Biden on cusp of presidency after gains in Pennsylvania

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Joe Biden was on the cusp of winning the presidency on Friday as he opened up narrow leads over President Donald Trump in the critical battlegrounds of Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Those put Biden in a stronger position to capture the 270 Electoral College votes needed to take the White House. The winner will lead a country facing a historic set of challenges, including a surging pandemic and deep political polarization.

The focus on Pennsylvania, where Biden led Trump by more than 9,000 votes, and Georgia, where Biden led by more than 1,500, came as Americans entered a third full day after the election without knowing who will lead them for the next four years. The prolonged process added to the anxiety of a nation whose racial and cultural divides were inflamed during the heated campaign.

Biden was at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, as the vote count continued and aides said he would address the nation in primetime. Trump largely remained in the White House residence as more results trickled in, expanding Biden’s lead in must-win Pennsylvania. In the West Wing, televisions remained tuned to the news amid trappings of normalcy, as reporters lined up for coronavirus tests and outdoor crews worked on the North Lawn on a mild, muggy fall day.

Trump's campaign, meanwhile, was quiet -- a dramatic difference from the day before, when it held a morning conference call projecting confidence and held a flurry of hastily arranged press conferences announcing litigation in key states.

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Trump's wild claims test limits of Republican loyalty

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's wild and unsupported claims of voter fraud have emerged as a high-stakes Republican loyalty test that illustrates the tug of war likely to define the future of the GOP whether he wins or loses the presidency.

There is a pervasive sense among current and former GOP officials that the president's behavior is irresponsible if not dangerous, but a divide has emerged between those influential Republicans willing to call him out publicly and those who aren't.

Driving their calculus is an open acknowledgement that Trump's better-than-expected showing on Election Day ensures that he will remain the Republican Party's most powerful voice for years to come even if he loses.

That stark reality did little to silence the likes of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a second-term Republican who has not ruled out a 2024 White House bid. He described the president's claims as “dangerous” and “embarrassing.”

“If there are legitimate challenges, we have a process, that’s the way it works,” Hogan told The Associated Press. “But to just make accusations of the election being stolen and widespread fraud without providing any evidence, I thought was really bad for our democratic process and it was something I had never seen in my lifetime.”

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2020 Latest: Harris set to speak before Biden in TV address

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the presidential campaign (all times local):

5:25 p.m.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris is expected to deliver remarks Friday alongside Joe Biden.

Biden has scheduled a prime-time address on the presidential contest as votes continue to be counted in several battleground states. Biden is on the cusp of victory as he opened narrow leads over President Donald Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Harris has appeared alongside Biden during his remarks in recent days but has not made any public comments herself on the state of the race. A campaign official confirmed she will speak Friday night before Biden does.

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EXPLAINER: Why ballot-counting in Nevada is dragging on

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — The pace of vote-counting in Nevada is being criticized for taking too long and it's even become fodder for online jokes. But government officials say they are emphasizing accuracy over speed in a year when processing an unprecedented flood of mail-in ballots under extended deadlines is taking more time.

“We told everyone early on that results would take at least ten days,” Secretary of State spokeswoman Jennifer A. Russell said in an email.

THE GENESIS

The Legislature passed a bill in August to send all active voters mail-in ballots in hopes of curbing, or at least not fueling, the spread of the coronavirus. Those postmarked by Election Day can be counted if they arrive at election offices within seven days, which is Tuesday. And they continue to come in, though the number arriving each day is expected to dwindle.

“It’s been a different year for us," said Deanna Spikula, registrar of voters in Washoe County, the state’s second-largest county that includes Reno. “The volume is definitely something that we’ve never seen before in the state as far as receiving and processing mail-in ballots.”

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EXPLAINER: States still in play and what makes them that way

WASHINGTON (AP) — A handful of states remained in play Friday in the tightly contested U.S. presidential race. The outcome of contests in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Nevada will determine whether Democrat Joe Biden or President Donald Trump wins.

The solidly Republican state of Alaska has also not been called because it is only 50% counted and will not release absentee numbers until Nov. 10. It is not expected to impact the outcome.

The Associated Press reviews the states that will determine the presidency:

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GEORGIA: Outstanding ballots left to be counted and a razor-thin margin

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Hiring held last month but signs of caution as virus worsens

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defying fears of another slowdown, U.S. businesses kept hiring at a solid pace in October, yet there are signs they remain cautious about the economy's future as the pandemic worsens.

The Labor Department said Friday that employers added 638,000 jobs and the unemployment rate tumbled a full percentage point to 6.9%, extending what has been a faster recovery than many economists expected in the spring.

But the pace of hiring isn’t robust enough to rapidly soak up the millions of Americans who were thrown out of work by the pandemic recession.

The job gains were little changed from September's 672,000 and less than half August's 1.5 million. Yet the increase was stronger than it appears: It was held down by the loss of about 150,000 temporary Census jobs. Excluding governments at all levels, private businesses added a healthy 906,000 jobs. Hiring has held at that level for three months.

Overall, the latest jobs report suggests the tentative recovery remains intact, for now, and that the economy is continuing to adapt to the pandemic.

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AP Explains: 5 key takeaways from the October jobs report

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American job market is clawing its way back — steadily if slowly — from the devastation inflicted by the coronavirus-caused recession. What no one knows is just how long it might take for workers to be made whole.

In October, the government said Friday, employers added 638,000 jobs. It was a solid gain, more than economists had expected. And it was even stronger than the headline number suggested.

Yet even with last month's hiring, the economy has regained barely 12 million of the 22 million jobs it lost in March and April, when the virus suddenly paralyzed much of the economy.

Now, a surge of confirmed infections to record highs — which could accelerate as the weather gets colder — threatens the tentative economic comeback. So does Congress’ failure to provide another jolt of aid for individuals and businesses now that a multi-trillion-dollar financial rescue package enacted in March has expired.

Much of the job market's improvement thus far comes from businesses bringing back employees they had furloughed in the spring. But many job losses have turned permanent: The number of Americans who have been unemployed for six months or longer jumped by 1.2 million — 48% — in October.

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Advocates race to find voters to correct flawed ballots

ATLANTA (AP) — Advocates for both presidential candidates raced to find every person in Georgia who submitted a flawed ballot before time ran out Friday to fix the paperwork in a race that could be decided by the narrowest of margins.

Hours before the 5 p.m. deadline, Christin Clatterbuck and Sarah Meng joined about 20 other volunteers who planned to visit addresses in suburban Atlanta’s Gwinnett County in search of voters whose ballots were initially rejected but could be fixed with a signature or an ID.

Cam Ashling, a Democratic activist who organized the small effort, gave instructions and a pep talk. “Never has it ever been more true than now that every vote counts," she shouted beside a pickup truck with a bed full of snacks, water and a big bottle of hand sanitizer.

Clatterbuck and Meng drove through suburban neighborhoods in their small SUV. They walked past rose bushes to knock on the door of a home in Lilburn where they were looking for a 19-year-old voter. Her dad answered and promised to call her at college.

Other problem ballots were cast by people not listed on the voter rolls who will need to explain why. They must correct, or “cure,” their ballots by the deadline for the votes to count.

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Protesters crying foul over vote counts stir safety concerns

Pro-Trump protesters — some of them openly carrying rifles and handguns — rallied outside vote-tabulation centers in a few cities around the country Friday, responding to groundless accusations from President Donald Trump that the Democrats were trying to steal the White House.

Elections officials in several states where Democrat Joe Biden was ahead said the anger outside their doors made them fear for the safety of their employees.

Roughly 100 Trump supporters gathered for a third straight day in front of the elections center in Phoenix, where hundreds of workers were processing and counting ballots.

“Arrest the poll workers!" the crowd chanted, demanding four more years in office for Trump. Sheriff’s deputies kept protesters in a “free speech” zone away from the entrance to the building.

“When we start auditing some of these voter rolls, their fraud may actually be exposed,” conservative activist Charlie Kirk told the crowd, eliciting cheers.

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Pressure mounts, rifts emerge at Fox News over election

NEW YORK (AP) — The steady counting of votes that has moved Democrat Joe Biden closer to the presidency is exposing rifts at Fox News Channel, the influential media outlet that is the favorite for many supporters of President Donald Trump.

Despite intense pressure from Trump's team, Fox's decision team has stood fast with its election night call of Arizona for Biden. Fox has Biden with 264 electoral votes, and if Fox calls either Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada or North Carolina for the Democrat, that would give him enough to win the presidency.

Fox anchor Bret Baier fact-checked Trump after the president took to a White House podium Thursday evening to claim the election was fraudulent and that he was being cheated.

“We have not seen the hard evidence,” Baier told viewers.

Fox carried Trump's entire speech, as did CNN, whose anchors denounced Trump sharply when it was done. CBS, ABC, NBC and MSNBC all cut away from the president to say he was spreading falsehoods, a decision that “Fox & Friends” anchor Brian Kilmeade said on Friday was arrogant.