On cusp....

Joe Biden on cusp of clinching victory

New results are expected from Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania as Trump pins hopes on Arizona.

By CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO

Joe Biden has pulled closer to President Donald Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania, slowly expanding his pathways to victory as the campaigns brace for the release of results Thursday that could put the contest out of reach for the president.

Biden remains on pace to overcome Trump in Pennsylvania, where Democratic elected officials expect the former vice president to finish ahead by 100,000 or more votes in a tight race. Biden already clinched Michigan and Wisconsin in overtime ballot-counting, rebuilding the Democratic blue wall and moving him to within six electoral votes of reaching the 270 threshold.

Democrats are closely monitoring highly anticipated updates out of Philadelphia, which they expect will provide a massive boost to Biden's numbers. Supporters of Trump and Biden have lined the streets there, and state and local officials are urging calm as ballot counting continues, even as Trump was taking to Twitter and calling for a halt in counting and as his campaign was dispatching lawyers to the city to throw legal wrenches into the process. Trump can't afford to lose Pennsylvania.

"Pennsylvania is going to count every vote and no amount of intimidation will stop our dedicated election officials in our municipalities," Gov. Tom Wolf said in a prepared statement. "The planned attacks on our elections this morning are undemocratic and all elected officials must denounce them. Pennsylvania will be prepared to protect our election workers and our votes."

Elections officials in Nevada were expecting to provide updates later Thursday.

Trump's lead in Georgia fell to fewer than 20,000 votes in overnight releases. Elections officials there provided a midday county-by-county breakdown of outstanding ballots and anticipate providing updated counts later in the day for Chatham, Fulton, Clayton, Bryan, Cobb, Forsyth, Floyd, Gwinnett, Harris and other counties. In all, more than 60,000 votes are outstanding.

Trump's overall path to reelection is considerably more narrow, and his campaign is pinning its dwindling hopes on holding Pennsylvania by roughly 40,000 votes and surging back in Arizona, which has already been called for Biden.

“Donald Trump is alive and well,” campaign manager Bill Stepien said on a conference call with reporters, mentioning Arizona, where later counts are trending toward Trump.

Stepien criticized Democrats and without evidence accused them of underhanded tactics. Trump's campaign had erroneously claimed victory in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, a position Stepien dialed back in the call.

“We still have confidence in Pennsylvania," he said. “We will win Pennsylvania."

Meantime, Trump's campaign has filed lawsuits to halt vote-counting in Pennsylvania and Michigan over alleged access issues to observe mail-in ballot-counting, poll-watching and disenfranchisement. Republicans have also filed a lawsuit in Georgia, as well as a third legal challenge in Nevada.

In Pennsylvania, Trump's team also wants to intervene in a Supreme Court case into whether ballots received by elections officials up to three days after the election can be counted.

And they're gearing up for a possible recount in Wisconsin, though Republicans and elections experts acknowledge that recounting votes is exceedingly unlikely to make up the tens of thousands of votes that Trump trails by.

Biden's campaign and Democrats are fighting back in Wisconsin and the courts. On Thursday, Democrats moved to intervene in a lawsuit from Trump and Georgia Republicans to stop absentee ballot counting in Chatham County, Ga., where the highest number of outstanding ballots are in the state.