President Donald Trump on Friday said that Joe Biden should not prematurely declare victory in the presidential election -- something Trump himself did on election night.
"Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the President. I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!" Trump tweeted.
Biden gave a speech Friday night as his vote lead widened in Pennsylvania and Georgia, with indications that remaining mail-in ballots would likely favor the former vice president. If those leads hold, Biden would pass the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
"We are going to win this race," Biden said, expressing confidence he would be the victor while not outright claiming the contest was over.
The Associated Press had Biden six electoral votes short as of Friday afternoon. A win for Biden in Georgia, Pennsylvania or Nevada -- all states where he was leading late in the counting process -- would put him over the top.
While AP and Fox News have called Arizona for Biden, several other major news outlets have not made a call. Regardless, a win in Pennsylvania with its 20 electoral votes would put Biden over 270 on all major news outlets' trackers.
It was not clear if any outlets would call those states before Biden's speech. Georgia's secretary of state indicated Friday a recount was likely.
The Trump campaign has launched legal challenges in multiple states. The president and his supporters have made claims of widespread election fraud without providing any evidence.
Despite urging Biden not to declare victory, Trump did it election night.
“Frankly, we did win this election," Trump said from The White House in the early morning hours Wednesday.
Trump followed it up Thursday with a statement before reporters which included multiple false claims about the election. The TEGNA national VERIFY team broke down several of these.
Trump also tweeted about why his leads in some states on election night "miraculously" disappeared.
This is something elections experts expected. While Trump saw large turnout from Republican voters on Election Day, many Democrats chose to vote by mail. In fact, Trump himself encouraged his supporters not to vote by mail.
In some states, including Pennsylvania and Michigan, where mail-in ballots were counted after Election Day ballots, Trump was initially leading in votes but was then surpassed by Biden as the mail-ins were counted. This was expected and is not evidence of widespread voter fraud or mishandling of vote counting. Counting votes after Election Day is normal.
Allegheny County, Pa., Executive Rich Fitzgerald told CNN Friday that if those mail-in ballots had been allowed to be pre-canvassed before the polls closed, the final result in Pennsylvania would already be known.
"I know Florida and some other states, they pre-canvass -- meaning days before they take and open the envelopes. We weren't allowed to do anything with envelopes, secrecy envelopes until Election Day. That delays the process. We could have had this done and given results on Tuesday night," Fitzgerald said, calling on the state legislature to change the rules for future elections.