By Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya, Melissa Mahtani, Veronica Rocha, Amanda Wills and Fernando Alfonso III, CNN
From CNN’s Sarah Mucha
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is responding to reports that President Donald Trump has no plans to concede the race.
"As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House,” campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.
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From CNN's Jeff Zeleny
Joe Biden has a long list of calls to make – and to field – today. But one of the most important conversations he will potentially have is with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
The two men have not spoken yet – a Biden aide said that would be premature and it hasn’t happened – but they expect that call to be made later today or soon, depending on the timing of the race being called.
And look for Biden to reach out to McConnell, who will likely play a key role in approving members of Biden's possible cabinet if Republicans continue to hold their majority, which even Democrats concede is likely.
For all the talk about when Biden and President Trump will speak – Biden will not initiate that call, an aide says – he will reach out to McConnell when the time is right to begin those conversations.
Biden and McConnell have a long relationship, serving together in the Senate for decades, but also working closely and cutting deals during the Obama administration.
“He will need that relationship more than ever now,” a friend of Biden’s said.
For McConnell’s part, he intends to take a remarkably cautious approach to Biden – given the sensitivity surrounding President Trump’s expected refusal to concede – but a person close to him said he will speak to Biden when the time is right and will be eager to do so.
Clarification: An earlier post quoted a McConnell adviser saying a call between Biden and the Senate Majority Leader may occur after a projected win. A McConnell aide tells CNN they have no information on the timing.
From CNN's Betsy Klein
The Trump campaign released a statement Friday morning making clear they will contest the election, calling any projections of Joe Biden as the winner "false" and the race "far from final."
"This election is not over. The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final," Trump campaign general counsel Matt Morgan said in a statement.
Remember: CNN has not yet projected a winner in the presidential election. Joe Biden currently has 253 electoral votes, while Trump has 213. It takes 270 electoral votes to win.
Morgan's statement continued:
“Georgia is headed for a recount, where we are confident we will find ballots improperly harvested, and where President Trump will ultimately prevail. There were many irregularities in Pennsylvania, including having election officials prevent our volunteer legal observers from having meaningful access to vote counting locations. We prevailed in court on our challenge, but were deprived of valuable time and denied the transparency we are entitled to under state law. In Nevada, there appear to be thousands of individuals who improperly cast mail ballots. Finally, the President is on course to win Arizona outright, despite the irresponsible and erroneous ‘calling’ of the state for Biden by Fox News and the Associated Press.”
The statement makes clear, as CNN has reported, the President has no intention of conceding as of now.
"Biden is relying on these states for his phony claim on the White House, but once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected," Morgan concluded.
Additional reporting from CNN's Kevin Bohn
From CNN's Ariane de Vogue
A republican lawyer in Pennsylvania, who is not part of the Trump legal team but is familiar with election challenges, says legal challenges in the commonwealth get Trump nowhere.
“These challenges are not going to impact the outcome because none of them are going after the actual vote casts, they are all process challenges,” the source said.
And even a Hail Mary scenario – where a Republican-led legislature would say there is too much chaos and decide the elector – now has been publicly dismissed by top leaders in Pennsylvania.
“The Pennsylvania General Assembly does not have, and will not have, a hand in choosing the state’s presidential electors or in deciding the outcome of the presidential election,” Pennsylvania State Senator Jake Corman, a Republican, said in an op-ed.
“To insinuate otherwise is to inappropriately set fear into the Pennsylvania electorate with an imaginary scenario not provided for anywhere in law — or in fact,” he continued.
The lawyer notes that Republicans in the Georgia and Florida legislature would push back hard on such a radical scenario trying to override a popular vote. That would be a potential way for them to lose their majorities down the road. And a lawyer for the Wisconsin legislature already told the Supreme Court how effective the electoral administration was.
“It’s not going to happen,” the lawyer said about future challenges. “The next 48 hours will bring that clarity.”
On-air analysis from CNN's David Chalian / Written by CNN's Jason Kurtz
Presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden has taken the lead in the critical state of Pennsylvania. With an estimated 95% of the Keystone State votes having been tabulated, Biden is closing in on collecting Pennsylvania, and thus, the presidency.
"What our decision desk is now doing," explained CNN's David Chalian, "is calculating what do we know about the outstanding vote in Pennsylvania, what do we know about the rate it's been coming in."
The bulk of the remaining ballots in Pennsylvania will come from Philadelphia and the surrounding areas, a segment that has overwhelmingly come in for Biden to this point.
"Look what just happened in Philadelphia," said Chalian, of Biden's continued success in the state's largest city. "He got 87% of them. We know ... there's still a bunch of vote in Philadelphia to count. When that kind of Biden advantage vote, gets put into the vote totals, it just boosts that level of confidence that this will be potentially out of reach for Donald Trump."
Currently, Biden maintains a 253-213 electoral vote lead over the President. As votes continue to trickle in from the Philadelphia area, the Keystone State's native son is inching closer to the White House.
"We need to see a level of confidence when we're looking for these calculations that the candidate in second place, now Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, is not at all likely to overtake the candidate in first place, now Joe Biden," Chalian added. "When we get to that level of confidence... then a projection gets made."
The commonwealth of Pennsylvania carries 20 electoral votes, a bank that would get Biden past the coveted 270, the amount needed the clinch the presidency.
"We will await more vote to come into Pennsylvania, as we continue to make those calculations," Chalian reminded viewers.
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From CNN's Kate Bolduan and Mark Morales
The remaining pool of Philadelphia votes to be counted is about 25,000, according to a city official and an official familiar with the counting.
These will take longer to count because they are provisional ballots, as well as ones that require review because of such issues as dates and signatures.
The sources said city election officials are starting this batch from scratch.
"It’s going to be a while," one of the sources said.
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From CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said President Trump’s speech Thursday night was “very hard to watch” and that his claims of voter fraud are “not substantiated.”
“I saw the President’s speech last night. It was very hard to watch. The President’s allegations of large-scale fraud and theft of the election are just not substantiated. I’m not aware of any significant wrongdoing here,” Toomey said Friday on NBC’s “Today.”
Toomey acknowledged there are “irregularities in every election,” but they “tend to typically be very small and involve just a handful of ballots.”
“But is there any evidence that I’m aware of that there’s significant, large-scale fraud or malfeasance anywhere in Pennsylvania? Absolutely not,” he added.
Asked if he thinks more Republicans should speak out against the President’s claims, Toomey said, “My colleagues will make their own decisions.”
Remember: CNN has not projected a winner in Pennsylvania, which is a key state Trump cannot afford to lose for a path to victory. Moments ago, Biden took the lead in Pennsylvania, but election officials are still counting mail-in ballots, which are allowed to be received and tallied up until Friday.
Toomey told NBC that counting the “massive quality” of mail-in ballots is taking a long time because the state wasn’t allowed to count them until Election Day, and it’s a labor-intensive process.
Toomey argued that the “President still has a very narrow path by which he can win” in Pennsylvania.
From CNN’s Jeff Zeleny
Joe Biden is poised to deliver an address to the nation today or tonight.
The timing is outside his immediate control, aides point out, but that may not be the most important task on his agenda today.
If he is declared the winner early today, the Biden team plans to move quickly to announce more substantial pieces of his transition. There are no plans to wait for any of the legal challenges, a person familiar with the plan said. Biden intends to immediately shift into the mode of president-elect to avoid ceding any momentum, they added.
The Biden transition team has been working behind-the-scenes for months – as required of all candidates seeking the presidency – but the urgency of the plan is being seen by Biden advisers as even more importance in the wake of President Trump questioning the legitimacy of the election.
If the call is made early, look for a speech today from the former vice president – but that won’t be all. Other announcements are ready to go to occupy the forthcoming role as president-elect.
The stage is still set in Wilmington, with fireworks still waiting if the speech happens tonight, but advisers to Biden know the real fireworks are waiting in Washington.
From CNN's Pete Muntean
New restricted "national defense airspace" has been put in place over Democratic nominee Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware.
The Federal Aviation Administration posted the Temporary Flight Restriction on Wednesday, the day after the general election. An FAA notice to pilots available online shows the one mile radius no-fly zone is now active until next Wednesday morning.
The FAA says airspace has also been temporarily restricted over the nearby Chase Center, where the stage is set for a possible Biden victory speech – should he ultimately win the presidential election.
Flight restrictions of this kind are standard security protocol for a major party’s nominee for president. A sitting President typically gets a 30-mile ring of roving restricted airspace for any travel away from the nation’s capital.
More US Secret Service agents have also been sent to Wilmington, Delaware, in anticipation of a potential Joe Biden presidential win, CNN has learned.
The extra Secret Service agents were sent to Delaware on Thursday, two sources said, with one law enforcement source telling CNN, “This was anticipated.”
