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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Trump plants time bombs for GOP with refusal to admit realities: Analysis
The Trump presidency is now destined to end with falsehoods -- a blizzard of baseless accusations about the election that he lost, as distilled into a final plea to the Supreme Court.
Trump's ask is for the nation's highest court to overturn the results of the election. As unlikely as he is to succeed, that breathtaking statement doesn't even encapsulate the principles at stake that will matter long after Biden is inaugurated.
Some 106 House Republicans -- more than half the GOP conference -- are backing the president's effort to get the Supreme Court to step in. More than that number continue to resist labeling Biden "president-elect," just three days before the Electoral College will cement Biden's victory based on certified results from every state.
So much of the Trump era is ephemeral and transactional. Some Trump loyalists will essentially pretend as if Trump never existed, or that his smashing of conservative principles in service to Trumpism wasn't what it was.
But some of those principles -- of federalism, the rule of law and even basic democracy and common sense -- are still at stake at this moment.
Trump once famously promised to his supporters that they would be "sick and tired of winning" one day. Now, though, what Trump is losing could outlast the limited days of his presidency.
-ABC News' Political Director Rick Klein
Overview: Trump pressures SCOTUS to overturn election, Biden to introduce more staffing picks
While Trump waits to hear whether the Supreme Court will take up Texas' case seeking to overturn and invalidate the votes of millions of Americans in four battleground states, he's continuing his pressure campaign on the high court Friday morning, calling on justices to “do what everybody knows has to do be done.”
Experts say justices are unlikely to take up the case, but the Texas lawsuit has quickly become a loyalty test for Republicans with 106 representatives -- about one-fourth of the House or half of the Republican caucus -- asking the high court to disregard millions of votes in a democratic election.
Trump also voiced his resistance Friday morning to turning over distribution of coronavirus vaccines to the incoming Biden administration, tweeting "they want to come in and take over one of the ‘greatest and fastest medical miracles in modern day history'" and slamming the Federal Drug Administration as a "big, old, slow, turtle" moments after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told ABC's "Good Morning America" that emergency authorization use of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine is imminent and vaccinations could start as early as Monday. Trump's tweet follows months of him pressuring the agency to speed up its process for approving vaccinations.
Meanwhile, as the Biden White House takes shape, the president-elect is turning to familiar faces in former Obama administration officials to fill top posts and will be introducing some of those picks from Wilmington, Delaware, Friday afternoon.
His latest additions include tapping Dennis McDonough, former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, as his nominee for secretary of veterans affairs, and naming Susan Rice, Obama’s former national security adviser, as the director of his White House Domestic Policy Council. These picks have some Democrats worried that with the resurgence of so many Obama-era officials there's little room for rising stars in the party.
In another historic first for the Biden team, the president-elect and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris were named as Time’s 2020 "Person of the Year" -- the first time a vice president has been given the title.
States blast Texas bid to overturn election as 'seditious abuse of judicial process'
Four states sued by Texas in a bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to swiftly reject the case and avoid legitimizing "a cacophony of bogus claims" that would upend the will of millions of American voters.
In court filings Thursday afternoon, the attorneys general of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia were scathing in their rebuttal to Texas' suit.
"The Court should not abide this seditious abuse of the judicial process," said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro told the justices in a court filing for his state.
-ABC News' Devin Dwyer
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
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