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Trump-Biden transition latest: Trump signs coronavirus relief bill amid pressure

The president had gone nearly a week without signing the bill.

Last Updated: December 24, 2020, 11:21 AM EST

President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 24 days.

Dec 24, 2020, 10:01 AM EST

Fair Fight files suit against organization challenging voter eligibility

On Wednesday, the voting rights organization started by Stacey Abrams, Fair Fight, filed a lawsuit against an organization named True the Vote that has been mass challenging voters' eligibility in at least half of Georgia's 159 counties.

According to the lawsuit, True the Vote "is responsible for coordinating efforts to challenge over 364,000 Georgians’ eligibility to vote and recruiting Georgians to engage in its 'ballot security' operation in Georgia in advance of the state’s January Senate Runoff."

The 30-page federal lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Gainesville Division, is asking the Court to:

--Declare the defendants violated the Voting Rights Act

--Enjoin the defendants and those working with them from submitting voter challenges in Georgia, contacting voters to try to confirm their eligibility, participate in poll-watching/election observing activities and training, and photographing and video recording voters or election workers at the polls

--Force defendants to withdraw pending voter challenges

--Order organization to cease operations in Georgia

While several counties have already rejected the organization's mass challenges, at least two -- Muscogee and Forsyth -- have found "probable cause to move forward" with them, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

These challenged voters will now have to cast a provisional or challenged ballot, which will not be counted unless county election officials can verify they are registered and eligible voters.

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan

Dec 23, 2020, 3:23 PM EST

Trump vetoes giant defense bill despite congressional GOP support

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was vetoing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021.

The president had previously said he would veto the giant defense bill, which passed through both chambers of Congress with veto-proof majorities. Trump’s move sets up a veto override vote in the House and Senate and if successful, would be the first veto override of Trump’s presidency. 

President Donald Trump departs on the South Lawn of the White House on Dec. 12, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
Al Drago/Getty Images

The president tweeted his reason for the veto earlier this month, writing: "I hope House Republicans will vote against the very weak National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which I will VETO. Must include a termination of Section 230 (for National Security purposes), preserve our National Monuments, & allow for 5G & troop reductions in foreign lands!"

Trump objections to the Section 230 legal protections for Big Tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter, which he and Republicans claim are unfair to Republicans. He also opposes a provision that we re-name military bases named after Confederate war heroes.

--ABC News’ Katherine Faulders

Dec 23, 2020, 12:41 PM EST

Harris pledges to fight for additional relief for educators, schools

Vice president-elect Kamala Harris lauded Miguel Cardona’s nomination to education secretary in remarks Wednesday, saying he “represents the very best of our nation.” 

Harris also pledged that she and Biden would continue fighting for additional relief for schools. 

“We need to get this virus under control and reopen our schools safely as the resident-elect always says, and that is why the president-elect and I are supporting funding for our education system in this recently-passed COVID-19 relief legislation,” she said. “And we will continue to fight for additional emergency relief for our educators and our schools.” 

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris listens as President-elect Joe Biden introduces nominee for Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Del., Dec. 23, 2020.
Carolyn Kaster/AP

“And even as we do, we must also build a public education system that lifts up all Americans, regardless of race, background, or zip code,” Harris added. 

Harris said that under Cardona’s leadership, “we will work together to put together an outstanding education system that will be within reach for everyone, breaking down barriers to equality, opening new paths to opportunity and helping to fulfill America's promise to all of our children.”

Dec 23, 2020, 12:30 PM EST

Cardona says education was 'the great equalizer' for him

Miguel Cardona, President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Education, speaks after being introduced at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Del., Dec. 23, 2020.
Carolyn Kaster/AP

Biden’s education secretary pick, Miguel Cardona, also spoke at the event in Wilmington, Delaware, where the president-elect introduced him to the public on Wednesday. 

“I know how challenging this year has been for students, for educators and for parents,” Cardona said. “I’ve lived those challenges alongside millions of American families. Not only in my role as state education commissioner, but as a public school parent.” 

“For so many of our schools, far too many of our students, this unprecedented year has piled on crisis after crisis,” he added. “It's taken some of our most painful, longstanding disparities and wrenched them open even wider.” 

Cardona spoke about his childhood growing up in public housing and his time attending public schools in Connecticut, saying this is where he was able to expand his horizons and become the first in his family to graduate college. 

“I, being bilingual and bicultural, am as American as apple pie and rice and beans,” he said. “For me, education was the great equalizer. But for too many students, your zip code and your skin color remain the best predictor of the opportunities you'll have in your lifetime.” 

“We must embrace the opportunity to reimagine education and build it back better,” he added. 

Cardona said he is “grateful for the chance to take on this responsibility” as education secretary. 

“I look forward to getting to work on behalf of America's children and the families and the communities and the nation they will grow up to inherit and lead,” Cardona said.