorneys during his grueling, extremely competitive 2000 election campaign says President Donald Trump's lawsuits in 2020 are "entirely without merit."

Asked for comment on Trump's many legal claims of illegal absentee and mail-in ballots, former Bush attorney Barry Richard said none of the campaign's current suits appear supported with evidence.

"I think the lawsuits filed so far are entirely without merit and will not be successful," Richard, who served as a lead attorney for the Bush campaign during the 2000 recount in Florida, wrote in an email.

Trump's reelection team has filed suits in a handful of states and has repeatedly questioned, without providing evidence, the integrity of absentee and mail-in voting during the fierce 2020 contest. Trump is trailing former Vice President Joe Biden in NBC News's official electoral vote count and is seen trailing in Pennsylvania.

Should Biden win Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes, he would win the 2020 presidential election with at least 273 votes. NBC News has not made a call on the race in the Keystone State.

— Thomas Franck

The 2020 presidential election saw the highest turnout rate among eligible voters since 1900, according to data from the U.S. Elections Project.

In 2020, 66.9% of the eligible voting population cast a ballot in the 2020 election. That's the highest percentage since the 1900 presidential election, which saw at 73.7% voter turnout rate.

As of Friday at 2:00 p.m. ET, NBC News projects that 73,979,608 Americans voted for Democrat Joe Biden, 69,876,618 Americans voted for President Donald Trump and 2,562,258 Americans voted for other candidates. NBC News expects that 13,143,516 more votes still need to be counted.

—Hannah Miao

President Donald Trump just released a statement through his campaign.

"We believe the American people deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting and election certification, and that this is no longer about any single election. This is about the integrity of our entire election process," the statement reads.

"From the beginning we have said that all legal ballots must be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted, yet we have met resistance to this basic principle by Democrats at every turn. We will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee that the American people have confidence in our government. I will never give up fighting for you and our nation," it concludes.

As it becomes increasingly clear that Democrat Joe Biden is on track to secure 270 electoral votes, the Trump campaign is escalating its baseless claims of voter fraud and pursuing lawsuits in multiple states.

Some of the suits seek to halt vote counting, others allege illegal or unfair practices by ballot counters, and still others challenge local election laws.

Both conservative and liberal legal experts agree that few, if any, of Trump's lawsuits are likely to prevail.

— Christina Wilkie

The 2020 election appears to have done little to change Mitch McConnell or Nancy Pelosi's mind about what a coronavirus stimulus package requires.

Both the Senate majority leader and House speaker called for another aid bill on Friday. But they appear as divided as ever on how much money Congress would need to put into the legislation.

McConnell cited the October jobs report as justification for a more narrow relief bill. Pelosi once again said she would not accept a limited aid package.

While the sides have both called to pass more stimulus before the end of the year, it remains to be seen whether they can resolve differences over issues including unemployment benefits and state and local government aid. Republicans last proposed a $500 billion bill, while Democrats put forward $2.2 trillion legislation.

Pelosi's Democrats will keep House control in January, according to NBC News. Republicans, meanwhile, hope to hold on to their Senate majority with four races still uncalled.

—Jacob Pramuk

Six states remain uncalled in the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Here's where each candidate stands in these states in the race for 270 electoral votes, according to NBC News projections:

• Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes): Biden leads by 12,390 votes with 96% of the expected vote in
• Georgia (16 electoral votes): Biden leads by 1,561 votes with 99% of the expected vote in
• Arizona (11 electoral votes): Biden leads by 43,779 votes with 93% of the expected vote in
• Nevada (6 electoral votes): Biden leads by 20,137 votes with 92% of the expected vote in
• North Carolina (15 electoral votes): Trump leads by 76,737 votes with 95% of the expected vote in
• Alaska (3 electoral votes): Trump leads by 51,382 votes with 56% of the expected vote in

—Hannah Miao

Upwards of 40,000 ballots in Democratic-leaning Philadelphia remain to be counted, election officials said, as Joe Biden maintains a vote lead over President Donald Trump in the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania.

Biden overtook Trump in the state's race on Friday morning as counts of mail-in ballots in both Democratic-leaning and Republican-leaning counties broke significantly his way.

The former vice president was leading Trump by nearly 12,400 votes after Philadelphia officials revealed how many ballots remained in that city. That was more than 2,500 voters higher than when the press conference began.

Pennsylvania has 20 Electoral College votes at stake. If Biden is projected as winner of the Keystone State, it would push him over the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to secure the presidency, leaving him with at least 273 such votes, pending legal challenges and any recounts in states.

The race is still too close to call, according to NBC News.

— Dan Mangan

Philadelphia election officials will provide an update at 12:30 p.m. ET as ballot counting continues. Joe Biden currently holds a lead over Donald Trump in the Keystone state.

— Valerie Block

Mark Kelly will win Arizona's Senate race, NBC News projected Friday, flipping the second seat of the 2020 election for Democrats.

Kelly, a former NASA astronaut, will defeat Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who has held the Arizona seat since 2019.

The expected victory would make Arizona the third state where a Senate seat changes hands this year, after Democrats won GOP-controlled Colorado and Republicans carried Democratic-held Alabama.

The GOP held majority control of the Senate heading into the 2020 election. Both parties will have at least 48 seats entering the next Congress.

— Kevin Breuninger

President Donald Trump is catching up to Joe Biden in Arizona, but it may not be enough to take the lead.

Biden currently holds 50% of the vote in the state, while Trump has 48.6%, according to NBC News' count of the race. About 92% of the state's votes have been tallied, NBC is reporting.

A new batch of more than 60,000 votes in Maricopa County, the largest in Arizona, went about 51% for Trump, helping him slightly shrink his deficit with Biden. But Trump needs a larger share of the remaining votes in order to catch up to the former vice president in the state, MSNBC's Steve Kornacki said.

Arizona has 11 electoral votes. NBC has not called a projected winner in the state.

Meanwhile, Biden appears to be growing his lead in Pennsylvania, which has 20 electoral votes and could carry him over the finish line regardless of who wins Arizona.

— Kevin Breuninger

The presidential race in Georgia is expected to move to a recount, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a press conference Friday.

Democrat Joe Biden overtook President Donald Trump by a slim margin Friday morning, NBC News projected. Biden currently leads Trump by just 1586 ballots with 99% of expected votes counted, according to NBC News projections. The race remains too close to call.

"With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia," Raffensperger said. "Interest in our election, obviously, goes far beyond Georgia's borders. The final tally in Georgia at this point has huge implications for the entire country."

In Georgia, a recount can be requested by a losing candidate if the margin between candidates falls below 0.5% in the official results. However, a recount cannot be requested until the election is certified. Currently, Georgia election officials plan to have state certification by Nov. 20 at the latest, though they hope to work with counties to beat that date.

Georgia election officials expect to know the results of a recount by the end of November.

Friday is the last day for voters to "cure" ballots with errors and the deadline to receive military and overseas ballots. About 8,890 military and overseas ballots have not been returned yet, election officials said at the conference.

—Hannah Miao

Philadelphia election officials will provide an update at 12:30 p.m. ET as ballot counting continues. Joe Biden currently holds a lead over Donald Trump in the Keystone state.

— Valerie Block

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will hold her weekly news conference at 10:45 a.m. ET on Friday.

The briefing comes as Democrats are projected to hold onto control of the House, but lose seats overall. Democrats had hopes of expanding their majority in the chamber in the 2020 election.

In a letter to House Democrats on Wednesday, Pelosi expressed confidence in Democrat Joe Biden winning the presidential election. NBC News has not called a winner in the race.

In a separate caucus call Thursday, Pelosi told Democrats that the party "did not win every battle, but we did win the war," according to NBC News.

—Hannah Miao

Top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said President Donald Trump has no plans to give up on his fight for reelection, even as Joe Biden jumps into the lead in make-or-break states.

"He intends to keep on fighting," Kudlow said of Trump in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

Kudlow said he spoke with Trump "a little bit this morning," and assured that "the president intends to fight."

Trump "wants to make sure the ballots are counted legally," Kudlow said, echoing the rhetoric of the president, who has launched allegations of voter fraud without evidence and whose campaign has filed lawsuits in numerous key states.

But if Trump loses, Kudlow said he believes "there will be a peaceful transfer of power."

"This is the greatest democracy in the world and we abide by the rule of law and so will this president," Kudlow said. — Kevin Breuninger

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will hold a press conference Friday at 10:30 a.m. ET to discuss the growth of the Kentucky Republican party. He will be joined by Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers and Kentucky Speaker of the House David Osborne.

McConnell won his reelection bid for a seventh six-year Senate term on Tuesday.

—Hannah Miao

President Donald Trump's campaign signaled that it is nowhere close to conceding to Joe Biden after the Democratic nominee seized the lead in Pennsylvania.

Trump's campaign sent out a statement saying the "election is not over" and that the "false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final."

The campaign suggested, as they have done repeatedly, that there is some form of voting illegality within some states. None of that has been proven to be true.

NBC News has yet to project either Biden winning Pennsylvania or the presidential race.

The Biden campaign pushed back on Trump refusing to concede.

"As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election," Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said. "And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House."

The statement mirrors what many leaders on the Trump campaign are privately telling their teams – that, somehow, the election has been stolen, and there some forms of fraud taking place, according to people familiar with the matter. They declined to be named in order to speak freely.

Yet, there appears to be a split within the Trump campaign as there are those who are privately conceding that the election is indeed over. But there is no movement by the heads of the organization to concede.

– Brian Schwartz

Joe Biden has taken the lead in Pennsylvania, according to NBC News. President Donald Trump had led since election night.

If Biden wins the state's 20 electoral votes, he will secure enough electoral votes to win the presidency. NBC has projected that Biden has already won 253 electoral votes.

Biden leads in Pennsylvania by more than 5,500 votes with 95% of the expected vote counted.

– Mike Calia

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took to Twitter on Friday to blast centrist Democrats after several moderates spoke out against progressives as the party is set to lose seats in the House.

Ocasio-Cortez attempted to flip the blame for the losses onto centrist Democrats who she says did not do enough to fight their Republican counterparts through online ads.

"Underinvestment across the board. Some campaigns spent $0 on digital the week before the election. Others who spent did so in very poor ways," she said.

She also took aim at some House Democrats, claiming they didn't do enough door knocking.

This comes after Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Conor Lamb, D-Pa., among others, suggested that progressive Democrats derailed some of their colleagues chances at reelection. Republicans are projected to make significant gains in the House.

"We need to not ever use the word 'socialist' or 'socialism' ever again," Spanbeger said during a recent House conference call. "We lost good members because of that."

"Spanberger was talking about something many of us are feeling today: We pay the price for these unprofessional and unrealistic comments about a number of issues, whether it is about the police or shale gas," Lamb said on the call.

– Brian Schwartz

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is not buying GOP President Donald Trump's baseless claims that the Keystone State is trying to steal the presidential election from him.

"I saw the president's speech last night, and it was very hard to watch," the senator who will retire after 2022 told NBC's "TODAY." "The president's allegations of large-scale fraud and theft of the election are just not substantiated. I'm not aware of any significant wrongdoing here."

As tallies of remaining votes increasingly show the president at risk of losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump has repeatedly lied about the vote count. He claimed he was losing ground because of "illegal votes" and cast doubts on the validity of mail-in ballots.

While Pennsylvania's presidential race is too close to call, according to NBC News, Biden only narrowly trails Trump with tens of thousands of ballots left to count. If Biden gets the state's 20 electoral votes, he wins the White House.

Toomey noted that Pennsylvania has taken a long time to count mail-in ballots because the state received a "massive quantity" of them and legally was not allowed to start counting them until polls closed on election night. Plus, Trump and his supporters repeatedly deterred Pennsylvania Republicans from casting votes by mail in favor of in-person voting on Election Day, meaning mail-in ballots have overwhelmingly favored Biden.

Toomey echoed one Republican concern, that poll observers have not been allowed to get close enough to the vote counting process in Philadelphia.

— Jacob Pramuk

The makeup of the next Congress continues to take shape with several key races still unresolved.

Republicans will hold at least 48 seats in the Senate, while Democrats will have at least 47, according to NBC News projections. The country may not know for sure whether Republicans will keep their Senate majority until January.

So far, neither major party has gained ground, as Democrat John Hickenlooper flipped Colorado and Republican Tommy Tuberville picked up a seat in Alabama. NBC News has not yet called the winner of five races:

• Georgia special election: The race will go to a Jan. 5 runoff between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
• Georgia: GOP Sen. David Perdue leads Democrat Jon Ossoff in a race too close to call. Perdue currently has 49.8% of the vote, and if he fails to break the 50% threshold, the contest will also go to a runoff.
• Arizona: The election is too close to call as Democrat Mark Kelly leads Republican Sen. Martha McSally.
• North Carolina: The race is too close to call as Republican Sen. Thom Tillis leads Democrat Cal Cunningham.
• Alaska: The contest is too early to call as GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan holds an advantage over independent candidate Al Gross.

Meanwhile, NBC currently estimates Democrats will hold 226 seats in the House in the next Congress, while the GOP will enter January with 209. In races called by NBC so far, Republicans have gained a net six seats.

Thirty-two House elections remain unresolved.

The losses led to reported tensions on a House Democratic caucus call as lawmakers grappled with what went wrong for the party. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "we did not win every battle but we did win the war," according to NBC News.

— Jacob Pramuk

President Donald Trump's advisors are complaining about a total lack of clear and coherent messaging as Democrat Joe Biden makes gains in must-win states, a new report from Axios said.

"There's no organization or coordination. If I was to go on TV right now, I wouldn't know what the [blank] to say," one Trump aide told the outlet.

In the absence of an effective communication strategy from within the White House, some of the president's surrogates are following the rhetorical lead of Wall Street Journal opinion columnist Kimberly Strassel, Axios reported.

"When Bush had this issue they tapped arguably the pre-eminent statesman of his generation, James Baker, to spearhead their legal and PR efforts, to great effect," a senior administration official told Axios. "We rolled out Rudy Giuliani, Corey Lewandowski and Pam Bondi. You can draw your own conclusions."

— Kevin Breuninger

Democratic nominee Joe Biden is still leading President Donald Trump in Arizona and Nevada, as counting continues Friday.

Biden holds a margin of 47,052 votes in Arizona, with 90% of total expected votes in. The state's next election results update will come at 11 a.m. ET. Trump has cut into Biden's lead since Election Day.

In Nevada, Biden leads by 11,438 votes with 89% of estimated votes reported. State election officials have indicated the next batch of results will be released at noon ET.

While Biden gained in Pennsylvania, Trump was still ahead by 18,229 votes, with about 95% of total expected votes counted, as of 5:30 a.m. ET.

— Christine Wang

Twitter banned Steve Bannon's "War Room: Pandemic" podcast after the former Trump advisor and one-time campaign boss implied that Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded.

"I'd actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I'd put the heads on pikes, right, I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you're gone – time to stop playing games," Bannon said on the podcast. YouTube pulled the episode from its platform.

Bannon's spokeswoman told CNBC that he was not calling for violence and that he was speaking "metaphorically."

"Mr. Bannon has been openly critical of FBI Director Chris Wray for weeks and has called for his firing for his failure to investigate and address Hunter Biden's hard drive and that has been in Director Wray's possession since in Dec 2019," she said. "In addition, Mr. Bannon has supported comments from the White House calling for the immediate firing of Dr. Fauci."

At another point in the podcast, Bannon appeared to concur when his co-host discussed how traitors used to be hanged. "That's how you won the revolution. No one wants to talk about it," Bannon said. "The [American] revolution wasn't some sort of garden party, right? It was a civil war. It was a civil war."

– Mike Calia

Democratic nominee Joe Biden has taken a narrow lead in Georgia over President Donald Trump for the first time, NBC News' analysis of the race shows.

After trailing the president in the state for more than two days, the latest batch of ballots puts Biden ahead of Trump by 917 votes, with about 99% of the Peach State tallied up, according to NBC.

Georgia has 16 Electoral College votes. A Biden win there would mark the first time the state has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee since 1992.

It would also leave Biden just one vote shy of the 270 votes he needs to win the presidency. By NBC's count, Biden has racked up 253 votes, while Trump has received 214.

But NBC has not yet reported a projected winner in Georgia, and that call may not come soon, according to John Lapinski, director of the NBC Elections Unit.

"I think a checkmark probably won't go in there for a couple weeks," Lapinski said.

— Kevin Breuninger

You can read our prior live blog here.