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

Law enforcement recommended the Michigan legislature close its offices.

President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 39 days.


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Biden appears without larger walking boot, meets with transition advisers

Biden has arrived at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware, his de facto transition headquarters ahead of his inauguration in 44 days again without a medical accessory he's donned for the larger part of the last week.

Although Biden's doctor said last Sunday he would likely be wearing a walking boot for "several weeks" after he sustained hairline fractures in his right foot, Biden was not wearing the boot when he walked into the theater Monday afternoon. While attending a Saturday Mass in Wilmington, he was also spotted without what Biden has referred to as "the big boot."

Biden has said his foot feels “good” despite sustaining the fractures just over a week ago, and addressed the boot issue during an interview with CNN Thursday, noting that the larger cast is a little clumsy and while he wears it "most of the time," he’s been given a smaller option for going out in public.

Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief and meet with transition advisers on Monday, according to his public schedule, and pre-tape transition production elements at The Queen, his team said.

It comes ahead of Biden introducing his top health care picks to the public on Tuesday including California Attorney General Xavier Berecca to lead the Health and Human Services Department and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as Biden's chief medical adviser to lead the country through the worsening COVID-19 pandemic.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle


Georgia recertifies election results, reaffirming Biden's victory

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has recertified the results of the 2020 presidential election following a second audit that entailed counties counting by hand every one of the approximately 5 million ballots cast in the race.

The Trump campaign requested a recount after votes were first certified for Biden on Nov. 20, but the machine recount, as officials said to expect, reaffirmed that Biden won Georgia's 16 electoral votes -- the first Democratic presidential victory in the state since 1992.

In a press release announcing the recertification, Raffensperger also gave a statement about the dismissal of former Trump legal team lawyer Sidney Powell's "Kraken" lawsuit by a Georgia court earlier in the day.

“Today is an important day for election integrity in Georgia and across the country,” Raffensperger said. “The claims in the Kraken lawsuit prove to be as mythological as the creature for which they’re named. Georgians can now move forward knowing that their votes, and only their legal votes, were counted accurately, fairly, and reliably.”

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan


Georgia court rejects Trump campaign lawsuit over self-inflicted delays

A Trump campaign lawsuit was rejected by a Georgia state court Monday because the Trump legal team failed to pay the filing fee and neglected to fill out the proper forms. It's the latest in a string of blunders and gaffes that are adding self-inflicted delays to their time-sensitive legal challenges.

Trump filed the lawsuit in Georgia Friday afternoon officially contesting the results of the election and requesting a do-over -- another in a series of long-shot legal bids that have so far met with stiff resistance from the state's Republican election officials. Pro-Trump legal efforts across the country have ended in at least 38 defeats to date, with only a single court victory -- in a case in Pennsylvania that was ultimately not consequential.


The latest rejection comes just after Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he would recertify the state’s election results, affirming Biden’s victory after a third count of presidential votes, sometime Monday.

-ABC News’ Matthew Mosk and Olivia Rubin


Georgia secretary of state to recertify Biden's win Monday

Up against Tuesday's "safe harbor" deadline, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that he will recertify that Biden won Georgia's election sometime Monday following the state's third recount of the presidential vote there which has Biden ahead by nearly 12,000 votes.

"It's been a long 34 days since the election on Nov. 3. We have now counted legally cast ballots, three times, and the results remain unchanged," Raffensperger told reporters.

As he did in his WSJ op-ed this morning, the secretary equated how former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams acted after her 2018 loss and Trump's behavior in 2020.

"Whether it's the president of the United States or a failed gubernatorial candidate ... disinformation regarding election administration should be condemned and rejected," he said. "All this talk of a stolen election, whether it's Stacey Abrams, or the president of the United States is hurting our state."

Raffensperger also said that "the focus on Nov. 3 is drawing energy away from" the state's goals of job growth, efficient COVID-19 vaccine distribution and "getting back to normal."

"I know there are people that are convinced the election was fraught with problems, but the evidence -- the actual evidence, the facts -- tell us a different story," he said.

Gabriel Sterling, the voting system implementation manager in Raffensperger's office, came to the podium afterward to fact check some of the misinformation that the president has helped spread. In one example, he directly called out the president's legal team for how they've tried to "mislead" people about a video from counting occurring in State Farm Arena in Fulton County that Trump played at his rally in Valdosta on Saturday night.

"What's really frustrating is the president's attorneys had this same videotape. They saw the exact same things the rest of us could see, and they chose to mislead state senators and the public about what was on that video," he said, debunking the notion that there were "magic ballots" that showed up in the state's largest county.

"They knew it was untrue and they continue to do things like this," Sterling said. "We continue to see people who are put in positions of responsibility, sending out this disinformation and undermining the electoral system," he added later.Minutes after Raffensperger told reporters he would receritfy the vote Monday, Trump continued his attacks on election officials in the state on Twitter, targeting GOP Gov. Brian Kemp for signature verification saying he'd have an "easy win" were it conducted -- but signature verification was already done twice for absentee ballots in the state, and the vote was recounted three times affirming Biden's win.

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan


Biden nominees and appointees speak on why they're called to serve

Biden and Harris formally introduced newly nominated and appointed members of their administration from Wilmington, Delaware, Friday afternoon, showing off several familiar faces, be it from the Obama administration or from Capitol Hill.

For director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, a position which does not require Senate confirmation, Biden picked Susan Rice. Rice served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and later as national security adviser in the Obama administration.

In her remarks, Rice laid out the path of her ancestors on both sides who overcame adversity -- a paternal great grandfather who was born a slave in South Carolina and maternal grandparents who immigrated from Jamaica with no education and worked to send their children to college, leading to her mother’s role in creating the Pell Grant.

“Now at the foot of yet another bridge between crisis and opportunity, I'm honored and excited to take on this role. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's vision for our future is expansive but achievable," Rice said, stressing her excitement to serve again and the need to develop policies that break down racial barriers that hold all Americans back.

Rep. Marcia Fudge, who has represented Ohio's 11th Congressional District for the last 12 years has been tapped for secretary of Housing and Urban Development and talked about the importance of housing in America and the need to give people hope amid  America’s ongoing crisis.

“Perhaps most importantly of all, we will help people believe once again that their government cares about them, no matter who they are. That we understand their problems, as the president-elect often recalls his father's words,” she said.

Biden's nominee for secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, seemed to address some of the criticism of his previous tenure at USDA (he held the same Cabinet position he's nominated for throughout the Obama administration) by promising to deal with systemic inequities.

Vilsack also mentioned his support for Rep. Jim Clyburn's 10/20/30 plan, an effort the South Carolina congressman said aims to help counties that had a poverty level of more 20% for more than three decades. Those communities would receive at least 10% of federal funds from a specific program. When asked in 2019 if he considered the measure a form of reparations, Clyburn said the measure "absolutely" is.

Biden's pick for secretary of veterans affairs, Dennis McDonough, former President Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, pledged to make the department more inclusive to all veterans, particularly women, veterans of color and members of the LGBTQ community.

Biden's appointed Katherine Tai to U.S. trade representative, who began by recalling her parents' immigrant story of her father, a researcher at Walter Reed, and her mother, who still works at the National Institutes of Health developing treatments for opioid addictions. She also stressed the role trade can play to create opportunities and lift people out of poverty and the need to rebuild relationships around the globe.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle, John Verhovek and Beatrice Peterson