Pelosi elected to 4th term as House speaker

Russ Vought, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget, struck back at President-elect Joe Biden's transition team one day after it leveled allegations that Trump's OMB was hindering the incoming team.

In a lengthy letter detailing what he says are a number of falsehoods, Vought wrote that Biden's team made false accusations about the OMB and said they fully participated in appropriate transition efforts -- including over 45 meetings.

"As the record shows, OMB has fully participated in appropriate transition efforts," Vought wrote. "What we have not done and will not do is use current OMB staff to write the [Biden transition team]'s legislative policy proposals to dismantle this Administration's work. OMB staff are working on this Administration's policies and will do so until this Administration's final day in office."

"Redirecting staff and resources to draft your team's budget proposals is not an OMB transition responsibility," he added.

In a weekly press conference Wednesday, Biden transition spokesman Yohannes Abraham criticized the Trump administration for failing to cooperate with their agency review teams, particularly with political leaders at OMB.

"In normal transitions -- this was the case in 2008, it was the case in 2016 -- OMB career staff provide critical analytical support to incoming administrations as they look towards the execution of their priorities and the production of their budget," Abraham said. "That analytical support has not been forthcoming from OMB. And there have been no signs that it is -- it will be forthcoming in the days to come."

-ABC News' Elizabeth Thomas and Molly Nagle

In a previously recorded campaign-style video posted to Twitter Thursday, President Donald Trump touted what he views as his many presidential accomplishments: producing COVID-19 vaccines, repairing the economy and stopping "endless foreign wars" in the Middle East. 

When it comes to vaccines, Trump said, "Our most vulnerable citizens are already receiving the vaccine and millions of doses are quickly being shipped all across our country."
The president promised that "by early next year the vaccine will be available to every American."

The Trump administration had promised that 20 million people would be vaccinated by the end of the year. As of Wednesday morning, 2,794,588 Americans had received vaccine doses and 12.4 million doses had been distributed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump also boasted about the economy, saying, "Through the Paycheck Protection Program, we saved or supported more than 51 million American jobs, and we're doing numbers now like nobody's ever seen before, including having the highest stock market in the history of the world."

"We have slashed the unemployment rate from 14.7%, all the way down to 6.7%," Trump said. "Our economy is growing at the most rapid rate ever recorded. ... Nobody can compete with us in terms of going down less, and going up by far the fastest and the best. Whenever America's challenged, we always rise to the occasion."

Many economists, however, have argued that the economy is rebounding in a K-shape, as opposed to a V-shape, with the rich getting richer and the working class still struggling.

The president also touched on foreign affairs.

"We have secured our borders and paused immigration to protect American workers," Trump said. "And after years of endless foreign wars we are signing historic peace deals in the Middle East. It's all ending in the Middle East. We have to hope it keeps going. It's so easy if you know what you're doing."

While Trump has successfully pushed to normalize relations between Israel and many Middle Eastern countries, it's not accurate to say they are "peace deals" and they have come at the expense of Palestinians and aligned the countries against Iran. Iran, and its nuclear ambitions, continues to be a thorn in America's side. Trump has drawn down forces from Afghanistan and Iraq, but promised negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban fell apart and ISIS and al-Qaida affiliates are taking advantage of the insecurity in Syria, Northern Africa and elsewhere.

ABC News' Elizabeth Thomas contributed to this report.

There was more drama Thursday over an attempt to have the Senate vote on House-passed legislation that would send qualifying Americans $2,000 stimulus payments.

Once again, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quashed an attempt -- this one by Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. -- to call up and vote on the House-passed legislation.

McConnell claimed House Speaker Nany Pelosi and Sanders (the lead sponsor of the House-passed bill in the Senate) were supporting "socialism for the rich" after experts calculated that higher-income earners (up to $350,000 a year) would stand to get some federal relief under the House-passed plan. But the Republican leader made no mention of Trump or Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., also calling for those higher payments.

Schumer fired back, saying he never heard Republicans complain about "socialism for the rich" when they were giving big corporate tax breaks.

Sanders, in his retort, was ready with stats from McConnell's home state, noting that "more than 22% of children" live in poverty and thousands of workers earn sparse wages, saying that "someone should ask them" what they would do with $2,000 payments.

"All I am asking Senator McConnell is give us a vote!" Sanders said. "Give us a vote! What is the problem? What is the problem with having the American people see how their senators vote.”

-ABC News’ Trish Turner

Trump is heading back to Washington, D.C. from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida Thursday morning, a day ahead of schedule -- missing his annual lavish New Year's Eve party.

He had always planned to return ahead of Wednesday's joint session of Congress where the Electoral College votes are certified but now will also be in the capital for New Year's Eve. It's unclear why he changed his plans, and the White House provided no comment.

Meanwhile, the The Presidential Inaugural Committee has announced that on the eve of the Biden inauguration it will host a "memorial to remember and honor the lives lost to COVID-19 in cities and towns across the country.”

The portion of the ceremony that takes place in Washington will include lighting around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. "It will be the first-ever lighting around the Reflecting Pool to memorialize American lives lost," according to the committee.

In the Senate, relief payments continue to be front and center even after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seemed to slam the door on voting exclusively on the $2,000 relief payments Wednesday.

Sen. Bernie Sanders and others may still try -- likely without success -- to force his hand by continuing to object to the Senate voting on the defense bill veto override alone. The Senate is expected to vote to end debate by Friday, bringing the vote to override the veto as late as Saturday and keeping lawmakers in Washington over the New Year holiday.

For his part, McConnell, who said that relief checks were for Democrats’ “rich friends who don’t need the help," plans to try to couple the $2,000 relief payments with other issues Trump has demanded Congress act on, including eliminating protections for tech companies and investigating baseless claims of election fraud. The strategy will likely serve as "poison pills" for Democrats, who won’t vote for it.

In the end, those $2,000 checks are not expected to be approved with most Republicans standing in the way, but Congress is expected to override Trump’s veto of the defense measure -- the first veto override of Trump's presidency. Taken together, the two actions amount to a very rare bucking of this president by members of his own party.

-ABC News' Mariam Khan, Trish Turner and Beatrice Peterson