US election 2020 – How the drama unfolded

The US election hung in the balance for days before Joe Biden was projected to become President having cleared the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House.

Here’s how the first 96 hours unfolded after the polls began to close on Tuesday evening:

(All times in GMT)

12.05am Wednesday
Kentucky was called for Mr Trump with eight electoral college votes.
Vermont was called for Mr Biden with three electoral college votes.

12.35am
West Virginia was called for Mr Trump with five electoral college votes.

12.40am
Virginia was called for Mr Biden with 13 electoral college votes, taking him up to 16.

1.00am
A flurry of states were called in quick succession.
Mr Trump took South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Oklahoma, giving him another 42 electoral college votes – a total of 55.

Meanwhile, Mr Biden was called to win in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island, which handed him another 69 votes, taking him to 85.

1.30am
Six electoral college seats were called for Mr Trump with victory in Arkansas.

1.50am
Donald Trump won Indiana.

2.00am
Trump – North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Louisiana, Nebraska.
Biden – New York and New Mexico.

2.30am
Another three votes are given to Mr Biden from DC.

2.35am
Colorado gives Mr Biden another nine votes.

3.00am
Mr Trump retained the state of Kansas, with six more electoral college votes

3.30am
Missouri hands Mr Trump another 10 votes.

3.55am
A victory for Mr Biden in New Hampshire gives him another four votes.

4.00am
Another flurry of states put Mr Biden further ahead with victory in California handing him 55 electoral college votes, Oregon giving seven, and 12 from Washington.

4.05am
Mr Trump gains another six votes with victory in Utah.

5.05am
Hawaii gives Mr Biden another four votes.

5.15am
Mr Biden wins the first swing state with Minnesota and gets another 10 electoral college votes, taking him to 223 in total.

5.20am
The second swing state then goes to Mr Trump with 18 votes from Ohio, and another three from Montana.

Shortly after Mr Trump gets another six from Iowa, giving him a total of 145.

5.38am
In the biggest coup yet for Mr Trump, he was declared the victor in Florida, seen as one of the crucial states with its 29 electoral votes.

5.47am
Mr Biden says he is “on track” to win the race for the White House as he addresses supporters in Delaware.

5.49am
Mr Trump tweets: “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!” An initial tweet says “Poles” before it is corrected to “Polls”.

6.10am
Mr Trump wins the state of Texas.

6.44am
Mr Biden wins one electoral vote from Nebraska, with Mr Trump taking the other four.

7.32am
Mr Trump claims there is a “fraud on the American nation” and that “we did win this election” and says he will go to the Supreme Court to get vote counting stopped.

7.56am
Mr Biden wins Arizona.

8.09am
Mr Biden wins Maine.

8.10am
Prominent Democratic opponents, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, condemn Mr Trump’s claim of victory.

3.13pm
Mr Trump tweets: “Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run & controlled. Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the “pollsters” got it completely & historically wrong!”

Part of the tweet is flagged by Twitter as containing information about the election that may be “misleading”.

Mr Biden vows that: “We won’t rest until everyone’s vote is counted.”

3.24pm
Democratic campaign chief Jen O’Malley Dillon says Mr Biden is “on track to win this election and he will be the next president of the United States”.

3.31pm
The Biden campaign says it believes it will take Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

4.55pm
Mr Trump tweets: “They are finding Biden votes all over the place — in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So bad for our Country!”

6.01pm
Donald Trump’s campaign manager says the president will “immediately” request a recount in the battleground state of Wisconsin.

6.52pm
Mr Trump tweets: “We are winning Pennsylvania big, but the PA Secretary of State just announced that there are ‘Millions of ballots left to be counted’.”

7.20pm
Mr Biden wins Wisconsin.

7:21pm
Campaign manager Bill Stepien reveals that the Trump Campaign party has taken legal action over ballots being counted in Michigan.

8.47pm
Donald Trump’s campaign says it is suing to temporarily stop the vote count in the state of Pennsylvania.

9.00pm
Several US networks project Mr Biden to have won Michigan.

9.16pm
Joe Biden gives a short speech in Delaware, in which he says that democracy is the “heartbeat” of America – adding that power cannot be “taken or asserted”.

He says that it is “clear” the Democrats are winning enough states to reach the number of required votes and that the people of America “will not be silenced”.

10.00pm
Mr Trump tweets: “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. 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!”

Part of the tweet is flagged by Twitter as containing information about the election that may be “misleading”.

11.00pm

Mr Biden wins Michigan.

12.01am Thursday

The Trump campaign files a lawsuit in Georgia over vote counting.

1.39pm

Downing Street says it is too early to speculate on the outcome of the poll, with the PM’s official spokesman saying: “US is our closest ally and we are absolutely confident that the relationship will go from strength to strength whichever candidate wins the election.”

4.33pm

Joe Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said it was clear he would be the next president.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, continued his Twitter protest at the election process, saying: “All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud.”

9.32pm

Mr Biden, speaking from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, calls for the public to “stay calm” as the votes are counted because he has “no doubt” that he will win the presidency.

11.30pm

President Trump claims in a statement at the White House: “If you count the legal votes I easily won. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”

11.45pm

During a press briefing, Mr Trump says the Republicans were “winning in all the key locations” but then their lead had been “whittled away in secret”.

On the postal vote system, he adds the unsubstantiated claim it has “really destroyed our system, it’s a corrupt system”.

11.50pm

The president says his goal was to “defend the integrity” of the election, despite offering no evidence of voter fraud during his press conference.

12.00am Friday

Vice President Mike Pence tweets his support for his leader, posting: “I Stand With President Donald Trump. We must count every LEGAL vote.”

1.26am
Mr Biden calls for people to “keep the faith, folks.”

9.22am
US data analyst Decision Desk HQ reports that Biden has overtaken Trump in the key battleground state of Georgia.

1.50pm
US networks report that Biden has overtaken Trump in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.

3.13pm
Following the news of Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania, President Trump tweets: “Philadelphia has got a rotten history in election integrity.”

3.26pm
The Biden campaign releases a statement reading that the US government is “perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House”.

3.49pm
Georgia’s republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger announces there will be a recount in the potentially decisive state.

10.50pm
Mr Trump tweets to say that Mr Biden “should not wrongfully claim the office of the President”. He adds: “I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!”

3.55am Saturday
Mr Biden takes to the stage in Wilmington, Delaware, to give a speech in which he says “we are going to win this race”. After pointing to leads in key states, he adds: “We’re beating Donald Trump by over four million votes and that’s a margin that’s still growing as well.”

3.36pm
Mr Trump tweets “I won this election, by a lot” in capital letters ahead of a planned conference by his campaign in Philadelphia.

4.26pm
Pennsylvania was called for Mr Biden with 20 electoral college votes.
This placed him over the 270 vote threshold needed to win and he is projected to be the next President.