'Outrageous': The Biden campaign slammed Trump for calling for millions of votes not to be counted after he falsely declared victory

• Joe Biden's campaign described as "outrageous" a false claim by President Donald Trump that he had won the 2020 presidential election and that states should stop counting votes.
• Biden's campaign pledged that every vote would be counted, and said it would challenge any moves by Trump with its legal team.
• When Trump falsely declared victory early Wednesday, millions of votes were not counted, including in the states that hold both his and Biden's best path to the presidency.
• Trump also implied that mail-in ballots should not be counted, continuing months of unsubstantiated claims that they were open to fraud.
• You can follow Insider's live election coverage here.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's campaign angrily attacked the false claim by President Donald Trump that he had won the 2020 presidential election.

Biden's campaign manager described as "outrageous" Trump's claim that states should stop counting votes, and pledged to use the campaign's legal team to block any attempts to do so.

Trump falsely claimed early on Wednesday morning that he had won, even though no winner had been declared and millions of votes were still being counted. Votes remained out in key states that could lead to a Biden victory, as well as one by Trump himself.

He said at the White House: "We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election."

"This is a major fraud on our nation," he said, without giving any evidence.

He also implied that remaining ballots should not be counted, saying that "We don't want them finding any ballots at four in the morning and adding them to the list."

An unprecedented number of mail-in ballots were posted this year in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Jen O'Malley-Dillon, Biden's campaign manager, released a statement not long after Trump spoke.

It said "the president's statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect."

She characterized his words as "a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens" and an attempt to "strip Americans of their voice in a national election."

Dillon said that, if Trump delivered on his threat to challenge results in the courts, "we have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort"

"And they will prevail."

As Business Insider's Adam Payne reported, some Republican and conservative figures condemned Trump's comments.

Trump, in his speech, repeated the unsubstantiated theories that mail-in ballots are vulnerable to mass fraud.

Some feared that Trump could take initial results that show him in the lead to declare victory, and attempt to invalidate votes counted later that favor Biden.

Republicans have also started legal proceedings that could see them dispute mail-in ballots.

In Wisconsin, they won a Supreme Court battle that means ballots received after Election Day can't not be counted.

Trump also cast doubt on some results earlier on Wednesday, saying on Facebook that Democrats "are trying to STEAL the Election."

Facebook flagged the post, noting that "Final results may be different from initial vote counts, as ballot counting will continue for days or weeks."