US president Donald Trump continued to deny the outcome of the presidential election on Friday, even as the state of Arizona was called for his election opponent Joe Biden.
Mr Biden was declared the winner of the state on Thursday night – the latest race to fall to the president-elect following his election victory last Saturday.
Mr Trump, who was due to give a press conference on coronavirus later on Friday at the White House, continued to tweet unfounded claims that the election was rigged, despite no evidence to suggest any widespread election fraud. "Rigged Election!" he tweeted, prompting a now-familiar notice from Twitter on his social media feed, advising that his claim was disputed.
Senior administration officials also questioned the outcome of the election. On Fox News, Pete Navarro, a top trade adviser to the president, said the White House was operating on the basis that Mr Trump would win. "We are moving forward here at the White House under the assumption there will be a second Trump term," he said.
‘Most secure’
The defiance from the White House comes as officials from an agency working within the Department of Homeland Security said the election was “the most secure in American history”.
"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a statement. It follows Mr Trump's claim on Twitter, made without supporting evidence, that election machines had "deleted 2.7 million Trump votes nationwide".
Mr Biden's win in Arizona, where he was leading by over 11,000 votes, was a particular blow to the Trump campaign, which had been hoping it would be called for the president as final votes were counted. Mr Biden will become the first Democratic president to carry the state since Bill Clinton in 1996. Mr Biden also won the state of Georgia, becoming the first Democrat to flip the state in 28 years, though a hand recount is under way.
Legal challenges
Though states have to officially certify their results, Mr Biden has built up a sufficient lead that makes it virtually impossible for Mr Trump to win the election. The Electoral College will formally report the result in each state on December 14th.
While Mr Trump is pursuing various legal challenges in the courts, law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur became the latest firm to withdraw from representing the president in an election case, in this instance a challenge in Pennsylvania.
Washington DC was braced for possible unrest over the weekend amid reports that groups of pro-Trump demonstrators could descend on the capital on Saturday. Washington's mayor, Muriel Bowser, said this week that her officials were monitoring social media activity from different groups around the country.
