Trump campaign officials expressed confidence Thursday that President Trump will be declared the winner by Friday night after several states finish counting “legal” votes.
“We believe President Trump will win the race,” said campaign senior adviser Jason Miller. “Soon, possibly by the end of tomorrow, on Friday, it will be clear to the American public that President Trump and Vice President Pence will serve another four years in the White House.”
Trump campaign manger Bill Stepien said, “Donald Trump is alive and well.”
Mr. Stepien said the president will hold onto his lead in Pennsylvania, where officials are still counting ballots and Mr. Trump’s lead has fallen to about 142,000 votes. The campaign believes Mr. Trump will end up winning the state by more than 200,000 votes.
“We will win in Pennsylvania,” Mr. Stepien said. He also hailed a court ruling in the state on Thursday to grant Republican monitors better access to vote-counting operations in heavily Democratic Philadelphia.
The ruling in Commonwealth Court requires elections officials to allow monitors from either party “to observe all aspects of the canvassing process within 6 feet,” while adhering to COVID-19 protocols.
“Big legal win in Pennsylvania!” the president tweeted.
Mr. Miller said the ruling will enable the campaign to guard against “magical sacks of ballots that keep popping up in corrupt and crooked localities that are run by partisan Democrats.”
By law, officials in Pennsylvania are permitted to receive ballots through Friday, if they were postmarked by Election Day.
Campaign officials also again called on Fox News and The Associated Press to rescind their decisions to declare Democrat Joseph R. Biden the winner in Arizona. Mr. Biden is leading by about 68,000 votes, but Mr. Stepien said ballots are still coming in from Democrat-leaning counties “where we have been having some of our best gains.”
Mr. Miller said “we still feel good” about Georgia, despite the president’s lead there dwindling to about 18,000 votes, with tens of thousands of ballots still to be counted.
The president said on Twitter Thursday that states should stop counting ballots, but campaign officials said the president was referring only to questionable ballots that were received after Election Day.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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