Trump’s comments came about 2:15 a.m., well after Democratic candidate Joe Biden spoke to the nation and his backers from Wilmington, Delaware, after a night in which Trump had held onto most of the states he won in 2016.
“Your patience is commendable,” Biden said about 12:45 a.m. “Look, we feel good about where we are.”
Neither candidate had secured enough of the required 270 delegates as of early Wednesday morning.
Trump immediately followed Biden’s remarks with Tweets that said he would make a statement still but also said: “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the election. We will never let them do it.”
Twitter flagged the Tweets as disputed and misleading.
Many key swing states — including Ohio’s Midwestern neighbors of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — still had outstanding votes to be counted, and many election officials in those states said the count could take days.
Other battleground states that had yet to be called included Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, though various media agencies had projected winners in some of those states.
Biden said he believed he was on track to win the election. He said it would take a while to count all the votes.
He vowed to make sure every ballot was counted.
“We’re feeling good about where we are,” he said.
“We are still in the game in Georgia,” Biden said. He added that they feel good about Wisconsin and Michigan, and he vowed to win Pennsylvania.
Biden said neither he nor Trump will determine a winner. The votes must be counted.
“Keep the faith guys. We’re going to win this,” Biden said to supporters.
Trump said his campaign was winning in several states, despite election officials there saying votes remained to be counted in the coming days.
“We were all set to get outside and celebrate something that was so beautiful and so good,” Trump said.
“They can’t catch us,” he said.
