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 12, 2020, 4:16 PM EST

Trump-appointed judge in Wisconsin rejects another Trump election challenge

While the U.S. Supreme Court has twice refused to hear pro-Trump challenges to the 2020 elections, a federal judge in Wisconsin on Saturday joined the chorus of rulings against Trump in his effort to use the courts to invalidate Biden’s victory.

Supporters listen to President Donald Trump speak during a campaign rally at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wisc., Oct. 30, 2020.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images, FILE

“This Court has allowed plaintiff the chance to make his case and he has lost on the merits,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Brett H. Ludwig, a Trump appointee. Ludwig noted that the president had asked “that the Rule of Law be followed,” and he declared in response: “It has been.”

The ruling comes just one day after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an election challenge brought by the Texas attorney general contesting the way elections were run in four states, including Wisconsin. Trump had called that case “the big one,” because he thought it held the best hopes for him of re-litigating the 2020 contest in court.

This latest ruling marks nearly 50 losses for the president  in cases brought by him and his supporters since election day. In Wisconsin, where Biden won by more than 20,000 votes, Trump asked for 221,000 absentee and mail-in ballots to be excluded on the grounds they were collected in ways not laid out by the state legislature. And the president argued that the legislature should be afforded the chance to select an alternate slate of electors.

Ludwig’s 23-page opinion gave wide latitude to Trump -- finding that the president had standing to file his election challenge and was not too late to raise his concerns about the way the election was conducted. But the outcome of the case was the same as rulings in other battleground states -- that Biden’s victory was attained legally and should not be thrown to a legislature to upend.

The president, Ludwig wrote, “has not proved” that state election officials violated his rights. “To the contrary, the record shows Wisconsin’s Presidential Electors are being determined in the very manner directed by the Legislature, as required by Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution.”

Ludwig further noted that if he followed the demands set out in Trump’s lawsuit, “any disappointed loser in a Presidential election, able to hire a team of clever lawyers, could flag claimed deviations from the election rules and cast doubt on the election results. This would risk turning every Presidential election into a federal court lawsuit over the Electors Clause.”

The Trump campaign has not yet responded to requests for comment.

At the moment the federal ruling was handed down, the Wisconsin Supreme Court was hearing arguments on a separate challenge to a recount of votes in the state, which had failed in a lower court.

-ABC News' Matthew Mosk and Alex Hosenball

Dec 12, 2020, 1:41 PM EST

Trump supporters rally in DC

A day after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Texas' challenge to Biden's 2020 presidential election victory, Trump supporters gathered in Washington, D.C. to protest alleged voter fraud.

Supporters of President Donald J. Trump march past the US Capitol in Washington, Dec. 12, 2020.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA via Shutterstock

The "March for Trump" event, which started at noon on Saturday, includes a march to the U.S. Supreme Court to "demand transparency and protect election integrity," according to promotional materials. 

Former Trump administration national security adviser Mike Flynn was among those in attendance. 

Trump tweeted Saturday morning that he just found out about the rally and said "I'll be seeing them."

On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit brought by the state of Texas and Republican allies of Trump to throw out millions of votes in four states and overturn Biden's victory. In dismissing the case, the court said Texas had no "cognizable interest" in how Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia conduct their own elections.

The rally also comes as members of the Electoral College will meet Monday to formally cast their votes for president.

Dec 12, 2020, 1:05 PM EST

FDA Commissioner Hahn denies reports he was threatened with firing

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Saturday pushed back on reports that he was threatened with firing.

Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, listens as President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the White House, April 24, 2020.
Alex Brandon/AP, FILE

Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that in a Friday phone call, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows suggested to Hahn that his job could be on the line if his agency didn’t authorize emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by the end of the day.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized by the FDA late Friday.

“Representations in the press that I was threatened to be fired if we didn’t get it done by a certain date is inaccurate,” Hahn told reporters on a Saturday morning call.

Hahn said Saturday that the vaccine was authorized late Friday because science and data determined it was ready, not because of “any other external pressure” and that he would “absolutely” take the vaccine.

-ABC News' Emily Shapiro, Katherine Faulders, John Santucci and Anne Flaherty

Dec 12, 2020, 2:02 PM EST

Biden getting follow up foot scan Saturday

Biden is headed to Philadelphia today for a follow-up foot scan, two weeks after sustaining small hairline fractures in his mid-foot.

PHOTO:  President-elect Joe Biden touches his walking boot as he arrives at the Queen theater to speak at the Queen theater  Wilmington, Del., Dec. 4, 2020.
President-elect Joe Biden touches his walking boot as he arrives at the Queen theater to speak at the Queen theater Wilmington, Del., Dec. 4, 2020.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

“The president-elect will have a follow-up appointment at the radiology department of the Pennsylvania Hospital,” according to the Office of President-elect Biden.

Biden’s doctor, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, provided more background on the scan in a statement. 

“Consistent with our original plan, President-elect Biden will receive routine 2-week post-injury imaging today. This will be performed with a special CT scanner which is able to obtain a “weight-bearing” image. Now that the initial discomfort and swelling are decreased, it is important to observe the structures within the midfoot under the actual pressure of standing. This is the best way to assure ankle and foot stability,” the statement said.

After the scan, O’Connor said: “Weight-bearing CT results were very encouraging. The small fracture in the intermediate cuneiform is barely detectable and the small fracture in the lateral cuneiform is healing as expected. No more extensive injury was identified.”

Biden was spotted as he was leaving the appointment, where he waved and gave a thumbs up to the press corps.

PHOTO: President-elect Joe Biden gives a thumbs-up and a wave to an on-looker who called out to him as he leaves Pennsylvania Hospital after a follow up appointment at the radiology department  in Philadelphia.
President-elect Joe Biden gives a thumbs-up and a wave to an on-looker who called out to him as he leaves Pennsylvania Hospital after a follow up appointment at the radiology department in Philadelphia.
Mike Segar/Reuters

There was a group of people gathered who cheered for Biden. Biden clearly noticed that one man was not wearing a mask and signaled as if to suggest he put one on. The older man just began to blow kisses as the president-elect, according to the TV pooler.

Biden then headed back to Wilmington.


-ABC News' Molly Nagle

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