BREAKING: Trump says he won election, calls voting delays a 'fraud on the American public'

At the end of a long election day, before 3 am on Wednesday morning, President Trump spoke to press and supporters from the East Room at the White House. Trump said he was taking the election to the Supreme Court.

"They knew they couldn't win, so they're saying let's go to court... I predicted this," Trump said.

"All of a sudden everything just stopped, this is fraud in the American public, this is an embarrassment to our country, we were getting ready to win this country, frankly we did win this election."

"We’ll be going to the Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop, we don't want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning and add them to the list. To me this is a very sad moment, and we will win this, and we already have won it."

Many states had not yet been called by the time Trump spoke. Before a backdrop of American flags, Trump said "This is without question the latest news conference I've ever had."

Those gathered called out "We love you!"

He thanked Americans for voting for him, and said that "a very sad group of people is trying disenfranchise that group of people, and we won't stand for it."

"We were getting ready for a big celebration, we were winning everything. All of a sudden it was just called off, the results tonight have been phenomenal. We were all set to get outside and celebrate.

"The citizens of this country have come out in record numbers, there's never been anything like it, to come out and support out movement."

Trump noted that his ticket had won Florida, Ohio, and Texas. He claimed victory in Georgia, North Carolina, and said that "there were a lot of votes out there that we could get" in Arizona, though it had been called for Biden. Trump touted his high numbers in Pennsylvania, as well.

This came after Joe Biden, Democratic contender for president, gave a statement to a crowd of parked, honking cars in Delaware. Biden said that he didn't expect to have the final results of the presidential election, and asked for his supporters to be patient while the votes are tallied.

Prior to Trump speaking, Chris Wallace stated his belief that Trump was going to launch a lawsuit over the vote counts and balloting. Throughout the election season, the concept of enhancing the number of voters who vote by absentee, or mail-in ballot, was criticized by the president, just as it was touted by the Democrats.

The issue of whether or not to cast a vote in person spoke to the larger debate over how best to handle the coronavirus pandemic. Those who proclaimed that the public should live in fear of the virus and engage in social isolation stated that voting by mail was the only safe thing to do. On the opposing side, those who said that Americans must take precautions but cannot halt their lives were comfortable voting in person.

By the time Trump stepped out to speak, Trump had been tallied to have 213 electoral votes, while Biden's total ranged from 203 to 238, depending on who was doing the math.