Biden Responds to Trump’s Suggestion of Taking Race to SCOTUS

Joe Biden’s campaign responded on Wednesday to President Donald Trump’s suggestion the 2020 contest be taken all the way to the Supreme Court.

Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, the former vice president’s campaign manager, told Axios that Trump’s comments about election irregularities in a number of swing states, including Pennsylvania, were “outrageous” and “unprecedented.”

“The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect,”  said in a statement.

O’Malley Dillon added if Trump wanted to pursue the matter before the Supreme Court, Biden’s campaign was prepared to meet the challenge.

“If the president makes good on his threat to go to court to try to prevent the proper tabulation of votes, we have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort,” the former vice president’s campaign manager said.

The Biden campaign’s statement came in response to a defiant speech the president held at the White House early Wednesday morning. In his remarks, Trump seemed to imply there was a concerted effort to delay the counting votes to give the impression the race was too close to call.

“We won states and all of a sudden… everything just stopped,” the president said. “This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country.”

Trump proceeded to pledge his administration would take any action necessary in the coming days to “ensure the integrity” of the election.

“We want the law to be used in a proper manner,” the president said. “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.”

It is unclear if Trump will follow through on his threat to bring the matter before the nation’s highest court. Biden’s team, however, has been planning since the mid-summer for such a situation.

The former vice president told supporters in July his campaign had assembled more than 600 lawyers and volunteers to fight any attempts at election “chicanery,” especially in the vote-by-mail process. Since then the Biden campaign has continued mobilizing for the effort.

Earlier this week Politico reported the former vice president’s team has begun fundraising to ensure it was ready to combat “prolonged, expensive legal fights” that might determine the outcome of the contest.