Pelosi elected to 4th term as House speaker

She’s the third speaker in the last 25 years to win with less than 218 votes.

Last Updated: December 30, 2020, 12:29 PM EST

President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 17 days.

Top headlines:

Here is how the transition is unfolding. All times Eastern.
Dec 30, 2020, 12:29 PM EST

Pelosi signals she has votes for House speaker, pressures GOP on stimulus

In a news conference Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., signaled that she’s got the votes to retain the speaker’s gavel, predicting enough Democrats will turn out for her when the new Congress convenes Sunday. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks to the media on Dec. 30, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP

With just 222 Democrats eligible to be seated, she can only afford to lose five detractors, given a couple of vacancies and another race in New York where a winner has not yet been certified. That’s a heavy lift for Pelosi given there are still eight members in her caucus who opposed her in 2019, and two more who voted present in 2017.

 

Pelosi also dismissed news that Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., will object to the certification of the Electoral College votes next week.

“I have no doubt that on next Wednesday, a week from today, that Joe Biden will be confirmed by the acceptance of the vote of the Electoral College as the 46th president of the United States,” she said.

On the stimulus fight, Pelosi pressured Senate Republicans to act on behalf of struggling families.

"The Democrats and Republicans in the House have passed that legislation. Who is holding up that distribution to the American people? Mitch McConnell, and the Senate Republicans," Pelosi said. "In blocking it, they are in denial of the hardship that the American people are experiencing now -- health wise, financially, in every way, their lives and livelihood in many cases are on the brink."

"This $2,000 will go a long way, not only to sustain the financial security of America's working families but will help small business to thrive as well," she added.

-ABC News’ John Parkinson

Dec 30, 2020, 12:13 PM EST

Trump tweets false conspiracy claim about Georgia’s secretary of state’s nonexistent brother

PHOTO: Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference on election results in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., December 2, 2020.
Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference on election results in Atlanta, Dec. 2, 2020.
Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters, FILE

President Trump, who has spent a lot of time over the past week at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, took to Twitter to attack Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s brother -- except that Raffensperger doesn’t have a brother. 

In a tweet Tuesday evening just before midnight, the president called Raffensperger and Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp a “complete disaster” as he peddled his baseless claims of election fraud. 

“Now it turns out that Brad R’s brother works for China, and they definitely don’t want ‘Trump’” he wrote in a tweet. “So disgusting! #MAGA” 

Trump’s tweet bolsters a popular theory in far-right conspiracy circles in recent days -- that the Georgia's secretary of state is related to a Huawei Enterprise Storage Solutions executive with the same name. Huawei has been blacklisted by the Trump administration for its ties China. 

Raffensperger, however, does not have a brother. He has two sisters and neither work for Huawei. 

The White House has not responded to multiple requests for comment on the tweet, and has not responded to whether the president plans to take it down, issue a correction or has apologized to the Georgia secretary of state. 

-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Adam Kelsey

Dec 30, 2020, 11:37 AM EST

GBI director reaffirms no fraudulent absentee ballots were identified during signature audit in Cobb County, Georgia

Vic Reynolds, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, participated in a press conference Wednesday morning at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta where he reaffirmed that the signature match audit conducted in Cobb County using GBI investigators found there were only two ballots out of approximately 15,000 that shouldn't have been accepted as they were. 

"The results of that audit confirmed the accuracy of the initial determination of the Cobb County election department in all but two cases. In other words, out of the 15,118 absentee ballot oath envelopes that were randomly audited, all of those were appropriately counted with the exception of two. Two were allowed that should not have been," Reynolds said.

But even though election officials should have initiated the "cure" process for those absentee ballots, they were still not fraudulent. 

While the absentee ballots were randomly selected, Reynolds said that every ballot that was rejected due to a signature mismatch or a missing signature were automatically included in the audit. 

"I would also note for the record as well that during the course of the audit, there were no fraudulent absentee ballots identified in the process," Reynolds added. 

Reiterating what the secretary of state's previously said, Reynolds said the audit found Cobb County had a 99.99% accuracy rate with envelopes GBI audited. 

-ABC News’ Quinn Scanlan

Dec 30, 2020, 11:28 AM EST

Sen. Hawley, R-Mo, says he will object during Electoral College certification process 

Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri said Wednesday that he will object during the Electoral College certification process on Jan. 6. 

Sen. Josh Hawley asks questions during a Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee hearing to discuss election security and the 2020 election process on Dec. 16, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Greg Nash/Pool via AP

"Following both the 2004 and 2016 elections, Democrats in Congress objected during the certification of electoral votes in order to raise concerns about election integrity. They were praised by Democratic leadership and the media when they did. And they were entitled to do so. But now those of us concerned about the integrity of this election are entitled to do the same,” Hawley said in a statement.

Hawley alleged that Pennsylvania failed to follow state election laws, though he did not cite any specifics. He also accused big tech companies of interfering in the election, also without evidence.

-ABC News’ Mariam Khan

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