Michigan state legislature closes offices due to 'credible threats of violence'

Law enforcement recommended the Michigan legislature close its offices.

Last Updated: December 14, 2020, 2:14 PM EST

President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 39 days.

Dec 11, 2020, 1:23 PM EST

Trump team loses in Wisconsin as SCOTUS response looms

As the Trump campaign waits for smoke signals from the U.S. Supreme Court, it faced yet another courtroom defeat on Friday.

The Milwaukee County Circuit Court in Wisconsin has denied the Trump campaign's attempt to toss out 220,000 ballots it said should have been rejected following recounts in Dane and Milwaukee Counties. Judge Stephen Simanek noted the campaign made "no allegations of widespread fraud," nor did it submit any evidence that would support such claims.

Election officials count absentee ballots on Nov. 04, 2020 in Milwaukee.
Scott Olson/Getty Images, FILE

The Trump campaign will now likely appeal the decision to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Since his Nov. 3 defeat, the president and his allies have mounted over 50 lawsuits in state and federal courts that have met with resounding and, at times, scathing defeats.

-ABC News' Alex Hosenball and Matthew Mosk

Dec 11, 2020, 12:00 PM EST

Biden campaign, DNC devote money and staffers to Georgia Senate runoffs

As the runoff elections for Georgia's two U.S. Senate seats that will decide which party controls the chamber enter their final weeks, Biden's presidential campaign is ramping up its investments to bolster the candidacies of Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.

In coordination with the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Biden campaign has spent roughly $5 million thus far in the Georgia runoffs and are paying for "approximately 50 staffers" to help with organizing, voter outreach and other efforts, according to a Biden campaign official. Around a dozen of the campaign's data analytics staffers are also helping.

President-elect Joe Biden arrives at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Del., Dec. 9, 2020.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The Biden campaign and the DNC also have raised nearly $10 million for both Ossoff and Warnock combined, and earlier this week launched a "Flip Georgia Fund" to aid their campaigns.

Biden himself will travel to Georgia on Tuesday to campaign for Ossoff and Warnock and will emphasize his commitment to helping candidates win up and down the ballot and build a broad coalition that will support his agenda to "build back better," according to a Biden campaign official.

-ABC News' John Verhovek

Dec 11, 2020, 11:23 PM EST

Harris arrives on Capitol Hill to vote

Vice President-elect and California Sen. Kamala Harris arrived on Capitol Hill Friday morning ahead of the Senate’s midnight deadline to pass a one-week continuing resolution on a government funding bill to prevent a shutdown.

PHOTO: Vice President-elect Kamala Harris arrives at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 11, 2020, in Washington.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris arrives at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 11, 2020, in Washington. Lawmakers are facing a midnight deadline to pass a continuing resolution to avert a partial shutdown and fund the government for another week.
Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

“I’m here to vote,” Harris told reporters as she entered the building. 

Harris is expected to vote to break the filibuster on the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual military budget bill, which Trump has twice threatened to veto.

Harris was last on the Hill on Nov. 17 to vote against a Trump nominee to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. 
 
-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin

Dec 11, 2020, 10:37 AM EST

Trump plants time bombs for GOP with refusal to admit realities: Analysis

The Trump presidency is now destined to end with falsehoods -- a blizzard of baseless accusations about the election that he lost, as distilled into a final plea to the Supreme Court.

Trump's ask is for the nation's highest court to overturn the results of the election. As unlikely as he is to succeed, that breathtaking statement doesn't even encapsulate the principles at stake that will matter long after Biden is inaugurated.

President Donald Trump stands in the Oval Office of the White House, Dec. 7, 2020.
Patrick Semansky/AP

Some 106 House Republicans -- more than half the GOP conference -- are backing the president's effort to get the Supreme Court to step in. More than that number continue to resist labeling Biden "president-elect," just three days before the Electoral College will cement Biden's victory based on certified results from every state.

So much of the Trump era is ephemeral and transactional. Some Trump loyalists will essentially pretend as if Trump never existed, or that his smashing of conservative principles in service to Trumpism wasn't what it was.

But some of those principles -- of federalism, the rule of law and even basic democracy and common sense -- are still at stake at this moment.

Trump once famously promised to his supporters that they would be "sick and tired of winning" one day. Now, though, what Trump is losing could outlast the limited days of his presidency.

-ABC News' Political Director Rick Klein

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