President-elect Joe Biden is moving forward with transition plans, capping a tumultuous and tension-filled campaign during a historic pandemic against President Donald Trump, who still refuses to concede the election one week after Biden was projected as the winner of the presidential race.
Trump has largely hunkered down inside the White House since the election, but on Saturday his motorcade drove drove past supporters gathered to rally in Washington, D.C., on his way to play golf.
Biden, meanwhile, is pressing forward, meeting with transition advisers in Delaware and calling Trump's refusal to concede "an embarrassment."
The Biden transition team and the Trump administration are in a standoff over whether Biden should be granted access to federal resources allocated for the transition of power. The General Services Administration, headed by a Trump appointee, has yet to officially recognize Biden as the victor in the election, preventing Biden's team from gaining full access to government funds and security information.
But a growing number of Republican senators are calling on the administration to start giving Biden classified intelligence briefings, a sign that support for Trump's refusal to concede the election may be waning among his allies on Capitol Hill.
Here is how the transition is unfolding. All times Eastern.
Nov 10, 2020, 2:31 PM EST
Pompeo: 'There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration'
Asked during an ongoing press conference whether the State Department agency will assist with a smooth transition to the Biden administration and "at what point does a delay hamper a smooth transition or pose a risk to national security," Secretary of State Pompeo responded: "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration."
"I'm very confident that we will do all the things that are necessary to make sure that the government, the United States government continues to perform its national security function as we go forward," Pompeo said.
His comments come as several foreign heads of states have already congratulated Biden on the election.
Nov 10, 2020, 2:07 PM EST
Pence ignores questions about whether it's time to concede
A masked Vice President Mike Pence, arriving at the Senate GOP lunch Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill, ignored reporter questions about whether it's time for the president to concede the presidential race.
"Mr. Vice President, is it time to concede?" a reporter asked. "Is there really any evidence of fraud?"
The vice president did not answer and kept on walking.
Vice President Mike Pence arrives for the weekly Senate Republican lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 10, 2020.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Pence, in contrast to Trump, has been maintaining a public schedule despite the president's projected loss over the weekend. His visit to Capitol Hill comes one day after leading his first coronavirus task force meeting in some three weeks. Pence made sure cameras got a shot of him walking across from the Executive Office Building to the West Wing before meeting with the president Monday.
Meanwhile, this is the fifth day Trump has no public schedule.
-ABC News' Jordyn Phelps
Nov 10, 2020, 1:18 PM EST
Boris Johnson congratulates Biden despite Trump's refusal to concede
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson joins a growing list of foreign heads of state to congratulate Biden despite Trump's continued refusal to concede.
Johnson tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the two discussed their "shared priorities – from tackling climate change, to promoting democracy, and building back better from the coronavirus pandemic."
A Downing Street spokesperson told pool reporters Johnson and Biden discussed the countries' partnership through NATO -- an alliance Trump has repeatedly slammed.
Johnson also invited Biden to attend the COP26 climate change summit that the United Kingdom is hosting in Glasgow next year and said he also looks forward to seeing him when the UK hosts the G7 Summit in 2021, according to the spokesperson.
Nov 10, 2020, 12:48 PM EST
Democrats slam Barr while Republicans support Trump legal battles
Democrats and Republicans, as expected, are split over whether Attorney General William Barr’s memo to U.S. attorneys -- in which he authorized them to probe widespread voter fraud, despite no evidence of its existence having surfaced -- was appropriate to send.
“Attorney General Barr has unfortunately done great harm to the reputation of that office, and to the Department of Justice,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., calling his action “unprecedented and unforgiving.”
“The notion that the Department of Justice is going to interfere in the election process before the president leaves, to me, is just inexcusable. It's not -- it's no surprise,” he added.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., also criticized Barr in a written statement Tuesday, arguing the decision “speaks to Barr’s dangerous and irresponsible impulse to pander to the President’s worst instincts.”
The U.S. Capitol is viewed through the columns of the Supreme Court building in Washington, Nov. 4, 2020.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Sen. Ted Kennedy, R-La., a close ally to Trump, meanwhile, called it “perfectly appropriate,” adding the election isn’t over until the Trump team has had its cases heard.
“Tens of millions of Americans believe, whether you agree with them or not, that we need to send Big Bird to some of these states to teach them how to count,” Kennedy said. “For the integrity of the electoral process, and the system that we have chosen to effectuate our democracy, we have got to allow our courts to hear these allegations of voting irregularities by the president and anyone else who wants to bring them forward.”
