JOE Biden has expressed growing confidence that he is inching towards becoming the 46th President of the United States as late on Wednesday night voting projections gave him the Mid-West state of Michigan.

Earlier, the Democrat camp claimed it had secured Wisconsin, pushing Mr Biden, 77, to 248 electoral college votes, just 22 short of the magic number of 270, which would win him the presidency. Donald Trump, having done much better than the opinion polls had predicted, was on 214 votes. With a handful of states to still formally declare the path to remaining in the White House was narrowing quickly for the Republican incumbent.

Addressing supporters in his home state of Delaware, the former vice-president responded to Mr Trump’s controversial declaration earlier in the day that a fraud had been perpetrated on the American public, the Democrats had tried to steal the election, the Supreme Court should stop the counting of votes and that he, the President, had in fact won.

Mr Biden insisted democracy was the “heartbeat” of America and its power could not be “taken or asserted”.

He said: “My fellow Americans, yesterday once again proved that democracy is the heartbeat of this nation, just as it has been the heartbeat of this nation for two centuries. And even in the face of the pandemic, more Americans voted in this election than ever before in American history. Over 150 million people cast their votes; that’s just extraordinary.”

He went on: “And if we had any doubts, we shouldn’t have any longer, about a government of, by and for the people is very much alive, very much alive in America.

“Here, the people rule. Power can’t be taken or asserted. It flows from the people and it’s their will that determines who will be the President of the United States, and their will alone.”

Exuding confidence, the Democrat candidate told his audience: “Now, after a long night of counting, it’s clear that we’re winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

“I’m not here to declare that we’ve won but I am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”

Mr Biden added: “Indeed, Senator [Kamala] Harris and I are on track to win more votes than any ticket in the history of this country that ever won the presidency and vice-presidency. Over 70 million votes, I’m very proud of our campaign. Only three presidential campaigns in the past have defeated an incumbent president.

“When it’s finished, God willing, we’ll be the fourth. This is a major achievement,” he declared.

Striking a presidential tone, the Democrat candidate said it was time to “lower the temperature” following the campaign trail.

“Once this election is finalised and behind us, it will be time for us to do what we’ve always done as Americans. To put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us, to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to one another, to hear each other again, to respect and care for one another.

“I know how deep and hard the opposing views are in our country on so many things. But I also know this as well: to make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies.”

Mr Biden stressed: “What brings us together as Americans is so much stronger than anything that can tear us apart. So, let me be clear. I, we, are campaigning as a Democrat, but I will govern as an American president.”

Bringing his speech to a close, the former vice-president said the people of America would “not be silenced”.

“Now, every vote must be counted. No one’s going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever. We the people will not be silenced, we the people will not be bullied, we the people will not surrender.”

Mr Biden added that he was “confident” the party would “emerge victorious”, saying: “There will be no blue states and red states when we win. Just the United States of America.”

Meanwhile as the Trump camp announced a series of legal challenges, the President tweeted: “We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact, there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!”

Donald Trump’s campaign said it was suing to temporarily stop the vote count in Pennsylvania, the key swing state with 20 electoral votes, which is set to declare its result on Friday.

Justin Clark, the President’s deputy campaign manager said the Trump campaign was “suing to stop Democrat election officials from hiding the ballot counting and processing from our Republican poll observers”.

He said the campaign wants “to temporarily halt counting until there is meaningful transparency and Republicans can ensure all counting is done above board and by the law”.

Mr Clark explained the campaign would also seek to intervene in an ongoing Supreme Court case involving the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots.

Rudi Giuliani, the President’s personal lawyer, ahead of a press conference tweeted excitedly: “En route to Philadelphia with legal team. Massive cheating. @realDonaldTrump up by 550,000 with 75% counted. Will not let Philly Democrat hacks steal it!”

Earlier, Bill Stepien, Mr Trump’s campaign manager said the campaign had taken legal action over ballots being counted in Michigan.

He claimed the Trump campaign “had not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law”.

He added: “We have filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted. We also demand to review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access.

“President Trump is committed to ensuring that all legal votes are counted in Michigan and everywhere else.”

Mr Stepien also announced the President would “immediately” request a recount in the battleground state of Wisconsin because the Biden majority was less than one per cent and within the legal threshold.

Mr Trump tweeted: “They are finding Biden votes all over the place - in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So bad for our Country!"

It seems clear that even if Mr Biden is in the next 24 hours able to cross over the line gaining 270 votes in the electoral college, the legal action, possibly even going to the Supreme Court, means it will be a messy end to the tense and fractious campaign of 2020.

Meanwhile amid the atmosphere of political acrimony, the threat of social unrest continues to hang over America.