Pelosi elected to 4th term as House speaker
She’s the third speaker in the last 25 years to win with less than 218 votes.
President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 17 days.
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Biden, Harris to visit Georgia ahead of Senate runoffs
Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will travel to Georgia to campaign on behalf of Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock starting this weekend.
Harris will be in Savannah on Sunday and Biden will visit Atlanta on Monday, the eve of the Tuesday runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate.
This is Biden and Harris’ second trip to Georgia ahead of the runoff. Biden will also be in the Peach State at the same time as Trump, who will be holding a rally on the same day to support Republican candidates Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
-ABC News' Molly Nagle
Trump headlines final night rally in Georgia Senate runoffs
Just 16 days before he's set to leave office, President Donald Trump will headline a rally for Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in Dalton, Georgia.
The rally comes on Jan. 4, the night before the two sitting senators face separate Democratic opponents -- Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, respectively -- in two runoffs that could determine control of the Senate. The makeup of the Senate is currently projected to be 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats and left-leaning independents. If Warnock and Ossoff win, pushing the balance to 50-50, the Democrats would control both the House and Senate, due to Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote in the upper chamber.
Dalton is in Georgia's 14th Congressional District, which makes up the northwest corner of the state and is perhaps the state's most conservative district. Its congresswoman-elect, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has supported QAnon conspiracies in the past and has fully embraced, defended and perpetuated Trump's false narrative about the election.
The 14th Congressional District is also doing the worst of the 14 districts in terms of turnout for the runoff, according to Georgia Votes, which is analyzing the secretary of state's data.
Trump made his one and only appearance in Georgia during the runoff campaign on Dec. 5, when he spent nearly two hours ticking off baseless conspiracies about the presidential election and went on a tangent about how he didn't want to come to appear at the rally.
-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan
Biden adds members to COVID response team
Continuing Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' focus on the worsening coronavirus pandemic Tuesday, the transition team announced nine additional members of the White House COVID-19 response team.
The new members will help focus on the "three crucial aspects of the COVID-19 response strategy: supply chain management, vaccinations, and testing," the transition team said.
"To recover from this pandemic, we must take aggressive action to manufacture, distribute, and administer vaccines, testing, and personal protective equipment in an equitable way. These individuals are deeply qualified and will restore public trust in the pandemic response by leading with facts, science, and integrity,” Biden said in a statement announcing the new members.
-ABC News' Beatrice Peterson
Biden paints dire picture of pandemic, vaccine distribution, in address to nation
Following a meeting with his COVID-19 task force, Biden delivered remarks on the state of the worsening coronavirus pandemic and slammed the Trump administration for falling behind its goal in distributing vaccines to Americans.
"As I long feared and warned, the effort to distribute and administer the vaccine is not progressing as it should," Biden said. "If it continues to move as it is now, it's going to take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people."
The president-elected noted how officials working on "Operation Warp Speed," the federal government's vaccine program, had predicted this month 20 million vaccinations by the end of the year, but with just a few days left in 2020, the Centers for Disease Control has recorded about 2.1 million Americans as having received a dose.
"This will take more time than anyone would like and more time than the promises from the Trump administration have suggested. This is going to be the greatest operational challenge we've ever faced as a nation," Biden said. "And we're going to get it done."
Biden repeated his intention to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel companies in the private sector to accelerate the production of materials needed for vaccines and testing, as well as protective gear. He also announced that his administration will launch a public education campaign to promote vaccine acceptance and equity.
"We're also going to make sure vaccines are distributed equitably, so every person who wants a vaccine can get it no matter the color of their skin or where they live. We're going to ensure vaccinations are free of charge," he said.
Biden, overall, painted a bleak picture of soaring infections and deaths in the coming weeks, acknowledging the "grim milestone" of the U.S. crossing 330,000 deaths and saying the county may not see improvement until March. He implored Americans to wear a mask and social distance in the meantime -- and called on Trump to set an example.
"It would make a huge difference for President Trump to say 'wear masks.' I hope the President will clearly and unambiguously urge all Americans to take the vaccine once it's available," he said.
Biden transition hammers DOD, OMB for lack of cooperation on transition
Biden’s transition held its weekly press briefing Wednesday, hammering home the same messaging the president-elect delivered himself earlier this week on transition delays.
The team took aim at the Department of Defense and Office of Management and Budget for their lack of cooperation in the transition and also previewed some of the “day one” policy actions Biden would take once in office.
Transition spokesperson Yohannes Abraham stressed that not working with career OMB officials is hindering and needlessly delaying the team's work on COVID-19.
“There are also health and economic repercussions to this obstruction. OMB is integral to our federal government efficiently and effectively addressing COVID,” Abraham said. “OMB leadership's refusal to fully cooperate impairs our ability to identify opportunities to maximize the relief going out to Americans during the pandemic.”
When pressed on specific types of obstruction the transition was facing, Abraham added that the DOD has not had a meeting with the transition in 11 days, following DOD’s announcement that meetings would cease over the holidays (the DOD said this was a mutual agreement, which the Biden team has denied). Abraham also said DOD held only three meetings with the Biden team after ascertainment and before the holiday break announcement.
Jen Psaki, Biden's pick for White House press secretary, also spoke of some of the policy actions Biden plans to take immediately when he takes office on Jan. 20.
She announced the Biden administration will issue a memo that halts so-called “midnight rules” from the Trump administration, citing a Department of Labor rule the Trump administration is expected to publish in January that would make it easier for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors to circumvent paying overtime, minimum-wage and other protections.
“In addition to the regulatory freeze memo, President-elect Biden has promised to rescind harmful Trump executive orders, and deliver on our promises and the promises he and Vice president-elect Harris made on the campaign trail, including by reinstating protections for dreamers, rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, or reversing President Trump's environmental rollbacks that have made our air and water dirtier and protecting and strengthening the Affordable Care Act to lower health care costs and expand access to care,” Psaki said.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle