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 getting follow up foot scan Saturday
Biden is headed to Philadelphia today for a follow-up foot scan, two weeks after sustaining small hairline fractures in his mid-foot.
“The president-elect will have a follow-up appointment at the radiology department of the Pennsylvania Hospital,” according to the Office of President-elect Biden.
Biden’s doctor, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, provided more background on the scan in a statement.
“Consistent with our original plan, President-elect Biden will receive routine 2-week post-injury imaging today. This will be performed with a special CT scanner which is able to obtain a “weight-bearing” image. Now that the initial discomfort and swelling are decreased, it is important to observe the structures within the midfoot under the actual pressure of standing. This is the best way to assure ankle and foot stability,” the statement said.
After the scan, O’Connor said: “Weight-bearing CT results were very encouraging. The small fracture in the intermediate cuneiform is barely detectable and the small fracture in the lateral cuneiform is healing as expected. No more extensive injury was identified.”
Biden was spotted as he was leaving the appointment, where he waved and gave a thumbs up to the press corps.
There was a group of people gathered who cheered for Biden. Biden clearly noticed that one man was not wearing a mask and signaled as if to suggest he put one on. The older man just began to blow kisses as the president-elect, according to the TV pooler.
Biden then headed back to Wilmington.
-ABC News' Molly Nagle
Supreme Court denies eleventh-hour Texas bid to overturn election
The U.S. Supreme Court late Friday officially put to rest a brazen eleventh-hour attempt by the state of Texas and Republican allies of President Donald Trump to throw out millions of votes in four states and overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
In an unsigned, single-page order, the court rejected a lawsuit brought by Texas, citing a lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. In dismissing the case, the court said Texas had no "cognizable interest" in how Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia conduct their own elections.
The decision, coming just three days before the Electoral College meets to finalize the presidential selection, shut down what Trump had called "perhaps the most important case in history" without the justices getting into the merits of arguments on either side.
For more on the critical ruling, read ABC News' full story.
-ABC News' Devin Dwyer
Pelosi calls Texas lawsuit to SCOTUS 'an act of flailing GOP desperation'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., excoriated the Supreme Court lawsuit from Texas seeking to overturn the presidential election results in key states, writing in a letter to colleagues on Friday that it is "an act of flailing GOP desperation" which "violates the principles enshrined in our American Democracy."
Quoting the Pennsylvania attorney general's brief calling it a "seditious abuse of the judicial process," she also accused congressional Republicans who have supported the case of betraying their oaths of office and "subverting the Constitution."
The letter to colleagues comes after at least one Democratic member of the House called on Pelosi to refuse to seat incoming GOP representatives who signed onto the brief.
-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel
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
Trump called Pennsylvania Republican House Speaker last week
Trump reached out to Pennsylvania State Speaker of the House Brian Cutler last week asking about the legislature possibly overturning the election as part of his ongoing and apparent pressure campaign to have GOP-controlled legislatures flip results in his favor in battleground states he lost.
Mike Straub, a spokesman for Cutler, confirmed to ABC News reporting in The New York Times that Trump asked what options were available to the legislature on the phone call.
“Cutler made it very clear what power the legislature has and does not have," Straub told ABC News, adding he is "not aware of the President explicitly asking to turnover [sic] the election results."
Straub separately told ABC News that he was not present for the conversations between Cutler and the president, but he was briefed.
"The president wanted to know what options were available to the legislature to address those concerns... Speaker Cutler was very clear in explaining what power the legislature has and does not have within our state Constitution," Straub said. "One remedy the Trump campaign is seeking in a court case involves the legislature seating electors -- Speaker Cutler explained the legislature does not have that authority."
Cutler separately signed onto a resolution last week imploring Pennsylvania Republicans in Congress to officially contest the election results in January. While this has happened in the past, including over the election of George W. Bush, it is highly unlikely to overturn the election results.
The Supreme Court may decide Tuesday to take up a challenge by Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Kelly over the constitutionality of mail-in voting, but legal experts have told ABC News that is a long shot. With Tuesday being the constitutionally mandated "safe-harbor" deadline for electors, all legal challenges are meant to be resolved by the end of the day, thus ensuring the correct electors will cast their votes in statehouses on Dec. 14.
-ABC News' Alex Hosenball