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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Jill Biden welcomes Gen. Lloyd Austin into 'the Biden family'
Dr. Jill Biden and retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, President-elect Joe Biden's choice for defense secretary, participated in a care package packing event in Washington D.C. hosted by Operation Gratitude, a nonprofit that sends care packages to members of the military, first responders and their families.
The event marks the last day of box packing in D.C. as part of a multi-day effort in Washington and Los Angeles. Inside the boxes are handwritten letters from volunteers, snacks, hygiene items, handmade items like scarves and bracelets, playing cards and beanie babies.
Biden shared her message for the American people during the holiday season and talked about how her family's holiday plans would be different because of the pandemic.
"I think it's changed every Americans' holiday plans," she said. "You know, families can't be together like they have."
"If all Americans would commit to an act of kindness toward a military family, and, of course so many people are food insecure during this time," she added.
Later, the first lady-elect, Austin and his wife took a photo with the volunteers from Operation Gratitude during which Biden said she was happy to have the Austin's join the Biden family.
"We're so happy to welcome the general to our administration, and we're so proud to have both of them in -- joining the Biden family. So, thank you." she said.
"Great family," Austin added. "Some familiar faces in the crowd. Thank you for all you're doing. God bless you, God bless your families."
-ABC News' Beatrice Peterson and Lauren Lantry
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ husband to teach at Georgetown University
Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, will serve as a Distinguished Visitor from Practice at Georgetown University Law Center, according to a spokesperson for the transition.
Emhoff, an attorney with nearly 30 years of litigation experience, will also serve as a Distinguished Fellow of the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy, drawing on his expertise in entertainment and media law. He is slated to teach one two-credit course in the spring semester entitled, “Entertainment Law Disputes.”
“I’ve long wanted to teach and serve the next generation of young lawyers,” Emhoff said in a press release from Georgetown. “I couldn’t be more excited to join the Georgetown community.”
The role at the university will be separate and apart from his official role as second gentleman. Emhoff will continue to work with the Biden-Harris transition team to develop the portfolio he will focus on during the upcoming administration.
Emhoff severed ties with his law firm DLA Piper in November. Dr. Jill Biden, one of his predecessors, taught community college students when President-elect Joe Biden served as vice president.
-ABC News' Averi Harper
Trump falsely says Biden would be 'illegitimate president,' president will meet with state attorneys general supporting election lawsuit
President Trump tweeted Thursday morning pushing the Supreme Court to rule favorably on the longshot Texas-led case to overturn the election results.
“The Supreme Court has a chance to save our Country from the greatest Election abuse in the history of the United States. 78% of the people feel (know!) the Election was RIGGED,” Trump tweeted.
While not using President-elect Joe Biden’s name, he also posted a tweet insinuating that Biden would be an “illegitimate president” because Biden “lost the election by hundreds of thousands of legal votes in each of the swing states” – a claim which is inaccurate. More votes were cast for Biden than Trump.
The tweets related to election fraud were flagged by the social media platform, with a link stating Trump's claims were disputed.
Meanwhile, Trump on Thursday afternoon plans to have lunch with 12 state attorneys general, 10 of whom have are part of the lawsuit to overturn the election results. Texas’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, who initially filed the lawsuit, was expected to attend.
The meeting comes as the president continues to make a last-ditch effort to overturn the will of the voters and have the already-certified election results in several swing states thrown out.
Asked what would be discussed at the lunch and if the lawsuit would be addressed, White House deputy spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement that “President Trump will have lunch with a dozen state attorneys general and discuss issues important to their citizens and the country, and ways to continue to advance the shared federal-state partnership.”
Per Deere, the expected attendees include attorneys general from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. Mark Brnovich from Arizona and Dan Cameron from Kentucky are the only ones meeting with Trump that have not filed in support of the election lawsuit.
The attorneys general were already in Washington “for a pre-planned meeting,” and the lunch had been “planned around that meeting several weeks ago,” a White House official said. Some Republican attorneys general were already scheduled to be in Washington, D.C. for a separate meeting not affiliated with the White House.
-ABC News' Ben Gittleson
Biden confirms Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs secretaries
President-elect Joe Biden announced more members of his administration, confirming his picks for secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, along with his pick for trade representative and director of the Domestic Policy Council.
Tom Vilsack -- secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack, a two-term governor of Iowa, served as secretary of Agriculture during the entire Obama-Biden administration.
Rep. Marcia Fudge -- secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Fudge has represented Ohio's 11th Congressional District for the last 12 years. If confirmed, she will be the first woman to lead the department in more than 40 years.
Denis McDonough -- secretary of Veterans Affairs. McDonough served as White House chief of staff, deputy national security adviser and chief of staff of the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
Katherine Tai -- U.S. trade representative. Tai currently serves as the chief lawyer on trade for the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives and previously was chief counsel for China trade enforcement in the office of the U.S. trade representative.
Susan Rice -- director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Rice served as national security adviser under President Obama from 2013-2017 and before that held the position of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2009-2013.
-ABC News' Molly Nagle
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