he is tantalizingly close to becoming america's 46th president and in the last hour joe biden said he would win the white house and govern for democrats and republicans alike it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency i'm not here to declare that we've won but i am here to report when the count is finished we believe we will be the winners he promised to lower the political temperature but then issued a warning that appeared to be targeted at donald trump every vote must be counted no one is going to take our democracy away from us not now not ever america's come too far america's fought too many battles america's endured too much never let that happen we the people will not be silenced his path to the white house has been boosted in the last few hours let me just confirm with control room are we ready to make this call anxious u.s networks finally making this declaration so nbc news can now say that joe biden is the apparent winner in wisconsin apparent is the key word because the trump campaign has demanded a recount so america finds itself in the very political and constitutional crisis that was widely anticipated with a president behind these barricades accusing his opponent of stealing the election [Music] the nightmare scenario unfolded at 2 21 am in the east room when the president emerged to cheers to proclaim that he had been denied a famous victory this is a fraud on the american public this is an embarrassment to our country we were getting ready to win this election frankly we did win this election so we'll be going to the u.s supreme court we want all voting to stop we don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the list okay by suggesting that there is widespread fraud underway which the evidence does not in any way support it amounted to one of the most provocative and incendiary statements ever made by an american president we will win this and we as far as i'm concerned we already have it on the streets outside the white house last night there were small scale incidents but no significant clashes but the prospect of disturbances only grows as the political uncertainty continues a big win for president trump in florida as the early count came in the president showed unexpected political strength we can now call texas for the president of the united states winning two of the biggest prizes of the night but even as trump supporters celebrated democrats took comfort in the fact that their path to victory is still intact in the midwest and looking increasingly encouraging as the counting goes on and postal votes that trend democratic are tallied joe biden's path to the white house looks ever more plausible if he does get there it will be a challenging presidency republicans appear to have retained control of the senate thank you south carolina lindsey graham among those re-elected we did it [Applause] so too the vulnerable republican senator susan collins dancing in the car park after her unlikely survival democrats facing the uncomfortable truth that trump has gained several million more votes than four years ago america is left in a state of extended anxiety as a nation wonders how the system even works if a president simply refuses to concede robert moore news at 10 washington you