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

Law enforcement recommended the Michigan legislature close its offices.

Last Updated: December 12, 2020, 1:05 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, 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

Dec 11, 2020, 7:30 PM EST

Supreme Court denies eleventh-hour Texas bid to overturn election

The U.S. Supreme Court late Friday officially put to rest a brazen eleventh-hour attempt by the state of Texas and Republican allies of President Donald Trump to throw out millions of votes in four states and overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

In an unsigned, single-page order, the court rejected a lawsuit brought by Texas, citing a lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. In dismissing the case, the court said Texas had no "cognizable interest" in how Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia conduct their own elections.

In this file photo taken on Dec. 7, 2020 the U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington, D.C.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The decision, coming just three days before the Electoral College meets to finalize the presidential selection, shut down what Trump had called "perhaps the most important case in history" without the justices getting into the merits of arguments on either side.

For more on the critical ruling, read ABC News' full story.

-ABC News' Devin Dwyer

Dec 11, 2020, 5:13 PM EST

Pelosi calls Texas lawsuit to SCOTUS 'an act of flailing GOP desperation'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., excoriated the Supreme Court lawsuit from Texas seeking to overturn the presidential election results in key states, writing in a letter to colleagues on Friday that it is "an act of flailing GOP desperation" which "violates the principles enshrined in our American Democracy."

Quoting the Pennsylvania attorney general's brief calling it a "seditious abuse of the judicial process," she also accused  congressional Republicans who have supported the case of betraying their oaths of office and "subverting the Constitution."

Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi speaks to the press about the 2020 presidential election results and the continuing coronavirus disease pandemic during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 12, 2020.
Hannah Mckay/Reuters, FILE

The letter to colleagues comes after at least one Democratic member of the House called on Pelosi to refuse to seat incoming GOP representatives who signed onto the brief.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel

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