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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Gohmert says 140 House members will object to election
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) is continuing his push to reverse the results of the presidential election by trying to legally force Vice President Mike Pence to override the electors when votes are finalized by Congress on Jan 6.
In a legal brief filed this morning, attorneys for Gohmert responded to Pence's argument that they should have sued the House and the Senate, not the vice president in his presiding role.
Gohmert's attorneys wrote that there are 140 House members who are expected to object to the congressional certification of the Electoral College vote on Wednesday.
"On January 6th, a joint session of Congress will convene to formally elect the President. The defendant, Vice-President Pence, will preside. Under the Constitution, he has the authority to conduct that proceeding as he sees fit," they wrote.
"He may count elector votes certified by a state's executive, or he can prefer a competing slate of duly qualified electors. He may ignore all electors from a certain state. That is the power bestowed upon him by the Constitution."
Gohmert's attorneys say Gohmert and the "over 140" House members will object on Wednesday due to "mounting and convincing evidence of voter fraud."
"For over a century, the counting of elector votes and proclaiming the winner was a formality to which the prying eye of the media and those outside the halls of the government paid no attention. But not this time," they wrote.
"This country is deeply divided along political lines," the filing adds. "This division is compounded by a broad and strongly held mistrust of the election processes employed and their putative result by a very large segment of the American population."
A small group of Michigan's GOP would-be electors also intervened in the case, and a Biden elector from Colorado did the same in support of Pence.
-ABC News' Meg Cunningham
Senate votes to override Trump veto on defense bill
The Senate voted on Friday to override President Donald Trump's veto on the defense spending bill in a rare New Year's Day session.
The stinging rebuke by members of Trump's own party represents the first time in his term that a veto has been overturned.
The vote was 81-13. A supermajority is needed to override a presidential veto.
'Referendum on our democracy'
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, confirmed today that Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, called the upcoming joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, which will affirm the results of the presidential election, "the most consequential vote" of his lengthy tenure.
"I see that as a statement that he believes it's a -- it's a referendum on our democracy," Romney told reporters.
Sources said that McConnell asked Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on a New Year's Eve call with Republicans to explain to his colleagues why he is planning to object to the certification of Biden’s electoral win during the joint session. McConnell had privately warned his colleagues weeks ago against doing this as it would put his conference in the position of having to oppose Trump (and thereby his base) publicly.
Hawley, in joining the last-ditch bid by Trump's House allies to overturn the election results, said he objected to states not following their election laws.
"At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections," Hawley said in a statement. There has been no evidence of widespread election fraud.
-ABC News' Trish Turner
Senate Republicans block two more attempts to vote on $2,000 stimulus checks
In a very rare New Year’s Day session, Senate GOP leadership rejected two attempts to debate and vote on the House-passed CASH Act, which would give most Americans $2,000 in direct COVID relief payments. It was an effort by both Sens. Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders.
Republicans are continuing to argue that the House bill —- which would allow those making up to $350,000 to receive some cash under the act, albeit a smaller amount than those making less -- amounts to "socialism for the rich."
The chamber’s socialist, Sen. Sanders -- continued to argue that Republicans were “hypocrites” —- blocking this effort but approving big tax breaks for the rich.
He was joined by conservative Sen. Josh Hawley, who slammed the fight by his own leadership.
“With all due respect, this doesn’t seem to be Republicans against Democrats. This seems to be the Senate against United States of America,” said Hawley.
-ABC News' Trish Turner
Bipartisan group of senators: 'It is time to move forward'
From the bipartisan group who hammered out the COVID relief compromise, an appeal to senators to accept the Electoral College results, writing in a statement, " It is time to move forward."
Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Mark Warner, D-Va., Bill Cassidy, R-La., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Angus King, I-Maine, Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., issued the following statement on the upcoming Congressional certification of the 2020 Presidential election results:
"The 2020 election is over. All challenges through recounts and appeals have been exhausted. At this point, further attempts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election are contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans' confidence in the already determined election results. The voters have spoken, and Congress must now fulfill its responsibility to certify the election results. In two weeks, we will begin working with our colleagues and the new Administration on bipartisan, common sense solutions to the enormous challenges facing our country. It is time to move forward."
-ABC News' Trish Turner